Rods and Cones will be performing on Saturday, May 14, 2011, at 10 p.m., at the Brighton Music Hall, 158 Brighton Ave. in Allston, Mass., in the Boston area. This will be our first full-length show in 23 years. Also on the bill will be the Cinnamon Fuzz. For information and tickets, please go here.
To hear a sound clip of "Round Room" by Rods and Cones, recorded in 1983, please go to the Music page on this site.
"Round Room" by Rods and Cones, recorded in early 1983. Produced by Bob Slavin. Recorded at Sanctuary Studio, Shrewsbury, Mass.
That's Mike Napolitano on guitar, and Mike wrote the words, which were sung by Chris Kelley:
In a round room,
In a white room,
In a dead room,
I lay naked
And curse the cold.
"Round Room" was the first original tune of Rods and Cones, or at least the first one that stuck. We were jamming on that B minor thing, and when we came up with the break, we were so excited about it, we had to keep playing it. And the tune had that walking-down keyboard riff by Brian "Herm" Hess.
"Round Room" was produced by Bob Slavin, who was a Boston radio personality at the time. We had had a very serious meeting with Bob one night in the dressing room of the Channel. (I laugh as I type this.) Bob had never produced a record, and none of us had ever been inside a real studio.
That's Chris DiNardo with the portentious opening thump on the drums, then I get my big entrance on bass. We laid down multiple vocal tracks and a couple of percussion tracks -- that's Jim DiNardo on bongos galore. Our friend Jim Smith played alto sax.
In 1983, "Round Room" made the rounds as our calling card, on cassette, and WFNX in Lynn, Mass., started playing it. In 1984, "Round Room" appeared on a vinyl compilation called "Boston Rock and Roll Anthology, Vol. 3," which was released on "Count" Joe Viglione's label, Varulven Records.