This month’s Under Appreciated Rock Band, THE SILENCERS come from the same tradition as Davie Allan and the Arrows but are of more recent vintage. having formed in the mid-1990’s.  I had tentatively picked them out as the UARB for November, since I was fresh out of Christian rock bands; but I later found a non-rock replacement, Wendy Bagwell and the Sunliters. 

The Silencers are from Michigan, with the members being Dave Leeds (bass), Rob Felenchak (drums), and Eric Toth (guitar).  Richie Unterberger in Allmusic notes that the Silencers have “a darker approach than the average contemporary surf act”.  There are a variety of moods on the album; while frantic guitar is basically omnipresent, not everything sounds alike by a long shot – even more than is true of the veteran Davie Allan and the Arrows.  There are some dialogue excerpts; at the beginning of “13” is a long conversation about “The Man” – probably from Easy Rider (1969) – and there is an occasional mention of the song title on the album, as on “Spaceman” and “Woof Woof” on The Silencers (and “Return of the Son of Woof Woof” on their second album, Cyclerific Sounds). 

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The debut album by the Silencers, The Silencers came out on Total Energy Records at about the same time as several albums by their label-mates Davie Allan and the Arrows.  For the most part, the songs are originals, with the one exception being “Journey to the Stars” that has five songwriters listed on Allmusic:  Bob Bogle, Don Wilson, Nokie Edwards, and Mel Taylor of the Ventures, plus Sun Ra. 

The back cover of The Silencers by the Silencers shows a flame-encircled dragster with the quote:  “Link Wray & the Ventures rolled into one big ball and heaved through Dick Dale’s living room window!!!”  Referring to that quote, Richie Unterberger in Allmusic says:  “It’s not as mind-bending as that description would have you believe, but it’s a very respectable 1990’s surf revival effort, with excellent chops and a good sense of menace.  Of their three cited influences, Dick Dale is definitely the biggest, as Eric Toth’s banzai guitar leads amply demonstrate.” 

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The second album by the Silencers, Cyclerific Sounds came out in 1999; by then the band had a different drummer, Eric Faas.  Guest musician Jim Diamond plays Farfisa Organ on one track, “Big Ragu”. 

I first heard one of the songs on this album, “Mr. Fruity Pants” on the 2-CD compilation album (released for the 25th anniversary of Bomp! Records in 1999), Straight Outta Burbank; there is also a track by Davie Allan and the Arrows on the compilation album called “Open Throttle” (from Fuzz Fest).  “Mr. Fruity Pants” is not actually an instrumental song (unlike everything else they have recorded); this track has distorted, mumbled vocals in the background that I cannot really figure out. 

Richie Unterberger in Allmusic says that the Silencers are trying too hard to set the mood on this second album.  While the music doesn’t feel that way to me, it certainly is true of many of the song titles on this record, which include “Devil’s Angel’s Theme”, “Sonny’s Theme”, and “The Man from F.U.Z.Z.”.  

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I was amused to see that one of the song titles on the Silencers album Cyclerific Sounds is “Abracapocus”, a scramble of “Abracadabra” and “Hocus Pocus” that is taken from a memorable Bugs Bunny cartoon, Transylvania 6-5000.  This 1963 cartoon – which features a vampire named Count Blood Count – is notable as the final Bugs Bunny short made by Chuck Jones in his 30-plus year career at Warner Bros. Studios before leaving to form his own animation company.  (In earlier years, he was credited as Charles M. Jones).  The title is adapted from a Glenn Miller hit, “Pennsylvania 6-5000”, and a comedy/horror movie called Transylvania 6-5000 came out in 1985. 

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The producer for both of the albums by the Silencers is Mick Collins, one of the few African-American garage rock musicians.  Collins grew up in Detroit and learned music from his family’s record collection as well as from Detroit-based Motown Records.  As a teenager, he was in two bands called the U-Boats (in 1981) and the Floor Tasters (in 1984-1985). 

In 1986, Mick Collins was a founding member of the seminal garage/punk band the Gories; the group had a female drummer, Peggy O’Neill plus a second guitarist Dan Kroha (all were from metro Detroit).  In other words, the group had two guitarists but no bassist, like the Cramps and Sleater-Kinney.  Of the Gories, Wikipedia notes:  “They were among the first 1980’s garage rock bands to incorporate overt blues influences.”  Alexandra Zorn writing for Allmusic states in the article on the band:  “The emergence of the Gories heralded a new Golden Age of Detroit rock beginning in the late ’80s; a renaissance of noise and rust-belt rock that lasts through to today.” 

After the Gories broke up in 1993, Mick Collins was in what Wikipedia calls a “basic garage rock band” called Blacktop from 1994 to 1996.  His next band, the Dirtbombs was founded in 1995 and is still active; they started out as a more eclectic side project while he was in Blacktop.  Wikipedia says that the Dirtbombs are “notable for blending diverse influences such as punk rock and soul while featuring a dual bass guitar, dual drum, and guitar lineup” – in contrast to the Gories who didn’t have any bass guitarists.  The Dirtbombs have featured a variety of Detroit area musicians over the years; they include Jim Diamond, who played bass guitar for the band and appears as a guest musician on the Silencers album Cyclerific Sounds. 

The second album by the Dirtbombs, Ultraglide in Black came out in 2001 when the Garage Rock Revival was on the rise, led in part by Detroit’s own the White Stripes.  The Dirtbombs were the opening act for the White Stripes in this period, with bandleader Jack White acknowledging his influence by the Gories.  

(December 2014)

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