ROCKIN' BRICKS

Rockin' Bricks (Pete Tomlinson, Joe Hosey, Chris Breetveld, and Bill DiMartino) were an actual New Brunswick band — I mean as opposed to being from Long Branch or something, like so much of the scene's ilk — from 1979-85. If I'd never heard them, I'd guess from this limited information that they were power pop, like the Records or the Shoes (or more locally, the Smithereens), and they were. But in fact I had heard them, since they made a few records and their "Heartbeat" was often played on WRSU during my extended stay in New Brunswick. What kept them from success probably came down to a lack of resources, management, or unwillingness to endlessly tour the world. Or maybe they had too many unexpected chord changes for radio; you kept getting thrown off kilter. But Pete Tomlinson's legacy is assured for publicizing the NB local scene with his "Rockbeat" column in The Home News at a time when the scene was in its infancy. For more on that and the Bricks, see Paul Devlin's Rockin' Brunswick blog.

No computer graphics required in the Bricks flyers. "The Last Cha-Cha in New Brunswick" promo (from 1984, which looks to be a farewell, except that the other flyer is from 1985) actually seems to have been "typeset" using an IBM Selectric typewriter. And primitive though the "One Stop 1985 Tour" flyer may be, it's a perfect encapsulation of "New Wave"-era graphics, with type and images flying at you from every angle.

[CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE]