THE ‘TRUE STORY’ of the MAD VIOLETS

The Mad Violets were formed in 1982 by Dino Sorbello and Wendy Wild when they met at PRIVATES, a NYC nightclub on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where she was the MC and he was…the busboy. A common interest in psychedelic music and mushrooms started them off writing songs together and forming a band. There were several line-ups, first of which included Fleshtones guitarist Keith Streng on drums and his wife Judy Streng on bass. That changed quickly. Eventually it became Wendy on vocals and Casio keyboard, which she carried in her right hand while playing with her left while singing, and Dino on guitars and vocals. The rhythm section were from then-current critics’ darlings The Cyclones, “Big Daddy” Dan Reich on drums, and Mark Seligman on bass. This line-up recorded three songs, each released on different compilation albums, which was a primary way of reaching new audiences at the time. Other material from this time is also featured on the Tripwave! Records CD ‘Season Of The Mad Violets’.

Early Mad Violets shows took place at loft parties, art galleries, and the infamous club The Dive on West 29th St, where they shared the scene with other local luminaries such as The Fuzztones, The Cheepskates, Headless Horsemen, The Vipers, The Tryffles, The Outta Place and others too cool to be mentioned etc etc…they quickly distinguished themselves as the one band that featured ORIGINAL material where most were content to play “textbook garage” covers of obscure classics. Their fungicidally-inspired ‘Psilocybe’ is perhaps the one song they are best remembered for, where Wendy assumed the role of High Priestess and handed out mushroom communion to the faithful as they would line up before the stage!

The Mad Violets often made trips to Boston and stops along the way, playing often at the famous Rat, often with Boston band The Prime Movers. With The ‘Movers they also embarked upon the very surreal, oh yes, tour of the Midwest in that portion of Bomp! Records ‘Battle Of The Garages Tour’ series in September 1984. On another night they became banned from Hobokens’ Maxwells club after Wendy took to the stage occupied by LA’s Dream Syndicate, carrying a vacuum cleaner and playing it air guitar style with them! The promoter thought she was mocking them, the Village Voices’ Pick show band of the week, suggesting they ‘sucked’….

Eventually, the trip ended. The band disbanded in late 1984. There was an aborted attempt to ‘revive’ the band without Dino, using ex-Levi & The Rockkats guitarist Danny Harvey to record a mistaken ep for Voxx Records. It doesn’t totally suck, but it ain’t The Mad Violets. The Vibe had moved on.

The current CD release ( look up compact disc) on Tripwave! Records was compiled by searching thru all remaining recordings, demos, gigs, rehearsals and some cool artwork by Wendy herself (RIP). It is a tribute to Wendy who passed away from breast cancer in 1997. Besides The Mad Violets, she will be remembered for her ultra-zany performance-art antics in the East Village, and her other projects such as Pulsallama and Das Furlines.

An excerpt from a brief autobiography from Wendy. Seems appropriate to add here :

“It was now the summer of ’83 and the scent of psychedelia was in the air. I formed a new band with Dino Sorbello, The Mad Violets. Our first gig was at Lucky Strike gallery where we threw our mushrooms to the audience. This worked to our advantage because by the time we launched into “The Trip” the crowd was half-naked and tripping their asses off! We had to put towels on the drums because of the noise complaints that they received, but no one said how long we could play, which ended up being about 4 hours.

When we were booked to play in Worcester, we couldn’t find the place because there were no signs for “Wooster” on the map. Finally we turned off the highway to ask a gas station attendant where the hell we were and, of course, we were in the right place but it was nearly midnight. We made it to the club but couldn’t help notice all the skinheads who had come to see us. We were billed as “Mad Violence” from NYC. Again we gave out mushrooms. It was fun to see them stage-diving to the psychedelic music that we played.“