“No!” - The Human Switchboard (1978)
“The story of Ohio’s Human Switchboard would make a great screenplay — a trio of Velvet Underground devotees start a band, get signed, release one critically acclaimed, but low-selling LP … after splitting, the founder/lead singer works his way up through the record industry to become president of a major label … only to be charged and sent to jail for hiring a detective to tap his girlfriend’s telephone….”
popdose.com
True, the story of Bob Pfeifer, starting out as the singer of an indie garage rock/punk/new wave trio and then becoming the big shot president of Disney-owned Hollywood Records, only to face his downfall and serve time in a federal prison after being involved in the infamous Anthony Pellicano Hollywood scandal by hiring the high-profile LA private investigator to destroy his ex-girlfriend’s life, might sound like the stuff that movies are made of (record bosses, spurned lovers, prostitutes, drugs and private eyes? This sounds like a real-life Ray Donovan season material), but now that you took the bait, let’s focus on the music of this obscure trio, a band so diverse in sound that sometimes it echoed the mid-’60s garage punk while other times they drew comparisons to the Velvet Underground, influenced by the early punk scene, as well as new wave and power pop at the same time.
That being said, enjoy this farfisa-soaked late-’70s garage punk rock blast.
