Here are six (6) songs recorded by PAROUSIA at Loft Studios, February 1984.
Our studio sessions at Loft were engineered by Jim Sommers, best known to local music fans as the keyboard player from Cock Robin, “the band that rocked the 70’s”. Assisting Jim was Cock Robin’s guitarist, Donnie Peters. It was an impressive studio specially built in a two-story garage. The enormous reverb chamber was located in a completely separate structure near the stairway in the main house.
The recording sessions were brokered by our friend and music mentor, Rick Falcowski. Rick traded advertising space in the popular local music magazine, Buffalo Backstage in exchange for Parousia’s recording time at Loft which, as you can see in the ad, cost $25.00 an hour – – which is nothing today but back in 1984, it was more money than we could afford. Sommers agreed to record six of our new songs using a 16-track reel-to-reel recorder. The songs recorded during this session are:
- Keep Running
- All the Time in the World
- Caesar of the Modern Home
- The Weekend Starts Tonight
- She’s Movin’ Out to L.A.
- People’s Court
Upon hearing the finished mix, Rick Falcowski was very disappointed. He didn’t think there was a hit in the bunch!
Gerry used this opportunity to incorporate some of the emerging technology he was exploring by using Simmons electronic drums as overdubs in the song “Keep Running”. Also, the electronic “barking dog” sample in the middle of “Caesar of the Modern Home” (during the argument between husband and wife of the not-so-distant future) recorded using Gerry’s Radio Shack TRS-80 computerized voice synthesizer module.
Lyric Sheet – The Loft Studio Recordings, Parousia
Garth Huels (guitar) with his demonic T-shirt – Loft Studios Feb. 1984
NIcole Ashley at Loft Studios, 1984 – grabbing for Garth’s privates?
Patt Connolly (Vocals, flute, keyboards) a ‘corner dweller’ at Loft Studios Feb. 1984
Marcia Miller wearing a black satin Parousia Jacket, showing attitude while hangin’ out with the band at Loft Studios Feb. 1984
Buffalo Backstage article Feb. 1984 – Parousia spending ‘tedious hours on our recent recording project at Loft Studio.’
Steve Watts from Radio Free America -bringing Parousia’s music to the countries of the world. In Peru, they thought we were their national band. (Peru-sia?)
WBNY (91.3 FM) music playlist 1985 – We loved hearing our songs on WBNY even though the names of our songs were misspelled… should be “Keep Running” and “Movin’ Out to L.A.” Also featured here, our friends Mark Freeland from his band ‘Electroman’ and David Kane from the band ‘Nullstadt’
Parousia on the air at KMLS radio (101.9 FM) in Carlsbad, CA.
Parousia music reply card from Azra records, Hollywood CA. Azra likes our song “People’s Court” and we couldn’t agree more!
Azra records logo, Hollywood CA
Feedback from Amherst Records in Buffalo, a mentally challenged record label that apparently has a hard time understanding words to a song even when reading the lyrics… WTH?
I had a hard time understanding their logo even while looking at it.
Jim Sommers and Don Peters (from the band Cock Robin) at the controls of Loft Studios. P.S. Hey guys… 30 cents for small bag of stale chips was lot of money to us back in 1984. Just sayin’…
Don (Donnie) Peters, guitarist for Cock Robin and Loft Studios engineer. 1984
Jim Sommers at the controls in Loft Studios Feb. 1984. Nice T-shirt Jim. Yes, we know what you like…
Jim Sommers Loft engineer and Cock Robin keyboardist, 1984
Jim Sommers and Don Peters from the band that rocked the 70’s – Cock Robin
Yes, $25.00 an hour is more than us starving musicians could afford. Good thing Backstage Magazine was paying for our recording time.
Loft Studios – 48 Dellwood PL. in Cheektowaga, NY.
You put more on there since I last looked. Soo good to hear some I saw you perform. The Weekend Starts Tonight is one of my favorites. You and Patt are incredible on that one. Tiffany? Turnaround? I’m waiting… Lol.
Damn. Time warp. Good stuff. Keep Running is excellent. When rock was rock. Congrats, guys. Reunion? I listened to all these. Very nice. The Weekend…wow.
so cool Gerry!
Gerry, the best drum solo I ever saw was you at a theatre type show, where you walked around the entire perimeter of the room, playing on the walls, seats and even some contraption duct taped to your chest. Never forgot that!
Thanks Jim, the show you remember was at the Katharine Cornell Theater at University of Buffalo on April 5th, 1979.
badass is right…I remember you guys being good back in the day, but so glad I can hear your stuff today. It has stood the test of time in my book…badass
Keep Running… great song Gerry.
Thanks Roberto… hey, I just realized that everyone in the thumbnail band photo is a ST. Joseph’s collegiate alumni… freaky!
That is freaky. Keep posting the music. I enjoy listening to it. You were always quite talented my friend.
I had a very enjoyable time being “part” of the recording on that day. I remember clearly getting ready to go. I had just adopted a very special cat, and felt a little bad about leaving him home with my folks. I sort of felt like a rock star myself. Very festive.
I collect a lot of Progressive and Alternative rock bands. I like this band. Catchy stuff. Lots of hooks. I hear elements of Jethro-Tull, Yes, Dream Theater and Honeymoon Suite.
1 of my Favorite Bands from Bflo
They have a pretty nice sound ????????????
When Parousia returned to the studio in 1984, the first track recorded was “The Weekend Starts Tonight”, written by Garth Huels and Patt Connolly and developed by the band at Ultimate Storage on Delaware Ave., 1982-1983.
The storage room was cramped, had no heat or air conditioning and band members were in constant danger of having an eye poked-out by an untrimmed guitar string and yet, also an environment with few distractions, where we could get-down-to-work and fine-tune the structure and style of each new song. Another benefit of rehearsing in a space that small, you couldn’t help but to clearly hear the nuance of the instrument next to you and then respond to it by creating a complimentary part. That was the essence behind the song “The Weekend Starts Tonight”.
It started with one fast and catchy guitar riff, layered with flute. Adding drum and bass syncopation to build the anticipation, then the song explodes into a chugging riff-laden metal-monster, in the form of a rock anthem, created to be the audio-backdrop for partying on any night of the week, be it the weekend or not!
Thanks to Jim and Donny, the two engineers at Loft Studios in Cheektowaga, NY. They helped bring into reality the band’s concept of a heavy-metal progressive rock-anthem, with flute as the lead instrument. “The Weekend Starts Tonight” is featured on Parousia’s “LOFT” album and is the band’s most “liked” song out of the six songs recorded at Loft.
In the deepest darkest shadows of Ultimate Storage, the song “People’s Court” was conceived by Garth Huels, a heavy metal monster developed by the band to be an “anthem song.” From the list of songs considered to make-it onto 16-track, the band chose “People’s Court” because of the groove it created. A slow-grinding beat beneath an infectious riff of driving guitar layered with percussive flute. “People’s Court” intended to be a song about injustice in the legal system and the growing wealth dichotomy In America. Even in the news today, there are stories revealing two systems of justice, one for the well-connected and another for the rest of us. “People’s Court” is the second most popular track from the LOFT album, live-streamed across the U.S., Canada and Internationally.
The song ‘Keep Running’ is the third track from the Loft recordings and ended up being the band’s featured progressive-rock song out of the six tracks recorded for the album. ‘Keep Running’ was engineered and mixed at Loft Studios in Cheektowaga, NY by Jim Sommers and Donnie Peters (both musicians from the local rock band Cock Robin). The main drums were recorded using a seven-piece North Drum kit, with Simmons SDS-8 electronic drums layered on top. It was the band’s first song using electronic drums to supplement the sound (after-all it was the 80’s). The decision to use the drums in the recording was done on a whim, as the SDS-8 drum module had only just arrived in the studio that same day. Patt laid-down the main keyboard part using a miniature CASIO purchased from Hills department store. (It was so ‘miniature’, you could barely fit your fingers on the keys). The CASIO generated only four sounds and that was one of them. We laid down the rhythm track in two-takes and then over-dubbed the lead-guitar and harmony vocals. Everyone was so pleased with the recording that the band recorded a concept video to the song. (A major under-taking at the time). All of the principal photography was completed in Buffalo, NY at “The Chamber” (a warehouse located in a lumber-yard parking-lot at the corner of Kenmore and Elmwood), then drove out to Texas to finish photography and edit / master the project onto a ¾ inch U-Matic video-tape at the Warner Brothers annex studio in Dallas. (A very special thanks to the Filippone brothers, Gregg & Randy for their production work). The video was transferred onto 1-inch Type-C video tape when it became scheduled to premiere on the MTV “Basement Tapes” segment but that was almost a year away and when MTV changed its programming, they dumped the segment and with it, Parousia’s ‘Keep Running’ video. Shortly thereafter, ‘Keep Running’ was picked-up by the newly formed “BTV” (Buffalo TV on UHF) hosted by local musician, Don Tomasulo.
The fourth track from the “Loft” album is “She’s Moving out to L.A.” recorded at Loft Studios, Cheektowaga, NY, 1984. This song intended to be the band’s first “pop-rock” release but never sold as well as the first two tracks. The music and lyrics (written by Gerry Cannizzaro and Patt Connolly) tell a bitter/sweet story of an ambitious woman, pushing aside all else to pursue her dream in Hollywood. The song “Moving Out to L.A.” is part 1 of two-part series. Part 2, titled, “Rock Bottom” was recorded in 1985 for the “Life is the Real” album. Upon finishing “Moving Out To L.A. the band believed it was a strong candidate for the Top-40 pop-rock genre. Naturally the band was disappointed when the executive producer, after listing to all six songs on the album, looked up from his pensive stare at the cassette player and said, “I don’t hear a single hit on here.” You could hear the collective >sigh< coming from the band...
Hey, I like that one!
I like it ! Band sound’s great.???????? ????????
1 mans Opinion!!
RE: “All The Time In The World”
This is a great song. I think YES (90125 – Big Generator era) could have done this.