The Three O'Clock
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The Three O'Clock is a defunct United States rock group associated with the Los Angeles 1980s Paisley Underground scene. Lead singer and bassist Michael Quercio is credited with coining the term "Paisley Underground"[1] to describe a subset of the 1980s L.A. music scene that included bands such as The Three O'Clock, Dream Syndicate, Rain Parade, Green On Red and the Bangles.
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[edit] History
The Three O'Clock originally formed under the name The Salvation Army in 1981. The original lineup was Quercio (lead vocals, bass), John Blazing (guitar), and Troy Howell (drums). They released a single ("Mind Gardens" b/w "Happen Happened") on The Minutemen's New Alliance label in November, 1981. At this juncture, Quercio was the band's sole songwriter, and the group played mildly psychedelic pop-influenced tunes with a decidedly punk-ish energy.
By the end of the year, Blazing had left and was replaced by Gregg Gutierrez, later known as Louis Gutierrez. This line-up of The Salvation Army was signed to LA-area independent label Frontier Records and released a self-titled debut LP in May of 1982.
The band was forced to change their name from "Salvation Army" in the summer of 1982, due to legal problems with the actual Salvation Army. Almost exactly coincident with the August 1982 name change to The Three O'Clock, Howell left the band and Mike Mariano (keyboards, ex-Great Buildings) and Danny Benair (drums, ex-The Quick) joined. Frontier would later reissue the Salvation Army LP under the group name Befour Three O'Clock in 1986, and again in 1992.
Still signed to Frontier, The Three O'Clock issued their 'debut' EP Baroque Hoedown in late 1982, followed by a full length LP in 1983, entitled Sixteen Tambourines. Both the EP and LP were produced by Earle Mankey, and tracks from these releases received some airplay in certain Southern California markets (notably on LA's KROQ, which played "Jet Fighter" from Sixteen Tambourines.) The Three O'Clock had now developed into more of a power-pop ensemble, with definite 1960s garage band influences. Quercio and Gutierrez co-wrote almost all the band's material, with occasional assists from Mariano.
The Three O'Clock then signed to the internationally-distributed I.R.S. Records for their next album, 1985's Arrive Without Travelling.
Gutierrez departed in 1986, and was replaced by Steven Altenberg for 1986's Ever After, which was produced by Ian Broudie. The band was now refining their sound to a more polished version of baroque-power-pop, and Quercio once again was the band's chief songwriter.
Subsequently, Jason Falkner was brought in to replace Altenberg for the Ian Ritchie-produced Vermillion, the band's major-label debut on Prince's Paisley Park Records label in 1988. Prince himself contributed a song to Vermillion, writing "Neon Telephone" under the pseudonym "Joey Coco". However,Vermillion failed to make a substanital impact on the charts, and the band broke up shortly after its release.
Quercio continued to play in L.A. pop bands, briefly joining Game Theory in 1990 before founding Permanent Green Light, and later The Jupiter Affect. Gutierrez played with Louis and Clark and then became a principal member of Mary's Danish. Falkner joined Jellyfish, then The Grays, before launching a successful solo record career in the mid-1990s.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
as The Salvation Army:
- The Salvation Army (1982) Frontier Records
as Befour Three O'Clock
- Befour Three O'Clock (1986) Reissue of Salvation Army LP
- Happen Happened (1992) CD Reissue of Salvation Army LP, plus 9 bonus tracks
as The Three O'Clock
- Baroque Hoedown (EP) (1982) (Frontier Records)
- Sixteen Tambourines (1983) (Frontier Records)
- Arrive Without Travelling (1985) (I.R.S. Records)
- Ever After (1986) (I.R.S. Records)
- Vermillion (1988) (Paisley Park Records)
