The Mezz
Holler
About The Mezz
The Mezz was one of the pioneer bands that opened up rooms like the Rathskeller and the Club for rock in the 70's. Unlike contemporaries Willie "Loco" Alexander or the Real Kids, however, the Mezz have been largely overlooked in the rock press and left out of most retrospectives. That's too bad because Mickey Clean and the Mezz were prime movers in the early scene- in fact, for a while there they WERE the scene! At a time when there were zero venues in town with the sort of laissez-faire booking policy of New York's CBGB's- a policy that fostered the explosive growth of the NYC punk scene - Mr. Clean and the Mezz are credited with convincing Jim Harold to let rock bands play Kenmore Square's Rat, and the rest as they say is hysteria...er, history. Many of the earliest shows in the newly burgeoning underground scene featured the Mezz as either headliners or supporting act on the bill. The poster to the right for two nights of a Plymouth Rock Party, advertised as the First Rock and Roll Video Party, features Mickey Clean and the Mezz joining these pioneers of the punk era: Television, Patti Smith, the Bonjour Aviators. Gives you some idea of the sort of shows going on in the mid-to-late 70's, when hybrid gigs (and groups) between the New York scene and the Boston scene were common. In fact when Richard Lloyd left Television, Reddy Teddy guitarist Matthew McKenzie went on to play some amazing guitar on his debut Alchemy album. And Patti Smith, I understand, used ex-Sidewinder vocalist Andy Paley on keys for some of her earliest shows. That's just the tip of the underground iceberg that would soon pierce the hull of the music industry Titanic, an event which was largely predicated by the cross-pollinated Boston-NYC music scenes, and fomented by bands that worked with a toolkit assembled from Detroit (MC5, Iggy and the Stooges) and the UK (British Invasion-era Mod sounds in particular) as well as their own unique, homegrown sounds. By kicking open the doors for the Boston-based groups who would play a significant role in storming the walls of the overfed, out-of-touch industry bean-counters, the Mezz should have earned their place in every history of rock and roll that deals with the punk and DIY era; this article is a mere pittance compared to their rightful 'props'. Mickey Clean - Lead Vocals, Guitar Asa Brebner - Guitar Rob Skeen - Bass Jeff Wilkensen - Drums Mono Man - Piano
Taken from Last.fm
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