Biography All Music Guide Wikipedia
Group Members: Ralph Carney, Chris Butler, Carney, Hild & Kramer
All Music Guide:
Hard to believe, but as the decade turned from the '70s to the '80s, scenemakers and post-punk trendwatchers were looking for the next burgeoning proto-alternative scene to be emerging from...well, Akron, OH. Famous for being both the birthplace of Pretender Chrissie Hynde and home of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., Akron (aka "Rubber City") coughed up enough interesting bands in the late '70s to warrant the fleeting attention it received, e.g., Devo, the Rubber City Rebels, and Tin Huey. Led by Chris Butler, Tin Huey were a group of post-punk Zappa/Beefheart fans who played artful (and at times arty) punk-pop with touches of free-form jazz blowing and eclectic smartassness. For reasons that can only be chalked up to over-enthusiasm, Warner Bros. signed them hoping that their radio-friendly cover of the Monkees "I'm a Believer" would break big. Loaded with raving guitars and tuneful vocals, and recorded without a whiff of condescension, there was nothing else on Tin Huey's fine and only record that sounded remotely like it. With songs like "I Could Rule the World If I Could Only Get the Parts" and "Chinese Circus," Tin Huey were closer to the art rock Dadaism of Frank Zappa and the lovable weirdness of Pere Ubu than the pop of the Monkees. In a story as old as rock & roll itself, Huey's record sold dismally and the bandmembers split up about a year after they were the second biggest catch (after Devo) to come out of Akron. The band's two high-profile members, Butler and saxophonist Ralph Carney, carved out interesting solo careers, Butler initially with the Waitresses (their big hit was "I Know What Boys Like") and more recently as a solo act; Carney as a member of the Swollen Monkeys and regular contributor to Tom Waits' recordings. Thanks to the Collectables label, Tin Huey's sole album, Contents Dislodged During Shipment, finally saw its CD debut in 2003. Before Obscurity: Bushflow Tapes followed in 2009.
Wikipedia:
Tin Huey is an experimental rock and New Wave band from Akron, Ohio that formed in the mid/late 1970s.
History
Original lineups
The band was originally known as Rags and started out with three members: Mark Price, Michael Aylward, and Stuart Austin. Later, the band decided to rename themselves after Aylward's younger brother. When the trio were Rags, Price (then known as Wesley the Stash) played guitar, Aylward played bass, and Austin (then known as Napoleon Lemens) played drums. Harvey Gold became the fourth member to join on organ.
When Price left the band, the remaining members switched to acoustic music before hiring electric guitarist Arthur Baranoff and bassist Wayne Swickley.
When they left, Price rejoined and became the bassist, while Aylward took on electric guitar, and Gold alternated between electric guitar and keyboards; they briefly added saxophonist Lochi MacIntosh to the lineup before replacing him with Ralph Carney. Chris Butler (who was the bassist for 15-60-75 (The Numbers Band), was the last to join, also on guitar. Tin Huey was part of the influx of bands emerging from the Akron/Cleveland music scene, others including Devo, Pere Ubu, Chi-Pig, the Electric Eels, the Bizarros and the Rubber City Rebels.
Career
Inspired by Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa, The Stooges and the Soft Machine, Tin Huey signed with Warner Bros. Records, recorded, and then released their debut album Contents Dislodged During Shipment in 1979 (later issued for the first time on CD by Collector's Choice Music in 2003). It wasn't a commercial success, however. Ralph Legnini (a.k.a. Ralph E.) played with the band for several early '80s shows before they went their separate ways. It would be two decades before they released any new material.
Their follow-up second album, Disinformation, was released in 1999 by Butler's Future Fossil Records. Since then, they have played shows both in Ohio and in the greater New York City area. Most recently, they assembled recordings from the mid-70s for their third album, Before Obscurity: The Bushflow Tapes. The album is a combination of studio recordings and live performances from JB's in Kent, Ohio, where they regularly played. They've also been gathering new material for their fourth album, New Stuff: Obscure Deluxe. Obscurity was released on November 17, 2009 , on the Smog Veil label, becoming their first new album in over a decade. New Stuff's exact release date is yet to be substantiated.
In 2003, Tin Huey were among the Midwestern/Akronite bands that were featured in the PBS documentary "It's Everything, And Then It's Gone, which covered the mostly overlooked stories about the bands who hailed from the Ohio music scene and developed the "Akron Sound".
That same year, Tin Huey played at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
Tin Huey briefly became a septet after adding newcomer Bob Ethington, formerly of Unit 5. Price died after a four-year battle with colon cancer on November 6, 2008 at the age of 56. Following his death, Tin Huey as a band stopped performing. A spin-off band, Half Cleveland, was formed in 2007 featuring Gold, Butler, Ethington, and former Chi-Pig bassist Debbie Smith. They have played occasional shows in the Akron/Cleveland area, including opening a show at the Akron Civic Theater for Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders.
Since Price's death, there have been a couple live 'events', one a jam loosely dedicated to Mark involving all the surviving members of the Hueys, bass handled by Gold, Smith, and Kristoffer Carter (The KC Show). The second was an Arts Program benefit billed as "A Gaggle of Hueys and a Houseguest" featuring original Hueys Gold, Aylward and Austin, along with Dave Rich of Houseguest. Recently, Gold and Aylward have also been playing improvisational guitar duets at local art galleries.
