Evolution of the Equipment

Much has been written about Punching Memory. Most of it regarding their impact upon the late 80’s alternative scene. Their ‘do it yourself’ attitude and maverick music making made them one the most influential bands to ever play.

How they played their music is just as important as what they played. Over their ten year career, their choice of instruments heavily influenced their sound and even their writing. It’s sometimes impossible to even discuss their music without at least mentioning how they created their unique sound and what instruments they used.

Can anyone imagine discussing “Fanfare for the common girl” without a brief discussion of Tommy Mac’s heavily chorused guitar? Nate Reynold’s distorted bass playing so dominated the album “Spider Baby” that every review of the album mentioned it.

Who could forget their early shows where their use of tape players helped create their legendary status as the best live band ever.

Their never ending acquisition of equipment would culminate in a stage littered with tons of musical machines. It was of course their “Eternal Midnight Splendor” tour that would showcase a stage packed with synthesizers, ethnic percussion, amplifiers, and everything else a musically ambitious band would want.

The band origins can be traced to the classrooms of the East Central High School in central PA. There Tommy Mac and Joe Kinney met during auditions for the school play the first week of their freshman year. I wouldn’t be till the next summer that they would begin to create music.

“The summer of ‘82 that I got my first job working at local AM radio station,” Tommy would remember in an early interview. “All I did was vacuum, sort records and tapes, and crap like that. BUT on Thursday night, they’d let me and Joe do our own show.”

That show would become a local favorite during the summer. Friends and fans would stop by during the show and introduce songs. “We were partying a lot during that time,” Joe remembers. “People would drop in and we’d sneak out onto the fire escape to smoke pot. Then we’d come back in and whoever was there would introduce the next song.”

One person who became a regular was then high-school senior Brett Lawson. Not only did he share the boy’s taste in music and partying, he also worked at The Blue-Note Music Store that was across the street from the radio station.

“Brett started telling us he could get us a deal on a guitar and stuff,” Tommy said. “So I got a white Strat-copy and a Roland amp.”

The guitar turned out to be a Tokai Springy Sound, one of the best Fender Stratocaster copies on the market. A guitar that looked and played so much like a vintage Fender that the company would eventually sue Tokai for trademark infringement.

The amp of course would become one of the cornerstones of the band’s sound: the Roland Jazz Chorus 120, or JC-120.  “All I knew was that the Talking Heads and Adrian Belew used them, so for some reason that was good enough for me,” Tommy remembered.

“Yeah, I could have bought a car for what I paid for that amp,” Tommy said. “My dad was so mad. He kept yelling ‘I could have built you an amp for half what you paid for that thing’.” Tommy’s father would soon build more than amps for the band.

Kinney would spend his summer’s earnings on a set of

Discography

Albums:

“Lightspeed and Holding” – 1985

• “Ignition”
• “Launch”
• “Reaching Orbit”
• “The Outer Planets”
• “Leaving the system”
• “Lightspeed and Holding”
• “Space Madness”
• “Satellite Girl”
• “End of Heart”
• “The Black Hole Gang”
• “Burning Trouble”

Tommy talks about select songs and how he played on them.

“End of Heart” from the album “Lightspeed and Holding” – This was our attempt at pop song. We put the lead vocal up front without too much echo and toned down some of the white noise. I mostly strummed through the song. It wasn’t till the end that I started to pick a melody.
I was using a Tokai Lester at that time. The bridge pick-up had been replaced with a Dimarzio Super Distortion and the neck had an old P.A.F I had bought off a guy for $20.00. I also had a white Tokai Strat-copy that I used on a lot of the songs.
My amp was a Roland JC-120. I loved the fact that it had a foot-switch-able distortion and chorus. So cool. I did us a little Marshall practice amp that belonged to Tommy, our drummer, for some of the solos on that album, but on this song it was only the Roland.
The only effects I used, other than the amp’s, was a crybaby wah and Big Muff fuzz pedal. I used them both on this song, along with the chorus to create that wall of sound for the song. We added some plate reverb to it. In fact we put the amp facing the plate reverbs so they would vibrate the plates in sympathy and create a bigger sound. At least that’s what we thought it would do. (laughs)

“Short Road to Ruin” from the album “If the Moon had to Run away” – We really wanted to create a hard tight punk sound for this song. Kind of like a salute to The Ramones. Instead it became more spacy and weird. I guess it was us playing a Ramones song, only as we would play it. If that makes sense.
I had just bought an Ibanez Destroyer. It wasn’t the Phil Colin model I wanted, but it was pretty cool. Black with Dimazio’s. Plus, I had bought a 50-watt Marshall head. Because I had read about the Scorpians had preferred 50 watt heads over 100 watt heads. Not sure why, but at the time I thought that sounded good. (laughs).
Those and a Boss DS-1 Distortion pedal formed my ‘crunch’ side and my other stuff was my wall of noise and side. This song was just my crunch side. We played the song about seven times and I think this was the second take. We were all in one room, even Keith. He just stood with us, and sang the song wearing headphones and holding the mic.
I then overdubbed some more guitars to thicken the sound and add some movement to the rhythm. Maybe four total, but it took about three hours. Just to make sure they were tight, we did them piece by piece.

“Blindsided” from the album “ “ This album really grew out of playing so many gigs. To keep the shows fresh to us, we would jam a lot. We would just lock into a groove and improvise over it. Looking back it wasn’t that brilliant, but it was a blast to play. Almost every night, at least once, we would just lock into something so tight and suddenly it would transcend and become something amazing. We would be following each other so tightly, that we could change to something new so perfectly it would seem as though we had practiced it a hundred times. Instead it be the first we played it.
Anyways, this song comes directly from that time. That’s why it kind of pulses along. I had added a Boss Delay pedal and I used it on the song to create that rhythmic sound.
We had been listening to a lot of Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd at this time. So that’s why the album has an odd psychedelic quality. We were playing “Insterstellar Overdrive” at our shows during that time.
On this tour we played that song, “Waiting for the man”, and “Drugs” almost every night.

“Altamont High”