The Suburban Kids – LOUIE of the Week

This week’s LOUIE of the Week has a lot of different things going for it. FIrst, it’s a rare version of the song, which performed live at KFJC Open Mike show, then played again as part of the KFJC Maximum LOUIE LOUIE marathon of 1983*.

Second, this version is by The Suburban Kids, the first band that featured Scott Long, the future singer-songwriter that went on to form the Frontier Wives, one of the more popular bands to emerge from the San Jose music scene during the late-80s to mid-90s.

Third, this version is actually a medley that includes “Hang On Sloopy,” which should excite some of my friends in Ohio, where this song was declared the “official rock song of Ohio” (which by the way was directly inspired by efforts in the state of Washington to transform “LOUIE LOUIE” into the official state song for Washington).

Along with Scott Long, other members of the band included Rob Millard, Eric Gustavson, & Dan Casey. A big thank you goes to Denise Vaughan for sharing this rare photograph.

I’ve determined that this was KFJC version #609 of the 880+ versions that was played during the 63 hour marathon of August 1983. You can hear this version by clicking on the cassette graphic or simply clicking here.

You might recall that I mentioned the Frontier Wives in previous blog postings. That’s a band that continues to perform, typically at least once a year in the San Jose region. Scott lives in New York these days, where he runs a successful music booking agency for a variety of different performers. Earlier this year, Scott put together a series of reunion shows on the West Coast for Wire Train and Translator.

Another member of the Frontier Wives is Lex van den Berghe, who became one of the big finalists on the Survivor TV show. Lex is also part of a new band called Maids of Honor, which features Greg Camp, formerly of Smashmouth. I suspect they’ll be getting a lot of attention in the near future.

Here’s a clip I shot of the Frontier Wives in 1991, performing a song called “Louis Pasteur.” If I didn’t already mention this song in a past blog posting, I probably would have named it as a “LOUIE of the Week.”

Instead, I’ll just include it as part of this Suburban Kids posting…. an extra LOUIE, so to speak!

By the way, if you go to the Encyclopedia.com page for “Louis Pasteur,” you will see this video there.

Kind of a strange, but cool place to see one of my videos, don’t you think?

* – Updated description that now mentions the open mike premiere of this song.