![]() Rick Branyan became a Latin teacher at a local private high school in Memphis. 1980s Īfter the group's initial break-up, many of the members pursued other careers. As one critic would write of the album, "the band is in great form throughout, sounding tighter and fuller than on the debut, and there are more than a few excellent songs here, especially 'Alice, Please Don't Go,' 'Danger,' and 'Go Faster.'" īy 1981, having only released the single Shakin’ from the album, the group disbanded. That album, Teenage Gurls, would finally be released almost twenty years later. Īlthough they received major label interest, they were unable to secure a record deal for their second album. Returning to New York, the band opened for acts as disparate as Chuck Berry, Johnny Thunders, and Peter Noone. In October 1979, the group recorded the rest of the follow-up album at Ardent Studios in Memphis. Several months later, Dave Branyan quit mid-performance and was replaced by a local guitarist, Steve O'Rourke. In 1979, Rick Branyan moved back to Memphis, and was replaced by Steve Wood. After completing six songs, the band moved to New York City and played at CBGB and Max's Kansas City. In August 1978, the group began recording a follow-up album. The album, however, received only local airplay and little more. To which objection the rockin' formalist in me responds, "I wanna hear 'Revenge' again." The trouble is, these serve a shamelessly and perhaps permanently post-adolescent vision of life's pain, most of which would appear to involve gurls. A middle-period Beatles extrapolation in the manner of Big Star (another out-of-step Memphis power-pop group on a small, out-of-step Memphis label), it bursts with off harmonies, left hooks, and jolts of random energy. Only a sucker for rock and roll could love this record, and I am that sucker. Village Voice rock critic Robert Christgau wrote: Those critics who heard the album were unanimous in their praise. The Scruffs then returned to Ardent to re-record a selection of their material and, later in 1977, released the new recordings as their first LP, Wanna Meet the Scruffs?. The record received local airplay in Memphis. In early 1977, the Scruffs released their first single, "Break the Ice," on Power Play records. After that, nobody even tried to do that again." Wanna Meet the Scruffs? and initial breakup It really does represent, if not the end, then the beginning of the end of something in Memphis music. Dickinson said of these early recordings, "If there's going to be a Scruffs history, that's it. Big Star producer Jim Dickinson, who was working on Big Star's Third/Sister Lovers at Ardent when The Scruffs began recording there, and who heard The Scruffs' demos in their earliest stages, recalled that people on the local scene expected The Scruffs to take the radio by storm. The songs from this period were collected and released more than twenty years later on the anthology Angst: The Early Recordings 1974-1976. Burns' high school friend, Tommy Hoehn, who led the power pop group Prix, was brought in for backing vocals.ĭuring this period, the band recorded many of the songs (most penned by Burns or Burns co-writing with David Branyan) that would later appear on its first album. Rick Branyan left the band in 1976, and Andy Tanus, Ken Woodley, and Van Duren were brought into the studio to play bass, with Bill Godley ultimately filling the role until Branyan's return a year later. History Formation and early years (1974–1976) įormed in 1974 by singer/songwriter and guitarist Stephen Burns, who would cut classes at the University of Memphis to rehearse and record, the group spent a two-year period in which it would write music and rehearse in a warehouse at Shoe Studio and then record at Ardent Studios when it had enough songs. 1.2 Wanna Meet the Scruffs? and initial breakup. ![]()
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