Sonic's Rendezvous Band
City Slang

So, do you know of a band about which you can say in perfect good faith, "Damn, they haven’t released a single song that’s not bad, but at least not even a bit lousy, or that doesn’t excite me" throughout their career?

I do know of one, and no, it’s not the Ramones.

It’s this one, Sonic’s Rendezvous Band, otherwise known as SRB.

And woe to the first know-it-all who comes to comment, "Great strength, they only released one song." Otherwise, I’ll quickly dismantle that little fellow, pointing out that...

First of all, others have done worse, or better, depending on your point of view: the Screamers, the Screamers, yes indeed, those who go hand in hand with Metal Urbain, who haven't released a single song and are a legend of the punk scene, perhaps they became so precisely because of this.

Secondly, if that one song is "City Slang," my dear know-it-all, bow down before rock’n’roll, in its most dazzling appearance. Because yes, more than "Search And Destroy," more than "Kick Out The Jams," more than the primitive "Sonic Reducer," there above them all is "City Slang."

An indestructible monolith... Just think, of all those who over the years have covered "Search And Destroy" or "Kick Out The Jams": just to limit myself to the most famous, Rage Against The Machine, Jeff Buckley, even Afterhours and Verdena. Now think of all those who have covered "City Slang": just the Hellacopters. But don't draw the wrong conclusion that "City Slang" isn’t appreciated because it’s an insignificant piece; no, it's quite the opposite, it requires a fair amount of courage and a good measure of recklessness to reinterpret it; the Hellacopters were the only ones to give themselves that reckless courage and churned out a stunning version.

One last thing, and that is when discussing "City Slang," inevitably the infamous proto-punk is brought up. Wrong, because to be rigorous, proto-punk is the music that started with the Sonics and ended with Iggy and the Stooges with "Raw Power," where that "Search And Destroy" that bears the stigmata of proto-punk is placed; yet, if you look at the dates, the Sonics debuted in 1965, Iggy and the Stooges dropped the curtain on their career and on proto-punk in 1973, the single "City Slang" was released in 1978, by which time the original punk fury had practically died down.

So, proto-punk, absolutely not, unless you want to bring out the omnipresent and equally infamous attitude; then yes, because those from the SRB came from there, from that scene that began with the Sonics and ended with Iggy and the Stooges.

The one who set the story in motion and put more work into the band than anyone else was Frederick Smith, and as such, the name might not mean much; maybe Fred "Sonic" Smith rings a bell, and if not, if you're really a hopeless case, one of the two guitarists of the MC5. Speaking of desperate cases, a long time ago, I proudly counted myself among them, and was firmly convinced that the cool guy to copy every single move from was Wayne Kramer, the other guitarist of the MC5. Now, Wayne Kramer was a great stage animal and even today, I find myself enchanted watching old MC5 archive footage and watching how he held the stage, the cameras all on him and Fred Smith always on the sidelines; yet Wayne Kramer in his highly dignified career only dreamed of a piece like “City Slang” in his wildest dreams.

In any case, Fred and Wayne were the last to abandon the sinking ship, and the ship began sinking almost immediately, right after it was launched.

To keep it short, what happened was that a chain of record stores based in Detroit, Hudson’s, refused to distribute "Kick Out The Jams," since the big boss first gave a quick look at the ugly faces of the musicians printed on the cover and after an equally quick listen to the content, because trusting is good but not trusting is better; yet you have to give it to the boss at least that he didn’t need to listen to the entire record from the first to the last note to get an idea, since it took him less than a minute to intercept something like "motherfucker" and decided that no, such obscenities weren’t going to be spread in his stores; anyone else would have retorted, “Who cares about your store dumps, dear Mr. Hudson, we have Elektra backing us up and we can sell the record even at Standa,” which gives the idea; anyone else, but not those five rogues who, at their own expense, bought a page from a local magazine just for the sake of loudly telling Hudson’s to screw off and on that page, on their initiative, they also printed the Elektra logo; which didn’t take it too well and in turn told the MC5 to screw off; who went to Atlantic and recorded two records, "Back In The U.S.A." and "High Time," that many disdain but that I like, if only for the presence of "Looking At You"; but neither sold well, so Atlantic also bade farewell to those guys without much regret. The ship started to sink and lose pieces, despite Fred and Wayne rowing with increasing vigor; they even recruited replacements but they turned out not to be up to the task and at the end of the story, Fred and Wayne were exhausted and let the ship sink once and for all.

Fred went one way, Wayne another: here, I'm walking the path with Fred. He wasn’t thinking of quitting playing at all, so he started hitting clubs one after another to keep playing and also to understand what waters were moving in Detroit Rock City.

One of those nights, he ended up in one of the many dingy dives of which no history records the name, to run into a face that seemed quite familiar to him. "Damn, I know this guy," Fred said to himself; "Hey buddy, who's the one on the guitar?" he asked the man behind the bar who served him a lousy cold beer; "Who? Morgan?". Yeah, who the hell, it was Scott Morgan, the guy who previously sang and played guitar in the Rationals, who maybe didn’t reach the fame of MC5 and Stooges, but played some good stuff, and indeed once the MC5 even opened for their concert. Yes, he was certain, Fred, that he already knew that face.

So, after the concert ended, he approached Scott Morgan, who recognized him immediately, and asked if he could join the band. “Hey brother, this is the Scott Morgan Band, it’s my band and I alone decide who can be in it or not,” and imagine if he refused a place to Fred, when at a time not too long ago, Scott would have paid out of his own pocket to play with him, precisely with Fred.

The story is halfway there, at this point Fred and Scott were starting to play together in the Scott Morgan Band, but at the same time were planning something more significant; whoever else played in the Scott Morgan Band, it doesn’t matter.

Much more important is that Scott often shared the stage with another Scott after the Rationals ended, whose last name was Asheton, was Ron’s brother and played drums in the Stooges, precisely those of "Search And Destroy," because this is one of the many stories that made Detroit the Rock City par excellence.

As it happens, the Stooges were over and Scott Asheton – perhaps to step out of Ron’s shadow, just like Fred from Wayne’s – took his path and, while Ron went on to wreak havoc with the Destroy All Monsters, he ventured to other grounds, playing with people like Sonny Vincent and Captain Sensible, occasionally crossing paths with his brother and Iggy again, but most significantly sharing rehearsals, stages, and dreams of greater glory with Scott Morgan.

Fatefully, when Fred met Scott Morgan, Scott Asheton was hanging around the same circle, and here nothing less than a supergroup was beginning to take shape, with a survivor from MC5 and one from the Stooges.

The story is three-quarters through, there were two guitarists and a drummer.

What was missing was a bassist, and the three had to sweat a bit more to find him. Because they’d decided that the bassist also had to belong to the Detroit Rock City scene, but initially, they just couldn’t come up with a name. Perhaps because they were overthinking it. However, Fred was from the MC5 and Scott from the Stooges.

So it happened that one night, just the two of them found themselves staying out late in yet another Detroit dive, making merry and reminiscing about the good old days, when MC5 and Stooges were Detroit Rock City. At a certain point, Fred said, “Do you remember, at the beginning, when nobody cared about us, and they took us to play in that damn hole, us and you guys?”; “Damn, the Grande Ballroom; we ransacked that fuckin' place, that damn hole”; “What the hell were those other desperate ones called who were hired? It was us, you guys the Stooges, and those others who nobody remembers who they were”; “What the hell do you want to remember, I’m dead drunk and it’s been ten years…”, and for the moment it ended there, and it was time to head home as the dive had to close; Fred and Scott left peacefully, avoiding being thrown out as disorderly drunks.

However, as soon as dawn broke, Fred, having sobered up with cold showers and hot coffee, remembered those few words exchanged a few hours earlier with Scott and thought about it again. He gathered his thoughts: “Of course, they played at the Grande Ballroom with us, they were also involved with the White Panther… Yes darn it, the Up… Rasmussen, Gary Rasmussen played bass for them.”

He rushed out and reached the others “I found the bassist, Gary Rasmussen of the Up. Is he still around?”: they had all lost sight of good old Gary, and barely remembered him. “I’ll try reaching out to John, maybe he’s still in touch with him”; John was John Sinclair, founder and driver of the White Panther; Fred calls him, and bingo, John and Gary are thick as thieves and puts them in contact and it works out.

The story ends more or less here. There are two guitarists, the bassist, and the drummer.

All that remained was to choose the name… Sonic because Sonic was Fred’s nickname in MC5, Fred “Sonic” Smith; Rendezvous, a meeting, in French; Band because that’s what they were, a band. The band of the Sonic’s meetings: in Italian, it’s a mess, but Sonic’s Rendezvous Band is explosive.

From when Fred approached Scott Morgan in that hole of a venue, almost a year had passed and that embryo of SRB certainly hadn’t stayed still. They had quite a few tracks already prepared; they just had to properly grind them so that their debut would make noise and bring back the glory days of Detroit Rock City.

Precisely, where did Detroit Rock City end up? On the ruins of MC5 and Stooges, nothing sensational had been built. The Sonic’s Rendezvous Band had to make a big bang.

They decided to start with a single because it was in the midst of the punk storm, and the single was the main support to give substance to their urgency.

Two tracks, the choice fell on “City Slang” and “Electrophonic Tonic.” The recordings went ahead swiftly and by November 1977 everything was ready; and there was even someone willing to undertake production and distribution, Orchid Records. Afterwards, it’s unclear what happened, but I can imagine: the money ran out, and then to have the vinyl in hand, it took a year; the vinyl was poorly produced and to save it, the same piece “City Slang” was printed on both side A and side B, in mono and stereo version; "And the distribution, guys, if you want, here are the copies, and distribute them by yourselves."

There were all the premises for it to end badly, the story.

It ended that "City Slang" is rock’n’roll.