The Crybabies, Live From Wormtown

 This time around it's the first Super Group of the Wormtown Scene, The Crybabies. All the members of this band paid their dues in the early days of the scene. Artie Sneiderman on vocals started out as the doorman at Worcester's most notorious Punk Club Xit 13 on Millbury St. Didn't take long before he was onstage fronting The Slumlords. Along the way were They Actions, The Belmondos and a few others. Steve Aquino on guitar started out with Crazy Jack and the Automatics, moved on to the Odds, The Actions, and has for the past several years handled the duty with Boston Garage legends Lyres. Jeff Crane  on guitar got his start with The Commandos, teamed up with his then wife Cheryle Crane to form The Surreal McCoys, and with Rick Blaze as The Ballbusters. Along with many European friends has played with acts from France to Italy and beyond. Cheryle Crane on the bass, herself grew up in a rock and roll family and most recently was a member of current faves Michael Kane and the Morning Afters. Missing fro the interview is Joe Sheehan, formerly from Sheeze Late, also part time gigs with another legendary Boston Band, The Classic Ruins. The Crybabies recorded their debut disc, "How the Other Half Lives" at Tremelo Lounge under the assistance of Roger Lavallee. To this day the CD is is rotation on Little Stevens Underground Garage station on Sirius XM.


The Crybabies, wdoa.com

Photos by Carrie Jo
 

The Numbskulls, Live from Wormtown

  One of Worcester's most popular bands throughout the first decade of 2000's were The Numbskulls. Starting out as a three piece, the band changed line ups over the years keeping the core of Alex Nagorski and Lysie Rossi. Along they way assisted  by three different drummers, Adam, heard here, John Barney, and Chris Lewis, and Guitarist James Keyes. They produced several CD's and won consecutive local Music Polls as they played to their devoted  fans across the northeast and beyond.

  This interview is from there early days, when they were just starting out to conquer the world!


Live from Wormtown, The Numbskulls Interview

                                                  2010

                                                    2009

                                                    2012

Live From Wormtown Revisited

   Back in the post WDOA 89.3fm days, after the MAN shut us down, we switched to an online platform, one of the first stations in Worcester to have an internet presence. We called it WDOA.com. Brilliant, right? I came up with the idea to have local bands in to talk and perform live. These shows only ran once and were never heard again, until now. In the future I'm going to feature as many of the shows as I can dig up, and we will start with this one. Angry Johnny and The Killbilles, are a western Massachusetts that quickly became a favorite. Featuring Angry, Goatus T. Ovenrude and Sal Vega, it was recorded April 11th, 2003.

Enjoy and watch for more!!

Live From Womrtown Mixcloud

Join Your Hit Parade

Here's an article from way back in 1983, 36 years ago. Dave Mawson of The Telegram and Gazette catches up with Wormtown's own Performers as they celebrate their four year anniversary, seems like only yesterday, well, maybe last week. Oh hell. It was a long time ago...... they still have a MySpace page ferchrisake!

Happy New Year, Wormtown 78 is 40!!

  Well here we are in the 41st year of the Worm, and this month we celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Wormtown '78 LP. When this was released, we knew we had a scene that was here to stay! Recorded in Upton, MA, it was produced by John Jordan at his Basement Tapes Studios, with Brian Goslow serving as Executive Producer.  It featured the popular bands of the time. Hooker, Preston Wayne's early band, along with Bob Peters Blue Moon Band, Crazy Jack and the Heart Attax, and the  band The Towel, who were listed as P.F. and W.H.  I believe there were only 300 copies pressed and now go for hundreds of dollars whenever they surface on sites like Ebay. Lucky for you, someone has uploaded it to YouTube, so you can at least have a listen. Check it out, and keep looking, maybe you'll find your own copy!

Wormtown '78 part 1                    Wormtown'78 part 2                       Wormtown'78 part 3

Real Kids Rule, OK?

  Yes, we are approaching the end of the 40th Anniversary, but fear not. I plan to keep updating you in the future with content as I make my way through the vast archives.

  One of the surprises of this year was the release of  a gig that helped solidify the scene, The Real Kids, Live at Circe's Bar 1978. Thanks to the Folks at Crypt Records in Germany(!), the tape I recorded that weekend had been in a drawer for 40 years when I was contacted by Tim Warren asking if he could put it out as an LP and CD series he was working on with John Felice. I did not hesitate for a second and sent the files over to him. The Circe's gig is just one part of the group of demos and live recordings now available. In case you're not familiar with The Real Kids, they were a staple of Boston Rock in the late 70's and 80's with the release of a self produced 45 and LP on Red Star Records. Throughout their career, there were many lineup changes, but John Felice and Co. always remained popular with the fans they picked up along the way. Record releases came from Norton Records here in the US and New Rose out of France. They continue to release recordings to this day with new products from Ace Of Hearts Records in Boston.  Don't let you collections suffer without these any longer. Make 2019 rock with your own copies.

FOUND! Crazy Jack, Lost Track

Crazy Jack, Wormtown's answer to Iggy Stooge, had a career that started out like a skyrocket, and exploded just as big. His real name was Mike Rizutti, and  I met him through a friend named Ray Gagne (whom I sadly just found out passed in July) and the group of kids who use to hang around the Thompson Pond area, out in the boondocks of Spencer. He was just like the rest of us, living our version of "That 70's Show", drinking, smoking and listening to Rock n Roll. His idols were Mick Jagger, Steven Tyler, and he always wanted to be the lead singer in his own band. Along came punk rock and everyone could do it, so he did.He formed Crazy Jack and Heart Attaxs along with Preston Wayne of Hooker, and Cathy Peters, now Cah, and David Iacovelli who played bass and drums in The Blue Moon Band. He went on to make a name for himself with wild shows that often ended in total chaos. The Heart Attaxs disbanded due these incidents and he quickly recruited some young talent in brothers Steve and Paul Aquino, and went on as the Auotmatics. This is about the time I lost touch with him. Let's just say he had ego problems and leave it there. There were more stories of  wild gigs, in Boston were he "Smashed Glass" outside Cantone's one night,  more arrests, jail time, and that's were the career ended. The last time I saw him was a chance meeting in 1991, married with children, cleaned up and sober, not missing his former notoriety. This song I have no information about, except that it features Bob Peters and David Iacovelli from the Blue Moon Band. It was found on and old cassette tape I've had for 40 years with other Crazy Jack songs recorded at rehearsals.  At one point he took these tapes from me and wouldn't return them . I had to trick him into getting them back by having a mutual friend ask to borrow them. Otherwise I don't think they would have survived to this day. The song is raw, over modulated and like nothing else he did. You'll either love it or hate it, but listen to it a couple times and it'll be stuck in your head for days.

Listen HERE! CrazyJack, Dynamite Disco