the Mixed Emotions
Findlay, 1967-70
The Mixed Emotions were barely in high school when they started in mid 1967. The band included three Findlay HS teens, Bob Buntin (drums), Dennis Van Weelden (bass), Mike Brown (organ/guitar). Not long after they started working together, they added Dave Reddick on lead guitar from Arlington, just south of Findlay. Bob Buntin's older brother Bill Buntin was their manager.
It didn't take long for the band to catch on the local teen scene and soon they were playing teen dances and the Pub and the Road House in Findlay. The band's young age (they were 14 and 15 years old when they started) meant they had to keep a tight schedule.
In the summer of 1968 they travelled to Grand Rapids, MI to record their first 45. The band was looking though trade journals and they either found an ad for J.W.J. records in Allegan, MI about 15 miles south. The label sent them to Midwestern Sound Studios where they recorded the songs. The label got the record into the Brite Star distriibution and the record got some local airplay (including Toledo and Marion). It's a great record, sounding much more mature - in a good way - than their ages, with tight playing and good original songs.
The band continued to grow their audience and went back to Midwestern to record a second 45, which was even better than the first. Incorporating some progressive/ psychedelic touches in the lyrics and arrangement, "Through The Looking Glass' and "Live For Today" sound like a band that could have gone national if they had the chance. This record was not distributed through Brite Star and was not as popular, sales/airplay wise, as the first, which was a shame.
The band lasted into 1970. The three Findlay guys (Buntin, Van Weelden, Brown) graduated HS and decided to go in different directions.
Discography:
Search My Heart / My Backdoor - J.W.J. 1008/9, Sept 1968
Through The Looking Glass / Live For Today - J.W.J. 1012/3. Feb 1969