I’m pretty sure I met the Wallflowers at an apartment party — maybe in Kensington? — in early summer 1983. I believe Dave Ellison brokered my introduction to the most joyfully subversive band in the whole Che Underground circuit.
The Wallflowers weathered a few personnel changes during their run and came back each time renewed and ready with new surprises: an electric cord of pure rock-‘n’-roll snaking through an eclectic combination of horns, harmonicas and other musical breaths of fresh air in our guitar-dominated scene. (Not to discount potency of the Wallflowers’ core lineup; bassist Paul Howland was the spine of the band, and every guitarist and drummer to join the Wallflowers was like a new birthday present for the audience.)
Here’s what Wallflowers vocalist Dave Rinck recently called “the raw stuff, the real steak Tartar of the band”: Wallflowers Phase One demolishing the Stooges’ “Raw Power”! Man, I’ve missed these guys.
The Wallflowers still sound great 25 years later…Im looking forward to hearing more!
I remember they got really funky in one of their latter stages. That was when Todd Lahman was in the band. I figured Paul Howland was the driving force behind the funk. Paul turned me on to great bands like the Meters and Defunkt.
Over the last couple of years I’ve been listening to lots of funky jazz, so I have even more of an appreciation for what they were doing then. They were funky and jazzy too with the addition of Armando the sax player. I always loved his sound… I could never figure out if he really played avant garde jazz, or just sounded like it because he didnt know what he was doing. In either case, it sounded cool and really pushed the envelope for playing to punk and mod crowds.
I have a recording of one song from that time, Paradise On Fourth Avenue…I’ll hopefully have it digitized soon to add to our Wallflowers archive.
I’ve Googled my fingers to the bone trying to locate ur-Wallflowers drummer Aaron Daniels, who IIRC teamed up with the band through an advert while avoiding some official stickiness back in his native Texas. Aaron didn’t have a drum kit — his was misplaced during his flight from the Lone Star State — and always used the other bands’. He was a great drummer, and was big and old enough to buy the keg and carry it!
The only Texan Aaron Daniels I’ve found is a far younger guy who sings with a country band in Australia. Do we have any leads whatsoever?
Aaron does not want to be found. I’m sure he has lots of love for the Wallflowers in all incarnations, but when he left it was in the midst of very bad trouble associated with his brother in law…feds.
I would not be surprised if he was totally underground or in the witness protection program somewhere.
It’s the feds who took his kit in the first place.
I remember funk lessons on the blackboard in the shed attached to my garage.
The professor was Aaron, but he’s no longer “IN”.
Pat