UP
''KILLER UP!''
1969-1972
APR 24, 2005
TOTAL ENERGY
1/Just Like an Aborigine [Mix 1]/Up/4:08
2/Do the Sun Dance/Up/3:33
3/Free John Now [Mix 3]/Up/4:03
4/Come On/King, M./3:58
5/C'mon and Swim/Coman, Stewart/3:54
6/Hassan I Sahba/Up/4:01
7/Sisters, Sisters (Sisters Rising)/Up/2:49
8/Together/Up/4:23
9/The Train Kept A Rollin'/Bradshaw, Kay, Mann/4:00
10/Just Like an Aborigine [Mix 2]/Up/4:10
11/I Don't Need You/Up/2:29
12/Never Say Die/Up/4:02
13/Free John Now [Mix 1]/Up/4:07
14/Prayer for John Sinclair/Ginsberg/3:21
Frank Bach/Vocals
Scott Bailey/Drums
Allen Ginsberg/Harmonium, Performer, Recitation
Bob Rasmussen/Guitar (Electric)
Gary Rasmussen/Bass (Electric)
John Sinclair/Producer
Steven Taylor/Guitar, Performer
REVIEW
by Brian J. Bowe
Up is one of those "should've been" bands. Similar in sound to Blue Cheer and political philosophy to MC5, Killer Up represents the complete recordings of the Detroit band from the '60s. Save for two singles, none of this material was released by the band while it was still together between 1967-1973.
Up was closely aligned with MC5, living with them in the White Panther Party commune in Ann Arbor and often sharing the bill with them at area concerts. But while the Five and fellow Michiganders the Stooges got record deals and fame, Up remained a regional act.
The disc features both of Up's singles, plus several songs from a recording session at Head Sound Studios in Ypsilanti, MI, and some live cuts recorded at the Agora Ballroom in Columbus, OH, in 1972.
The sound quality is decent, albeit slightly lo-fi. What the recordings lack in polish, they make up with pure energy. High volume cuts like "Just Like an Aborigine" and "Free John Now" are further examples to back up the argument that punk rock was invented in '60s Detroit.
It's hard to imagine Up gaining a mass audience, but the music on this disc makes one wonder why the band never broke on a large scale outside of the Midwest.
BIOGRAPHY
by Jason Ankeny
Ann Arbor, Michigan-based proto-punks the Up were formed in the spring of 1967 by vocalist Franklin Bach, then the stage manager and announcer at Detroit's famed Grande Ballroom. Rounded out by guitarist Bob Rasmussen, bassist Gary Rasmussen and drummer Vic Peraino (soon replaced by Scott Bailey), the group was managed by David Sinclair, the brother of local White Panther Party leader John Sinclair, and as such their history became inextricably linked with that of local revolutionary rockers the MC5, with the two bands even living together at the same Ann Arbor commune. The Up regularly opened for the MC5 as well, and were the opening act at the legendary September 1968 show at the Union Ballroom that so impressed Elektra Records president Jac Holzman that he offered a contract not only to the Five but also the second act on the bill, the Stooges; as both groups went on to national notoriety, the Up remained mired on the regional circuit, becoming the primary musical outlet for the White Panthers' propaganda after the MC5 broke away from the party. Finally, in 1970 the Up recorded their debut single "Just Like an Aborigine," a blistering cut similar in sound and spirit to the punk records which emerged from Britain at the end of the decade; a second single, "Free John Now!" - a rallying cry in honor of the imprisoned Sinclair -- followed a year later. Although the group disbanded in 1973 - Gary Rasmussen later resurfaced in Sonic's Rendezvous Band - they left behind enough material for a 1995 retrospective LP, Killer Up!
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