THE MAD DADDYS

From the Mad Daddys MySpace bio: "If you were even peripherally involved in the New Jersey rock 'n' roll scene during the 1980s or 90s, The Mad Daddys need no introduction. Year after year, the one constant in an erratic and ever-changing scene was the Mad Daddys. There was a long parade of guitarists, bass players, and drummers over the years, but the driving force behind it all was the man known to friends and fans around the world as Stinky Sonobuoni."

The late Stinky Sonobuoni, a.k.a. Frederick Kreiss, as anyone familiar with the Mad Daddys knows ("Life is short," begins the Mad Daddys' "A New Kind Of Kick," and no kidding). A Perth Amboy band with NYC aspirations and beyond, the Mad Daddys were more popular in Europe than stateside, but they were a foundation of the New Brunswick scene. And they were no acquired taste, being pure Psychobilly: you either got it or you didn't. For the darker contingent of New Brunswick, whose 1980s icons included the Gun Club, Cramps, Black Snakes, and many others, the Daddys were a tonic.

Coming up a little short in the art department, I had nothing to show for the Daddys (other than a poster I made for the Smarties in 1997), so I cheated a bit here. The flyer on the left is from 1999, but is indistinguishable from their 80s promotions. The other is ripped from Eric Gladstone's vast archive of LSD flyers.