Band members

HMV version 1
1.1 Mark Abramson, Keiko Bonk, Jeffrey Rubin, Kai Eric
1.2 Mark Abramson, Keiko Bonk, Jeffrey Rubin, Cherina Mastrontones
1.3 Mark Abramson, Keiko Bonk, Jeffrey Rubin, Russell Berke
1.4 Mark Abramson, Keiko Bonk, Jeffrey Rubin, Stevie McGuire

HMV version 2
2.1 Mark Abramson, Keiko Bonk, Jay Dee Daugherty, Robert Warren
2.2 Mark Abramson, Keiko Bonk, Jay Dee Daugherty, Chuck Cornelis

Album notes from Mark

Chances are, if you’re reading this, you’ve survived the crucible of New York’s 1980s boho subculture. Nice to see you on the other side. How’s the tinnitus?

Newcomers, let me paint a picture. We were fresh out of college, not exactly thrilled to join the yuppie rat race. That is, if they’d have us — or rather, if we could sneak in under the radar. It would have been a mistake for all concerned. We left Hawaii for an underground world built by refugees from suburban America, all drawn to New York like sharks to chum… or lambs to slaughter. Plenty of hungry hopefuls ended up getting fleeced.

Of those two options, Keiko was a swimmer. She was determined to embed herself at the center of the art world, whatever that would look like. For me, the lamb metaphor works better. Ink barely dry on my economics degree, I was hoping to help myself to some Wall Street greenery. I had no idea what I was getting into. I was a surfer dude from a family of intellectuals, with no killer instinct.

Luckily, I knew how to play guitar. When Keiko and her art school friends put a band together, they needed a collaborator who could play a few chords. I got the call. Love Act — “Live, on stage!” — got itself a new supporting player.

And so it begins. The rest of the story you’ve heard before: one of success and failure, betrayal and hubris, trying too hard and not hard enough. A record contract was won and lost. Momentum was unstoppable and then unattainable. The others involved in this East Village art scene sideshow may remember things differently. You’ve all seen Rashomon…

About the band’s name: We had a rehearsal studio in the East Village, 1st Avenue between 2nd & 3rd Streets, next to the Lismar Lounge. It was a basement space in a tenement building with a dirt floor and an unplumbed sink-toilet. We shared the space with two other bands, King of Culture and Three Teens Kill Four, which featured rising art star David Wojnarowicz. There was a blackboard in the room we used for writing out chord changes and drawing crude cartoons. We had booked our first gig at CBGB and we were still without a name. On the blackboard that day someone had drawn a gramophone with Fido listening at the horn. Caption: “His Master’s Voice.” The God of Rock had spoken.

These recordings span the life of the band, 1982-1986. A majority of the songs on the LP come from a session with Jay Dee and Chuck at the end of 1986. The bonus tracks mostly contain earlier recordings: demos we did with Jeffrey and Kai, early versions of American Love and Holy Ghost that we recorded with Jay Dee and Robert. There’s one rough mix from the sessions for our 1984 EP, “Missionary,” released on PVC Records. Some of the tracks were recorded after the band’s demise in a few post-mortem sessions we organized between 1989 and 1991.

I digitized the first batch of tapes in 2007, and, hearing how well they held up, I resolved to make them available eventually to friends, family, and fans. I continued to work on the tracks over the years, digitizing and refining as time permitted. Now, in 2025, they’re complete. I hope you enjoy cracking open this time capsule as much as I have.