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| THE
GREAT GRIZZLY BEAR HUNT
The Incredible
Broadside Brass Bed Band
Poison Ring Records
Copyright (P)
1972 Poison Ring Records
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| A collector's item is
the only recording released by this underground band from the
70s. The original LP, still in the shrink-wrap.
Limited quantity. |
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This item usually
ships in 24 hours.
Shipping costs will be added when you check out. |
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| The album was performed live, with only one take
per song. Of course there were a few train wrecks, so there were
some overdubbed repairs done afterwards. For some of those, new instrumental parts were credited to fictitious players,
among them Crazy Max and Pete Levin's pet skunk, Thelonius.
 "Grizzly
Bear" includes "Little Dead Surfer Girl", which was also
released as a 45 single and was almost a hit.
This is the original issue LP record
format (not a CD!) still in the original shrink-wrap. This is a
collector's item There are only a few left, and we can't reorder
them.
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TRACKS:
Click the Tree 
to hear an MP3 sample. |
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2 |
I Wish That I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate / Take
It Slow And Easy |
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3 |
I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine |
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4 |
Don't Cry Lady, I'll Buy Your God-Damned Violets
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6 |
Little Dead Surfer Girl |
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| PRODUCTION
CREDITS:
produced for Poison Ring Records by PETE LEVIN
executive producer DOC CAVALIER
Recorded and mixed by BILL LOBB and DAN ZELLMAN
at SYNCRON SOUND STUDIOS, Wallingford,
CT
cover art MARK BIEBER
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| PERFORMERS:
BILL COMEAU: vocals, guitar, blues harp
PETE LEVIN: banjo, piano, kazoo
VINCENT dePAUL LINUS PASTERNAK: lead guitar, noises
JERRY DEVOKATIS: lead guitar (tracks 2,4,5)
MARK BIEBER: washboard, blues harp, random comments, water
CRAZY MAX: bass, bass frogaphone
PAUL OSSOLA: bass (track 6)
VICTOR BERNARDONI: drums
THELONIUS LIPSHITZ: bass skunk
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REVIEWS:
An album of good-timey folk-blues-hippie-rock and plain wackiness by a bunch of guys from Connecticut. For those who got lost on their way to Woodstock but still had a great trip. The band was lead by Bill Comeau, who wrote most of their songs and also had a solo career.
(Max Waller/Stephane Rebeschini)
The IBBBB got a listing and a mention in a book on garage bands from
the 60s and early 70s. It's called "Fuzz, Acid &
Flowers" and is apparently carried by Borderline Books. We
were excited until we realized that it has nothing to do with the major
chain, Border Books - but it felt good there for a second.
http://www.borderlinebooks.com/us6070s/fuzz.html
Last year, Surfer Girl was on the playlist for the last show from 314
Main Street - sandwiched in between offerings by Deep Purple and
Heart. Now, that's deep! We'd love to know exactly who was
listening to this station - and are they blaming us for going off the
air.
http://beakerstreet.com/jan2801.htm
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ARTIST
BIO:
Following some informal early editions, the Incredible Broadside Brass Bed Band of New Britain was formed in the early 70s by singer / songwriter Bill Comeau, who pulled in some old friends for the project and added some new ones to round it out.
Signed to Poison Ring Records, a small Connecticut company, the group recorded their first album in 1972, live in the studio to an audience that had previously been plied with lots of wine.
The result was "THE GREAT GRIZZLY BEAR HUNT". Their second album,
recorded a year later the same way, was never released. The master
tapes and all copies are long gone, as are tapes from the start of a
third studio album. GRIZZLY BEAR turned out to be the only recording released by the band.
There was a spin-off however - a 45 single of one of the songs from the
album - Comeau's "LITTLE DEAD SURFER GIRL", a satire of 50's
rock-a-ballads, wherein the vocalist and his girlfriend Rhonda go
surfing, but Rhonda is dragged under by his heavy high school ring and
is lost forever. (Rhonda's part is sung by one of the backup singers ...
with a mouth full of water.)
For a few years, with ongoing personnel changes, the band performed live around
the Northeast in a variety of clubs and concert venues. The original recording turned out to be a feeling-out session. Over time, humor dominated the performances and the original Ragtime style of the band evolved to include an eclectic assortment of satirical music.
Some recordings were made, but never released. Among the lost material was a project depicting "the Big Mike Pryzytzkywytz Show", a fictitious children's Saturday morning TV show. The band performed much of it live however, inspiring rare moments where a
redneck bar crowd would act the part of a toddler audience
boisterously singing "Teddy Bear's Picnic", or up on their feet, hands over hearts, singing "God Bless America". The band was
ahead of it's time with it's visual performances. But with it's totally
noncommercial material, live audiences were limited to a
small but enthusiastic group of cult fans and drunken revelers. Both the album and single developed a
national cult following which survived long after the band had broken up.
Doctor Dimento still programs "LITTLE DEAD SURFER GIRL"
and an occasional artist still covers it.
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