Posts Tagged ‘Daybreakers’

What, Me Retro?

Tuesday, November 24th, 2015

I was watching the pilot of the Cinemax QUARRY with my wife, son and daughter-in-law (don’t tell HBO), and Barb turned to me when the character the Broker first entered and nudged me and smiled and said: “You did that.”

Well, I did, but a long, long time ago. About 43 years. At the Writers Workshop in Iowa City, where the instructor didn’t like the opening chapters I’d written very much, and most of the class wasn’t wild about it either.

At 67, I suddenly find myself aware of how very long I’ve been doing this, and am gratified that suddenly a lot of what I’d thought to be ephemeral works of mine are turning back up in print, and getting on the radar of a new generation or two of readers. Some of what I’ve written has almost by definition been ephemeral – specifically the movie novelizations and TV tie-in’s – though SAVING PRIVATE RYAN remains in print and a publisher is seeking permission from DreamWorks to do a hardcover edition.

But almost everything else with my byline is available again or soon will be, much of it from Thomas & Mercer, but also such boutique publishers as Perfect Crime, Speaking Volumes and Brash Books.

For these weekly updates, I routinely do a Google search to see what reviews and such have popped up on the Net, for me to provide links here. More and more I am surprised to find write-ups about older books of mine. It’s almost jarring, because often the reviewers are more familiar with the work than I now am.

Of course, the new Hard Case Crime editions of the first five Quarry novels have sparked interest, and in particular QUARRY (the first novel) has received some gratifying attention. Here’s one such write-up.

And here’s another.

And one more.

Fairly regularly, somebody comes along and praises either the entire “Disaster Series” or singles out one of the books in particular, like this piece that focuses on THE LUSITANIA MURDERS.

So many of these reviews of older work of mine just seem to appear out of the blue, like this look at the Eliot Ness novel BULLET PROOF.

But nothing could prepare me for this article specifically focusing on the musical side of my years on the planet, discussing both the Daybreakers and Crusin’.

Here, dealing with a somewhat more recent novel, is a nice review of the Jack and Maggie Starr mystery, STRIP FOR MURDER.

Coming full circle, the just published FATE OF THE UNION is pulling in some nice reviews, like this lovely one from Bill Crider, a writer I much admire.

Finally, my pal Ed Gorman brought in Ben Boulden of Gravetapping to review FATE OF THE UNION on Ed’s terrific blog, also a positive review.

M.A.C.

Wrath of Con

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

This weekend in Iowa City, I’ll be a guest at the Iowa City Book Festival.

My programs are:

Adaptation – Books Into Film panel, Sat, July 17 at noon in the Bijou Theater, Iowa Memorial Union. The Bijou is located on the first floor of the IMU. I’ll be appearing with Phil Robinson (Field of Dreams) and Nicholas Meyer (Wrath of Khan).

The Last Lullaby screening, Sun, July 18 at 3 p.m. in the Bijou Theater, Iowa Memorial Union. After the screening I’ll conduct a brief question and answer session with attendees.

You can read more about it here.

Right now I only have two panels set for the San Diego Comic Con (coming up July 21 – 25). And, of course, they are simultaneous.

Yet somehow I will be on both. I’m just that dedicated. Here’s the line-up:

Friday, July 23:

5:00-6:30 Scribe Awards/Media Tie-in Writers Panel— Presenting the fourth annual International Association of Media-Tie-in Writers (IAMTW) “Scribe” awards, honoring such notable franchises as CSI, Criminal Minds, The X-Files, Star Trek, Stargate, Star Wars, and Dr. Who. Nominees on hand include Alina Adams (As the World Turns), Max Allan Collins (G.I. Joe), Keith R. A. DeCandido (Star Trek), Stacia Deutsch (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs), Jeff Mariotte (CSI), Nathan Long (Warhammer), and Dayton Ward (Star Trek). With moderator Collins and awards presenter Lee Goldberg (Monk). Room 4

5:30-6:30Vertigo: On the Edge— Find out what compelling tales comics’ edgiest imprint has in store for you in the months to come! Led by senior VP/executive editor Karen Berger, the all-star lineup of talent includes Rafael Albuquerque (American Vampire), Gabriel Bá (Daytripper), Cliff Chiang (Neil Young’s Greendale), Max Allan Collins (Road to Perdition), Joshua Dysart (Neil Young’s Greendale, Unknown Soldier), Peter Gross (The Unwritten), Matt Kindt (Revolver), Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth), Peter Milligan (Greek Street, Hellblazer), Fabio Moon (Daytripper), Chris Roberson (iZombie), Scott Snyder (American Vampire), Matthew Sturges (Jack of Fables), Jill Thompson (Little Endless), Bill Willingham (Fables) and others. Room 6DE

How will I be on both panels? Well, I’ll be moderating the tie-in panel from 5 to 6, then slipping out during the Scribe Awards and joining the Vertigo panel for its last half hour. See you there – somewhere!

The Daybreakers reunion (on July 10 for the Class of 1970 at the Hotel Muscatine Ballroom) was a big success. Frankly, we killed. We had a very modest rehearsal time to prepare over 30 songs – just one morning and afternoon, plus a sound check the next day – but the crowd was supportive and danced and clapped all night long. We wound up doing three encores, which was tricky since we’d already done the 32 songs we’d learned for the gig. We pulled “You Really Got Me” and “Money” out of our nether storage compartments, and then repeated “Mony Mony.”

Great, great fun playing with these guys again. Chuck Bunn and I still play regularly together in Crusin’, but having drummer Buddy Busch and guitarists Dennis Maxwell and Mike Bridges up on stage with me again was memorable and even moving. Buddy, Denny and Mike were all Class of 1970 grads, and three of our late bandmates – Paul Thomas, Bruce Peters and Terry Beckey – were also in that class. So this was an ideal audience for us, plus Charlie Koenigsacker and a few other hardcore Daybreakers fans showed up, too. Wonderful night. As Paul would have said, “Rock ‘n’ roll happened.”

Check us out with another You Tube clip from our Iowa Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame concert appearance in 2008. We’re doing a song by our late bandmate Bruce Peters, “I Need Somebody.”

M.A.C.

Post July 4 Bangs

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

I’m happy to report two more stellar reviews for THE BIG BANG.

That first-rate writer Mel Odom, whose Bookhound is a lively site combining prose novels and comics, has some lovely and insightful things to say.

Then from Charleston, South Carolina (Mickey’s adopted home state), the Post and Courier gives THE BIG BANG a down-home rave.

Charles Ardai’s latest Hard Case missive has (as usual) gone out to a number of sites, but I’m giving you like a link to my pal Bill Crider’s, which remains among my top, most-visited sites on the net.

A good new small press publisher called Perfect Crime is doing some interesting things, including books by two of my best friends in the business (or anywhere), Ed Gorman and Bob Randisi. Among several Randisi projects is THE SHAMUS AWARD WINNERS volumes 1 and 2. For Nate Heller fans, Volume One may fill in an important gap: included among the stories therein is the Shamus-nominated novella DYING IN THE POST-WAR WORLD, which has never been reprinted before (since its initial appearance in the very out-of-print collection of the same name).

And Quarry fans may be relieved to learn that I’ve signed with Perfect Crime books to reprint the first five Quarry novels in individual volumes. Cover artist will be a guy named Terry Beatty you may have heard of. We are using the re-titling from the Foul Play ‘80s reprints, and PRIMARY TARGET will get a new title, to make it “fit” the titling pattern of the others: QUARRY’S VOTE.

This week will largely be devoted to musical pursuits. I have a rehearsal with Crusin’ early in the week (still prepping for the July 29 Great River Days concert with the XL’s). Then the rest of the week will be spent prepping and rehearsing with the original Daybreakers – Mike Bridges, Buddy Busch, Denny Maxwell, Chuck Bunn and myself – with our first full gig together since 1968. We are playing the Class of 1970 reunion at the ballroom at Hotel Muscatine on Saturday night, July 10. Daybreakers fans who aren’t class of ‘70 grads are welcome to come and pay a five-buck cover…if so, show up around 8 p.m. The boys are coming from hither and yon for this, and it could well be the final appearance of the original line-up.

And, yes, we will be playing “Psychedelic Siren.”

M.A.C.

Still Offensive After All These Years

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

Before I talk about my band Crusin’ appearing at the Riverside (Iowa) Casino last Saturday night – and offending delicate sensibilities – I need to take care of some writing business.

Crimes By Moonlight

Recently I completed “Encore for Murder,” the second Mike Hammer audio novel, and got a lovely phone call about it yesterday from Stacy Keach, who said it contained “the best voiceover ever written for Mike Hammer.” When I stopped crying, I thanked him.

I am working on NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU, the second J.C. Harrow novel right now. Work goes well, not quickly, but steadily. It’s a big book.

Two new short-story anthologies are worthy of your attention.

First, CRIMES BY MOONLIGHT, edited by the rich and famous Charlaine Harris (as Steppenwolf once nonsensically said, “Sookie, Sookie, Sookie, Sookie, Sookie, Sookie, Sue!”), is a supernatural-themed collection from the Mystery Writers of America. It includes the story “Grave Matter” by me and Mickey Spillane. Mickey gets second billing, which has never happened before, but the story has an unusual history.

“Grave Matter” was originally a Mike Danger short story that was written at the request of the comic book company who were then publishing the DANGER comic book. They never did anything with it, for reasons unknown. A few years later, I used the plot for a third-person novella; but the original story went off to live in limbo. Now it has been turned into a Hammer story (which essentially meant doing a universal search-and-replace, Danger into Hammer) for this anthology. Back when it was a Danger story, Mickey’s contribution was a few notes and his approval, so for once I took top billing.

BLOOD, GUTS & WHISKEY from Kensington is a collection of short stories from Thuglit, noir stories from new writers, edited by Todd Robinson. I have provided an introduction that traces the history of the hardboiled short story from Black Mask to the internet. Check it out!

A very nice overview of MS. TREE, with a focus on the trade paperbacks of yore, has popped up on the web. Terry Beatty and I get questioned on this all the time, and we admit to being frustrated that it’s taking so long to get new reprints of the MS. TREE material out there in book form. I can only say that we are again in very serious talks with a reputable publisher.

Blood, Guts, & Whiskey

Probably a good number of the visitors to this site could care less about my rock ‘n’ roll endeavors. Nonetheless, “Psychedelic Siren” – the 1967 Dial Records (an Atlantic subsidiary) by the Daybreakers, written by yours truly – continues to attract cultish attention. Check out this blog entry from musician Bill Kopp.

At our recent Riverside gig, we were announced as having had the “hit single” “Psychedelic Siren” – though the song was only a regional hit, and appearing was the latest version of the band known as Crusin’, not the Daybreakers. So the first thing I did was tell the audience we wouldn’t be playing “Psychedelic Siren.” No riots broke out.

We had determined to do an eclectic bunch of songs, though we led with a pandering “Mony, Mony” (catnip to Midwestern baby boomers) before doing stuff like “She’s Not There” by the Zombies, “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me” by Dusty Springfield, “No Matter What” by Badfinger, “Easy to Be Hard” by Three Dog Night, and “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” by Vanilla Fudge (my favorite heavy band). Not too many bands have ever played both Vanilla Fudge and Bobby Rydell (we also did a blistering “Wild One”).

We were part of a Iowa Rock ‘n’ Roll Music Association “Hall of Fame” show – our one-hour set was one of four. The other bands were solid, but our song choice set us apart (the Wise Guys of Chicago did soul stuff, very well, and the other two bands did solid ‘50s rockabilly).

As with the appearance of the original Daybreakers at the 2008 Iowa Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame induction concert at Arnold’s Park, we differed from the other acts by doing a certain amount of original material. We have always taken pride in being a “real” band. This included a song by the late, great Bruce Peters (“I Need Somebody”), and another by Rob Gal (“I Feel Better”), who is alive and well and I assume still cheerfully deranged. The band began in 1966 and has gone through many changes and members (beginning as the Daybreakers, briefly called Rox, then Crusin’, then the Ones, then Crusin’ again); and along the way some very good songs were written and recorded. Here’s where you can buy a CD collecting a lot of that material. [Prices are post-paid for the continental US. – Nate]

[2013 EDIT: All options temporarily sold out! We’ll recheck our remaining stock and make a new post soon!]

One of the songs we did was a shirt-tail hit of ours. It’s an infamous number called “Pussy Whipped,” which is the story of a henpicked husband. We didn’t write it – it was a Barnes & Barnes tune that Bill Mumy (its co-author) contributed to the band Seduction of the Innocent, which became a crowd pleaser (and stirrer) at various comic cons in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and was featured on our CD GOLDEN AGE. (Band member Steve Leialoha’s relationship with the great artist/writer Trina Robbins somehow survived her feminist-fueled hatred of the song.) It’s sung on the original album by the incredible Miguel Ferrer, and a fine live version is available here.

[2013 EDIT: All options temporarily sold out! We’ll recheck our remaining stock and make a new post soon!]

When THE GOLDEN AGE came out (it’s out of print, unfortunately), KFMH, a very popular eastern Iowa radio station, with a notorious and controversial dj (Steve Bridges – whose antics earned him a TOMORROW SHOW appearance with Tom Snyder) began to play the Seduction of the Innocent version of “Pussy Whipped.” It became a regional hit. I played keyboards and sang harmony on the cut, and this was played up by Bridges. Crusin’ was very active in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, and we began to get requests for the song, and wound up learning it, with me filling in for Miguel as best I could. We even played it live on KFMH on three or four occasions.

The current version of Crusin’ has been paying a lot of attention to our history, doing songs from the Daybreakers to the Rox era (Bruce’s originals were done then) to the Ones version (when Gal was dominant songwriter, with me absent for a year or two), on to the present. Since “Pussy Whipped” was the band’s biggest hit (in its shirttail way) since “Psychedelic Siren,” we have put it back on the list.

We don’t always play it. You don’t want to play the song at a wedding (even as a warning). Nor to you want to make it part of a Valentine’s Day dance. But at a casino – where I understand people are gambling, and children aren’t allowed, and where even smoking is sanctioned – I figured we had an adult audience.

Of course this is the Heartland, and it’s America, where you can get yourself a reality show by having a big butt or sleeping with Hugh Hefner or having way too many kids, where you can form an unintentionally obscenely-titled movement protesting the taxes that have been lowered by the president you despise. So it’s always up for grabs.

Anyway, as for “Pussy Whipped” at Riverside, well, the crowd loved it – we got cheers and applause and there were lots of smiling faces, if mostly male. I made sure my diction was good so that the entire tale got heard, as the emasculated narrator tells his sad story in an amusingly ballsy fashion. Sure enough, while we were quickly tearing down to make room for the next band, a middle-aged woman with glasses and a stony expression approached the stage.

She said, “I want to make a statement. If you have to apologize for doing a song, you shouldn’t do that song. Some people were offended!” She seemed on the verge of tears.

I said, “I wasn’t really apologizing when I introduced the song. That was a joke. It was all meant in good fun.”

She didn’t know what to say, and disappeared off into the crowd.

What can I say? I am 62 years old, still playing “Pussy Whipped,” and offending older women who are probably younger than me.

I must be doing something right.

M.A.C.