Pinball Lizard is a re-emergence of an 80's band, The Frigidaires

The Frigidaires at the KBTL Battle of the Beatle Bands Contest 7/9/83

Left to Right:  Bill Phillips (Lead Vocals), Jeff Jackson (Bass/Vocals), Tucker Jackson (Rhythm/12 String Guitar/Vocals), Andy Jackson (Lead Guitar/Vocals).  Not Shown:  Bob Phillips (Drums/Vocals)

The Story Behind Pinball Lizard:

The story of this band really began in late 1981, when the group, which would later become The Frigidaires, and later, Pinball Lizard, formed and took a decidedly pointed direction toward exactly duplicating the live sound of the early Beatles.  At that point, I began to consistently record each event, be it rehearsal, loose jam, or gig. 

All recordings were captured on a cheap Panasonic “boom box”, which for all intents and purposes, was a monophonic recording, as the microphones were very close together.  There was no tone or level adjustment; the box automatically set all.  Literally, the box was placed, set to record, left in the corner, and picked up at the end of the set.  The box became a part of our “gear”, and was placed somewhere near the band, often to one side, which resulted in hearing part of the sound much better that other parts, grossly affecting the apparent mix.  Additionally, having the box out in the crowd, gave a much clearer feel of the “live” performance, and much crowd interaction is appreciated. Over the years, due to variances in ambience of the room (or occasionally outdoors), or boom box placement, a variety of mixes were captured, many of which were just awful!!  However, a special few were quite good, and these formed the nidus of this effort to capture the “Best of The Fabulous Frigidaires”.

As a result of this taping effort, close to 40 tapes were generated over the 5 years the Frigidaires were together.  As you might expect, the earlier efforts of the band were less stellar than later on, but by 1983, the core qualities that made this band great had surfaced.  Hence, the “Best” of the bunch, occurred between 1983 and 1986, and is reflected in the choices for these MP3 files.

These tapes sat in my closet for close to 20 years.  Many of them I had never taken the time to hear, and the vast majority have never been heard by the original members of the Frigidaires.  Over a year or so, I pulled out those old tapes, and one by one went through them, made notes, and began to form a template of where to find the really good stuff.  Over the last week of 2001, I dumped those particular cuts, one by one, off of all those tapes into the computer, and compiled a 3 CD set, much of which has been uploaded as these MP3 files.  The tracks have not been altered tonally, equalized, had effects added, or cleaned up in any way, and there is audible clipping on some tracks.  These are the raw recordings as they originally sounded right off the boom box.

A Brief Chronological History of The Fabulous Frigidaires and Pinball Lizard:

1980 – Andy Jackson and Bill Phillips were playing in a band together (8 Track Mind), when I visited a rehearsal at their warehouse.  I (on Bass) had the opportunity to jam with Andy (on drums) and Bill (on Lead Guitar and Vocals) that night, and it became immediately apparent that we had much in common musically.

Mid 1981 – Andy, Bill, my youngest brother Tucker, myself, and an ever-changing line up of other players began to get together and loosely jam at Med School and College keg parties.  This loose band began to call themselves “The Donkeys From Mars”, with Andy debuting on guitar on some songs (he was formally only drumming, and now played mostly drums and some guitar).  This was a ridiculous tongue-in-cheek name, meant to emphasize the fun-loving lack of seriousness of the group (this group never practiced, played only at parties, and played whatever song came up, often merging one song into the next on a whim – “Oh, Oh, I know that one !!!”).  The name stuck, and became sort of an institution, with some level of fan following.  Badges sporting “DFM” (for Donkeys From Mars) in psychedelic colors were seen at the parties.  With our core players, we had an incredibly large number of tunes we could play without practice, and it was obvious we could make a real band out of this loose arrangement.  In late 1981, we decided to get a regular drummer, so that Andy could focus on guitar. Myself, Andy, Tucker, and Bill, brought in Bill’s brother, Bob “Dude” Phillips to play drums, and the final lineup of The Frigidaires came together. 

Late 1981 – Early 1982 - Thereafter, things became more formal and structured.  Weekly rehearsals were held at Andy’s house on Schiller, where we had a stated goal to work up 5 Beatle tunes a week, exactly like the recordings (guitar parts, bass lines, drum parts, and vocal harmonies).  These “practices” were more like parties, as we would pass around chilled sipping whiskey, and progressively become sloppy as the practice proceeded.  However, the consistency paid off, and we mastered a core of Beatle tunes that allowed us enough material to begin performing formally as a “rehearsed” band (i.e. for money!!).  We also had an opportunity to tap into Andy’s explosive talent in Blues lead guitar, and added several songs, which featured his skills.

We struggled for ideas for a name for the band, and after much turmoil, settled upon “33 & A Nerd”, which was the name from late 1981 through March of 1982.  The core membership performed at parties at least twice as “33 & A Nerd”, before changing the name to “The Frigidaires”, or alternatively, “The Fabulous Frigidaires” in March 1982. This new name seemed more appropriate, as it was a reminder of the refrigerator sized PA speakers that had to be hauled around to each gig.  Everyone groaned about lugging “the refrigerators”, but that PA system was a big part of our sound; it brought out our vocals.  This was one of the first bands I had been in with a “really good” PA system.  By today’s standards, the PA was really quite basic; we didn’t even have monitors!  However, our vocal harmonies were remarkably tight, and could be heard clearly “out front” of the instruments, despite the fact that we often couldn’t hear our own voices on stage.  This greatly helped us recreate the authentic Beatle sound.

Mid 1982 – Mid 1983 - The band began to perform regularly, although infrequently.  Practices continued.  We added more Beatles and Blues material, but also branched out into more mainstream current rock and roll, which Bill could sing and play very well.  Tucker acquired a cheap 12-string guitar, and rapidly established himself as 12 string tone master, with Andy holding down lead guitar, and Bill on rhythm.  Vocally we continued to expand, moving into 3 and 4 part harmonies, with Bill taking the John Lennon lead, Tucker singing most of the high McCartney parts, and Jeff and Andy doing fill 3^rd and 4^th part harmonies.  With myself on bass, and Dude on drums, we laid down a very stable, chugging, “Beatlesque” platform for the band. 

June 1983 – I was Chief Resident at the VA hospital, when occasional substitute drummer Bart Burgess, and Bill announced that they had entered the band into a battle of the sound alike bands at an upcoming BeatleFest sponsored by KBTL, a local “Beatles Only” station.  I was skeptical that I would even be able to attend (at that time, I was literally on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week), and of course, no one expected much from the event.  After much haranguing, I managed to get Eugene Benjamin, another of the residents, to stand in the crowd and “hold the beeper” to allow me to play (that beeper went off all the time, so it was a really big deal for him to agree to do that for me).

July 9, 1983 – The Frigidaires attended the BeatleFest.  Dude couldn’t attend, so Bart Burgess substituted on drums in his place.  We were assigned to the #2 time slot of 7 bands playing.  Before playing, we went inside and watched videos of the Beatles performing, and figured out tough fingering and chord changes we could never get before (“So that’s how he does it !!”).  For the contest, most acts had worked up 2 or 3 songs.  The Frigidaires set list included 17 of our best songs.  We began our set, and got through about 4 or 5 songs, when the PA went out (if you listen closely, you will hear Tucker’s vocals drop out just at the end of Ticket to Ride).  Not to worry !!  We jumped right into instrumentals that we had in the can, including 2 Blues tunes (The Stumble, and Hide Away), and Wipe Out, with Tucker on drums (both Tucker and Andy are very accomplished on drums and guitar), and kept the audience happy.  When the PA came back, we picked up where we left off and completed our entire set.  The judges allowed us to continue beyond the usual limits because we were blowing them away, although we didn’t know it at the time.  As a result, however, the contest was running long, and there were still 5 bands to go.  It took several hours to get through those bands, by which time we were just enjoying the fair and not thinking much about the contest.

The 7^th band was “Walkie Talkie” (later renamed “Numbers”), a local professional club band.  By the time they played, much of the crowd had turned over, and had been infused with groupies of Walkie Talkie.  They played 2 or 3 Beatle tunes, with a very professional live act sound, and were greatly received by the audience (many of which had recently arrived, and hadn’t heard us), but they really didn’t sound authentic like the Beatles.  About this time, we were approached by a representative of the judges, and told that we had won the contest !!  We were totally blown away !!  We never even considered the possibility of winning, much less prizes.  The representative said because of the highly positive crowd response for Walkie Talkie, however, there would be a “play off” against them.  This was mainly to let the current crowd hear us, but that the result wouldn’t change:  we had won!

The play off went without a hitch, but we didn’t perform as well as earlier in the day; it could have been the cool down period, and we were all very nervous.  However, when we were finally announced as the winner, we calmed down, and effortlessly played two encores.  The audience response and appreciation was all there,  as you can hear on the recordings.  They had clearly heard why the judges chose us.

Thereafter, the gig offers escalated.

1983 – 1986 – We played 6 to 12 times a year, mainly private parties or weddings.  By 1986, many of the members were also playing in other bands, which limited their time commitments.  Gradually, the band played fewer and fewer gigs and drifted apart.  Tucker moved to Portland, OR in the early 90s, permanently sealing the fate of the band.

1991 – The band made a brief appearance at Andy’s wedding when Tucker was in town, and played effortlessly, as if we had never been apart.

Birth of Pinball Lizard – In July, 2001, the Frigidaires played at a party hosted at Andy’s house when Tucker was in town.  As per old routine, a recording was made, but this time, it was captured on video.  The band again executed many of the old songs flawlessly, and the magic was still there.  Bill and Andy suggested resurrecting the band without Tucker, and renaming it “The WindBreakers”.  The WindBreakers subsequently debuted at a party at Andy’s house in October 2001.  The band subsequently added Kyle Scarborough, a local physician, on keyboards and vocals to round out our sound.  New material has been added with a focus on a 60's British Wave motif.  In February 2004, Bob "Dude" Phillips left the group to pursue personal interests, and was replaced by Wendel Skolaski, the drummer for "8 Track Mind", another band that Andy and Bill had been in.  The Windbreakers subsequent added two other 8 Track Mind players (essentially merging these two groups into a power super group), Charlie Nelms (lead vocalist, percussion), and Steve Pickles (lead vocals).  A horn section was added, further expanding the repertoire of material the band performs.  The members of The Windbreakers elected to change the name to "Pinball Lizard" after discovering another "Windbreakers" active in the music industry.  Pinball Lizard plays private engagements periodically.

The experiences I have enjoyed with The Frigidaires/Pinball Lizard are perhaps some of the best highlights of my musical life.  I hope you enjoy these MP3 files as much as I have enjoyed learning and performing the music, and then compiling this collection.

Thanks for listening,

Jeff Jackson 9/8/04, aka RockDoc