Local Bands

Sniper's four-track recording studio was a regular hangout for Akron bands and musicians on the verge of 'making it'. Here are just a few of the projects that were recorded at Sniper's studio or recorded elsewhere with contributions by members of Sniper:

Dick Blake - Cleveland Glide Believe it or not, this super disco record was made by Sniper with original bassist Garry Elliott and Cleveland dance legend Dick Blake on vocals and conga. A copy of this 45 is currently for sale at www.flipmall.com listed under comedy records!!! Cleveland's into disco! Glide! Glide! (drums, bass, guitar, keyboard, vocals, production, engineering)

The Waitresses - I Know What Boys Like Chris Butler was a real studio rat, and despite all of Sniper's attempts to exterminate him he did manage to make quite a few recordings. This one went on tho bigger and better things, making it to #62 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #82 on VH1's one-hit-wonders list. (keyboards, engineering)

Tin Huey - English Kids They knew more about The Who than The Who. (engineering)

In 1978, British rock journalist Peter Silverton interviewed Liam Sternberg (Jane Aire, Rachel Sweet), Mike Aylward (Tin Huey) and Seward T. Davis III (Sniper) in Akron, Ohio for an article on the Akron Sound which was ultimately published in the 17 June issue of 'Sounds' magazine. The following is the final (interview) portion of that article.

Michael Aylward, guitarist and vocalist with the Hueys: "We've been together as a group for four or five years, but before that was also Tin Huey which was an acoustic group. I met Harvey Gold (the other main Huey) playing basketball. He was going to shoot a basket in the wrong basket and I stole the ball from him, saving his life and losing my own. Tin Huey was playing Stooges and Velvet Underground shit four years ago, when we didn't have a horn player. We were just obnoxious. We were so fucking loud and obnoxious. It was basically 'Fuck you. You're paying for it'. Now we're technical lunatics".

And for their sins, they'd just copped themselves a deal with Warner and his Brothers that very day.

"It's real, real nice. It's like everything I wanted since I was fifteen. I'm gonna be twenty-seven-years-old soon and I never want to paint another truck again".

“Straightaway with Warners we're gonna put out 'English Kids' and 'I'm a Believer'." (Unfortunately it's the Robert Wyatt treatment not the sublime Monkees original.)

As if in almost deliberate contrast to the slow, deliberate roll-the-words-round-your-tongue-for-a-few-minutes langurousness of Michael, Seward T. Davis III erupted into the room like a volcano on a nervous day. Regaling me with anecdotes about his brother who buys only soul records but hates niggers - "Blacks are fine as long as they stay that side of the vinyl" - and the local biker gangs - he'd just got enough money together to buy a leather jacket and was bitching about being mistaken for one of the Misfits, the heavier of the two main two-wheel outlaw thugs. It was much more difficult to get him to talk about the music. As I've already said he's the main-man of Sniper, who have a track on the Stiff compilation. He also has rather idiosynchratic ideas of what he'd like to do given the money.

"If we sign a nulti-million dollar deal the day after tomorrow, then I'm going to put out a record of punk harpsichord music (Liam: "He will too."). I'm planning for my recital at the moment (he's studying music in Akron). Schumann, Chopin, that sort of thing. And I'm playing the Clash. And I'm kind of worried I might get them confused at the recital.

"When you hear the Akron album, listen to the Sniper track. It has a viola playing open fifths like a guitar. That's because I hate thirds. I hate modern music (he's referring to 'classical' music). I got into Renaissance music and it's all fifths. The modern third is theoretically impossible.

"...Y'see, I'm a late bloomer. This is where I should have been ten years ago. I hate Akron, Akron's a hole".

So is that hatred why there's an Akron sound?

Michael: "No, there isn't one. They're building it of course because there's so many groups here and they're so diverse".

Liam: "There's a combination of a lot of suburban kids who earn enough money to buy a car, combined with the oppression of a boring environment to make the break out somehow and the only way is entertainment".

But isn't that true for the whole of the Mid-West?

Michael: "It's probably a Mid-Western dream... but we're just crazy here. Go around Akron, look into people's eyes -- they're real wild. It's an interesting part of the country, not like Cleveland at all.

"There's no room here for what we're doing. You've got to get record contracts.

Basically, to push your product, it's very hard to push it out on the streets".

So how much is that music influenced by what happened elsewhere -- like the whole punk explosion in Britain.

Michael: "Nobody related to New Wave. We never knew the term even though we were recording pop tunes. The people started telling us it was going to be the thing to do."

Liam: “I never heard a New Wave tune before I wrote 'Yankee Wheels' last summer. I just wanted something that sounded queer. Maybe it's that isolation that does it".

Although, I was only in Akron for a very short time and although my acquaintance with the three of them was distinctly shallow, I formed the distinct impression that the somehow represented the whole spread (with a little help form Jane, here bar band, her house and her youthful excesses) of Akronite approaches and attitudes.

Liam obviuosly and probably correctly fancies himself as an artistic studio-based overseer, kind of Akron Phil Spector.

Seward is a distinct eccentric who could easily produce some idiosynchratic and original pop singles; or maybe once he's overcome his ridiculous affection for that drunken slob Charles Bukowski, he'll write a good book; or maybe he'll just be remembered as the amiable and inspiring local character who stayed at home. Michael seemed like he'd end up convinced that the avant-guard art and money were the same thing.

They kind of summed it up when I asked them finally about riches and fame.

Seward: "I want enough money to pay for my wife so she stops complaining. I want to be rich and famous then kill myself."

Michael: "You can see it in all our eyes dollar signs".