The Ravers Rude Awakening Matt McCourt's first dive into the pool
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THE RAVERS- RUDE AWAKENING-PENITRAiTORZ
!979 fresh out of high school and deep into punk rock, Matt McCourt and Eric frey AKA Erie Boner or Joe Bloomstone jammed everday at the now famous basement .
My mom worked all the time a day job and a night gig at a restaurant for extra money and some social time. I was as an only child and had all the time in the world and what a luxury i was always grateful to be able to develop my talents and create songs.
i never really worked a real job til i was much older ( loading candy and cigarettes for my jewish mobbed up step grandfather's vending business bought me some great gear( it ruined all my saturdays in high school but it was beter than some schmuck job fliipin' burgers!
Lester would do the count out when nobody was around and take the skim and leave in his bentley after palming me a few extra Lincolns, he liked me( the other kids in the Beckman family never would do this job washing the 15 delivery vans and sorting the cigarettes of unknown origin.
Lester came out to Portland from Chicago in the 30's to set up gambling action in the way of slot machines, he was known in Portland as "The slot machine King" until the local governemnt changed and cleaned up the city. He did some federal time for tax evasion and got off on the other charges.When he returned he set up a vending empire thats why the trucks needed to be stocked for the weekly delivery, i called at the right time, the guy who did that job had gone away and i needed a Rickenbacker bass and some scratch to buy more gear, used of course and it was on that gear that Eric and i would record drums and guitar i would overdub the rest pf the tracks overdubbing fromt he casette deck to a stolen reel to reel and later an 8 track recorder of all things( yes like the large cartridge tapes but this machine was a recorder! ) I came up with most of the songs on the ravers LP this way, and it all changed when i went to Fred's Sound of Music (Hi Fi store)mom was shoppin at the safeway next door and i popped my head in to see how much a 4 track machine cost and met rob sample. the 4 track was way out of my price range atthe time,but the sales clerk atthe story named Rob Sample was a producer at an 8 track studio, a real studio and he offered me a sweet deal to record 2 songs of mine. Eric and i were in a real studio in a few weeks recording Full color woman and Changed my life. I tortured everyone by playing these songs everywhere with a casette deck.
so...... Rob took a shine to me and my ambitious nature and took me to the Long Goodbye the punk club in town( he ONLY club) where they allow original music( live music was thriving and the bands got paid big cash -- for playing covers,never original music but here anyone could take the stage and many made a good career out of this experience.
TONY DEMICOLI the manager of the club is the grandfather of Portland's original music scene.I got to jam onstage the first night i was there and Tye North served me mashers and was so nice, i jst kept going down there and wanted to put a band togthe Eric never wanted to do that, you couldn't pin him down long enough to focus so i put an ad out and Rude Awakening was formed. We played that long goodbye stage all the time with Billy Rancher's band the Malchicks and the Odds with Duane arvis and Chris Newman's band "the Untouchables and The Rats Fred and Toody's infamous band who you may know as Dead Moon then the gay club down the street started having live music the MET was crazy and on the other sid eof the river Fred and Ronnie Noize had the Urban Noize club i was bizzzy.......and Rob got an offer for my music from a new yorker named Andy Mckaie for an album deal. Rob had produced 4 sessions with my music at the same studio with different personell and put us on the radio performing live at 3 am on KBOO the Johnny Night train show, then the hitch comes.
Rob gets the out by Andy who is a heavy hitter in the major leagues, he was head of CBS publicity and then Arista and on was headed to MCA by this time and later retired as Senior VP of UNIVERSAL musi. Rude awakening broke up and i recruited Dave Waddel on bass, I was playing guitar the whole time and then we needed a drummer. enter Brad Simpson Mike Landuaer( MIck Zane's roomate in 1978 thats where i met tom roberts aka pig champion the poison idea guitarist) later i taught him to play guitar and he started a band he Imperialist Pigsi introduced Tom to Eric frey for drums and they hit the punk scene like gasoline on fire.
The LP was recorded the week of my 21st birthday the band was called the Penitratorz at the time and Andy "suggested" we change that to the Ravers h ewas relaly interested n VChris newman who i ook him to see chris was so close to having a huge deal on a major lanel but his "manager" knew she'd be ot of a place and she talked im out of it but he wasn;t the only one who turned down a lifechanging position Andy thought i had a knack for pulicity and he offered me a job but id have to move to California and work for imat his new gig at MCA( he later was promoted to Senior VP of the Universal muusic division... oh hindsight slaps you in the face hard
the lp comes out the record got some good reviews and the Billboard pick of the week and cashbox too( some huge albums were released that week but just goes to show..it IS WHO you know ... Jay Reynolds another friend from high school moved back from Hawaii and i asked him to join. and we gigged alot i think we played with Johnny Thunders but the 8 ball is fuzzy on that.
then Brad the drummer sot some guy on a tri met bus and that was the end of that band .
funny Jesse Samsel his longtime pal just asked about him i wrote born to rock in a little room behind a eadshop on hooker avenue( se 82nd ave ajamming with him ( jesse was also a bandmate of jeff mark) brad was never seen again ... and then i got a call from Mick Zane to come and jam
with a handful of great shows i had booked months in advance ,t ,,i thought these guys might do them , Me/Mick Pete Holmes and Jeff learned some of my simple tunes added a fw covrs and a couple tunes we all wrote and did the gigs and thats how the sperm hit the egg for WILD DOGS.
i love the songs on this lp and it has bonus tracks form the Rob Sample sessions too....
I DID FAIL TO MENTION the group who really set it off RUDE AWAKENING
Dave Phillps on drums andBill Melton bass have a complete show on our YOUTUBE channel
usmetal tv has a show on the whole story on youtube if you have 30 minutes to spare lots more at my youtbe channel
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