The self-titled Epic LP belatedly hit store shelves, too late to capitalize on the buzz from The Beatles tour, and too late for the group


London in a 10-day run. And that was so much fun. It was a dream-come-true for the band. And other than that we played in Boston, New York, a wedding in Chapel Hill, Las Vegas at The Grind, and then in Los Angeles.”


In early ’09 The Remains played the legendary Ponderosa Stomp Festival in New Orleans. “We had to follow Dale Hawkins and James Burton,” Tashian marvels. “It was the best swamp-rock band I ever heard.” He says that Ira Padnos, the Stomp founder and organiser is “like a saint” for his efforts to give underappreciated artists their due. “The Ponderosa Stomp is a pretty intense experience,” says Tashian, “and I was very inspired by the trip to New Orleans. We were already riding high, because of the film America’s Lost Band.”


That filmwas produced by Fred Cantor, a lifelong Remains fan. But the project started out as something else. Several years ago, Tashian and his wife Holly were at one of their annual New Year’s Eve gigs in Tashian’s hometown of Westport, Connecticut. Their friend Fred (a musician himself) approached the couple and said, “I have an idea. What would you think of doing an off-Broadway show about the story of The Remains?”


includ including ‘Why Do Do I Cry’. Though it s it’’s a mere


few seconds, the group’s onstage power – often written about but officially


undocumented – is undeniable. Tashian smiles modestly. “I do know that on more than one occasion, John Lennon commented that he would like to have had the energy that The Remains had on stage.”


Feeling that they had taken things as far as they could commercially, and that further success would not be forthcoming, Tashian folded The Remains shortly after the tour. Their self-titled Epic LP belatedly hit store shelves not long after, too late to capitalize on the buzz from The Beatles tour, and too late for the group.


In the years after The Remains, Tashian began a move toward sounds beyond rock ’n’ roll. “I played in clubs around Los Angeles for most of ’67 and early ’68. It was an R&B band, with some of The International Submarine Band (GramParsons’ group), and Bobby Keys,” (later sax player for The Rolling Stones). He recalls that they played “Stax material such as Otis Redding, Sam& Dave, and Eddie Floyd. This was a new thing for me. I was copping Steve Cropper licks. The other half of my learning was in country and blues. I was soaking up records that I had never heard, by anyone and everyone that I could: George Jones, Hank Williams, Lowell Fulson and Elmore James. I was not very prolific making records or writing at that time, but I was learning a lot about life and playing the guitar.”


Tashian recalls that by early ’68, that group was “in the process of disbanding, and I was part of a new ‘bar band’ that we formed called The Flying Burrito Brothers. We played in clubs around Los Angeles for about a year. That was the original Burritos.” Though there is no officially available recorded evidence of his time with the group, “I have a few home


46


tapes,” he reveals. Asked if that material has ever been considered for release, he shakes his head. “It’s not fit to be licensed, really. It’s just a bunch of guys jamming around in the living room, not really playing any complete songs. The only record I’mon with Gram is G.P. (’73), and that’s from after the Burritos.”


Remains keyboardist Bill Briggs was also in Los Angeles at the time and was involved in many of the same projects as Tashian. Bassist Vern Miller recalls that he “did not stay in LA very long after The Beatles’ tour. I came back east shortly after The Remains broke up [and] began playing in a band named Crow.” That band’s lead singer was a young Donna Summer.


The Remains (the four original members, including Chip Damiani on drums); did attempt a reunion in the ’70s. But, says Tashian, “we weren’t ready.”


Eventually The Remains again bowed to fan demands and reunited for a show. “I was ready this time, and everybody else was too. I think it was ’98,” he recalls. “That was when we got a call fromSpain. So I called the guys. They were ready to go, and I was ready to go, and everything was copasetic. So we did the show [Purple Weekend Festival in Léon] in Spain, and it went over really well. That spawned a gig in New York a couple of months later: Cavestomp.”


In 2002 the reunited Remains recorded an album – officially their second – titled Movin’ On. Tashian muses, “It’s a mystery why we did it. All I know is that the time was finally right. It was in us and it had to come out.”


Tashian continues the latter-day chronology of the band. “Since then, every year we’ve played a concert once or twice a year, which is enough. And we did Berlin, Barcelona, Paris, The Garorock Festival in Bordeaux, and


Cantor told them that he had a record of success through sheer perseverance. “Cantor pulled this thing together. He got it into The New York Fringe Festival. There were five performances in Greenwich Village in a big church basement. It was quite an experience to see.” Tashian excitedly continues, “They did interviews with us to get the story, and they actually got young actors to play all of us, the guys in the band, and it was a good evening. And on the last night a friend-of-a- friend-of-a-friend (who happened to be a director in Hollywood for CBS TV) came out to see the play. He loved it, and he said ‘Let’s do a filmabout it!’”


In the end, rather than produce a film-about- the-play, it was decided to do a documentary. The Remains travelled to Hollywood and filmed extensively for two days solid. Locations included Dodgers Stadium, a radio station, a club, and Amoeba Records. “At Amoeba,” Tashian beams, “we played a set. And then they put us in an old ’60s Cadillac convertible, and he had us going up and down Sunset Boulevard, following us in the convertible and interviewing us in the car.”


The Remains played a gig on Sunset Strip the second night, by which time Tashian says they were all “pooped out, but we did the best we could.” Of course all of this was filmed, and the modern-day footage made up the second half of the 65-minute film. The first half was comprised of vintage clips of The Remains on The Ed Sullivan Show, plus material provided by the band – photographs, posters, and other memorabilia – to help tell the story of what happened in the ’50s and ’60s in Boston, all the way through to The Beatles tour. Tashian is pleased with the result, and says that director/editor Michael Stitch “did a great job with it. I just still can’t believe that there’s a filmabout The Remains!”


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