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Tin Huey


Akron, 1975-

Like belches from the smokestacks of the citie's numerous tire plants, Akron was producing a bunch of bands there not playing the cover hit rock sounds that filled the NE Ohio clubs in mid 1970s. Tin Huey was in the style of avant rock like Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart, with a bit of Bonzo Dog Band, perhaps.

The band mainstays were Mark Price (bass), Ralph Carney (sax), Michael Aylward (guitar), Chris Butler (guitar), Stuart Austin (drums), and Harvey Gold (keyboards). The original band included Price and Aylward, with the others joining after the band had gone through some time of figuring itself out. In 1970 Mark Price had played on a couple songs by Akron's Wild Butter, which included his older brother Steve Price.

Like their peers they played the Kent clubs, and released an EP and a 45 on Akron's Clone Records, a label that was a home for the new Akron sound and partially financed by Mark Price of the bands on the label. The Clone recordings were done at Bushflow studios in Akron which was also run by Price. The songs on the two releases included "Puppet Wipes" and "Robert Takes The Road To Lieber Nawash". The two 7" had Stuart Austin listed as "Nappy Lemons" and were done before Butler joined. 

Like many of the other NE Ohio indie releases at the time, the records were distributed to New York and other major cities and over time word got out where they were signed by Warner Brothers (seeminly about the same time as Devo but it's not clear if there was any direct relationship between the two deals). They released one LP in 1978, "Contents Dislodged During Shipment".  The LP included a fairly straightforward take on the Monkees/Neil Diamond song  "I'm A Believer", released as a 45 to some, but not enough, airplay.The song "Revelations of Dr. Modesto" was the title of a 1950s anti-conformity satire by Alan Harrington and the lyrics are based on the book.

The group didn't make any follow up recordings but played regularly until the early 1980s. Ralph Carney became a much sought after sideman, playing regularly with Tom Waits and recorded with many other artists, ranging from Elvis Costello to Medeski, Martin, and Wood. 

In the late 1990s Tin Huey began to play together, and recorded a second LP "Disinformation". In the rearly 2000s they did a fair number of live shows and continued to work on recordings. In 2008 Mark Price passed away which significantly curtailed future work, although they are still a active band. Ralph Carney passed away in 2017. In 2009 they released "Before Obscurity - The Bushflow Tapes" which included early recordings

Discography: