Date: Fri 28-Feb-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Illustration: C

Location: A11

Quick Words:

band-Mind-Tydes-Radio-104

Full Text:

(feature on Newtown band Mind Tydes, winners of Radio 104 contest, 3/28/97)

Mind Tydes: The New Warriors Of Modern Rock

(with photos)

BY SHANNON HICKS

It is a fact of life: Fate and irony sometimes deal us lousy hands, while at

other times we get the hand of a lifetime.

For the four members of Mind Tydes, a modern rock band based in Newtown, fate

has dealt these guys a golden hand. They are sitting at the table holding a

full house and it's time to show what they possess to the rest of the world.

In June, the rest of the world - or at least the crowd that pulls in to

Riverside Amusement Park in Agawam, Mass., for the annual Radio 104 Fest -

will be able to see just why Mind Tydes has been named the winners of the

Hartford radio station's Modern Rock Wars contest.

Details for this year's Radio 104 Fest have not yet been released by the

station concerning who will be performing at this year's all-day

festival-style event. The only thing the station's promotions director will

admit as of this week is, "Last year we plugged the event as 15 bands for 15

bucks... This year it's going to be even bigger!"

The fate part, of course, is the opportunity the boys have been given by

winning the contest. Not only will they be performing on the main stage at

Riverside during the festival, but they have also been awarded time at Trod

Nossle studios in Wallingford to record a demo tape.

The irony is that while each of the four Mind Tydes members have been

performing music in one vein or another for over a decade, Mind Tydes as a

band did not come together until less than a week before the recording of a

promo tape that was sent in for the radio-sponsored contest.

"We were a band for about five days," said Grady McAuliffe, singer, rhythm

guitarist, principal lyricist and creator of the Mind Tydes moniker. "The

contest just sped up the process."

The rest of the band is made up of Fred Dotson on guitar, Adam Solinas on

bass, and drummer Greg McWilliam. They play, they say, mostly original modern

rock. For Modern Rock Wars, the set list was all originals.

Making War

Radio 104 (104.1 FM), the first full-time modern rock station in the state,

hosted the second and third rounds of its Modern Rock Wars last month at The

Russian Lady in Hartford. The "wars" was a contest among local bands, all

unsigned acts who have yet to make it big. On March 13, Radio 104 announced

Mind Tydes as the winner's of the station's first-ever local band competition.

The radio station has always been a huge proponent of local bands. In fact,

one of its regular Sunday night shows, "Locals Only," presents performances by

local bands across the state. While the show was off the air during all stages

of the Modern Rock Wars, "Locals Only" is scheduled to resume its regular

schedule this weekend.

Michael O'Connor, the promotions director for Radio 104, was a producer/judge

of the contest and a main organizer of the competition.

"The idea behind Modern Rock Wars was to promote and pump up the idea that we

really do have some incredible local bands," he said. "We're always doing

stuff with local bands.

"Alternative music is basically based on garage bands. People will be playing

for ten to 12 years before they get that big break," he continued. "That's our

kind of music, so instead of having them wait another five or ten years, we

tried to cut it down a bit."

Mr O'Connor worked with the radio station's music director, Dave Hill, and

program director JayBeau Jones, in selecting the bands for competition. The

same trio handled judging of the live performances.

Modern Rock Wars consisted of three phases. Phase one of the contest was

earlier this year, when local bands across the area (though it broadcasts from

Hartford, Radio 104's frequency reaches well into Massachusetts and out to

Long Island, N.Y.) were invited to submit demo tapes to the radio station.

Over 400 bands sent tapes in.

Phases two and three had the station's listeners driving into Hartford to

listen to the bands chosen, 12 total, with three bands performing each

Thursday night over the course of four weeks. During this, the semifinals

round, one winner was selected each night, and advanced to the final round.

Mind Tydes performed in the first week of the contest, taking the stage

February 6 along with Bed of Silence and Pavlov's Dog. The finals were March

13, with the Newtowners performing against the bands Rane, Peloria and My Own

Grenade.

"Each of the semifinal rounds was a week apart, so I could step back a

little," Mr O'Connor said. "If I'd had to judge all 12 at once, it would have

been tough."

Bands were judged on their unique sound, originality and creativity. While it

is not a sound that receives as much airplay as some other sounds, ska bands

seemed to have caught the producers' ears. Two of the four finalists at The

Russian Lady, Mind Tydes and Peloria, were "somewhat ska," Mr O'Connor said. A

third band in the finals, My Own Grenade, was described as ska/punk, with the

emphasis on punk.

At the semifinals, Mind Tydes performed an eight-song set consisting of the

songs "Black Honey," "Behind Her Smile," "Churn," "Orange Pippin" (during

which Grady's mom, Lenore, was brought up onstage to help her son on vocals)

"In Tune," "Gray Days," "Darkness In Mountains" and "Flowers." The first six

aforementioned compositions comprised the set list for the finals.

"The music [Grady] writes is interesting. It's an eclectic mix of classic and

modern rock, with a Pearlesque sound," said Mr O'Connor. His term "Pearlesque"

refers to the Seattle superband Pearl Jam's obvious influences to most of

today's modern rock.

Another bit of fate: The morning of February 6, Mr O'Connor said, Grady called

the station and told the promotions director he was dealing with laryngitis

and did not think the band would be up for performing that night. What Grady

did not realize initially, Mr O'Connor said, was that not performing that

night would have meant Mind Tydes would be dropped from the competition

altogether.

Instead, Grady and the guys pulled together, and the competition was on.

"Their professionalism right there impressed me," Mr O'Connor said.

Mr O'Connor said Mind Tydes, both in the semifinal and final rounds, "blew

[him] away" with their performances. He felt the competition was good, that

each band stood out on its own, and regarded Mind Tydes as "real solid."

The Russian Lady has a small front in downtown Hartford but, with four floors

of inside space, can hold quite a crowd. Each floor generally plays host to a

specific style of music on any given night.

During the five nights Modern Rock Wars was presented, the club was highly

populated in all areas, but the heart of the crowd congregated to the second

floor, where the contest was being held, each night.

"The response from the public [for Modern Rock Wars] says they want

competitions like this," Mr O'Connor said. "I think having us put it on gave

it some credibility, but local bands is definitely something more people want

to hear from."

Diverse Backgrounds

Prior to Modern Rock Wars, Mind Tydes had practiced as a group only a few

times, and its first time playing in public was actually February 6... the

initial night Mind Tydes competed at The Russian Lady.

Mind Tydes' rhythm section had been together for about a year, and most of the

members had known each other while growing up in town. A band was beginning to

take shape - without a defined drummer, since McWilliam is going to college in

North Carolina these days - but nothing had really coalesced until only

recently.

Other than the fact they come from Newtown, the musical backgrounds of the

band members are about as diverse as the music heard from one end of a radio

dial to the other. Greg McWilliam played bagpipes when he was 11 years old. He

is a Grade II Bagpipe Player, and traveled as far as Great Britain to compete

before putting the pipes away and starting on the drums at age 12.

Adam Solinas started on the piano, beginning with lessons at age five and

continuing for five years or so. He played clarinet in the middle school band

for two years, switched to guitar, then picked up the bass about four years

ago. He changed over to bass, he says, because it was something he hadn't

tried yet.

Fred Dotson remembers his dad, Fred Dotson, Sr, as always playing the guitar

when he was growing up. The younger Dotson received his first guitar at age

eight and has playing since. His first public performance was when he took the

stage and played the Rolling Stones' "Get Off My Cloud" for a talent show

while a student at Middle Gate School in Newtown.

Singer-songwriter-guitarist Grady McAuliffe is possibly the band's most

outspoken person. A guitar player since age 14, Grady writes the songs for the

band. He seems to be the one with most of the answers concerning the band's

past, present and future.

Grady was also the one who came up with the band's name.

"You know how the glaciers are melting due to global warming, and the water

levels are rising?" Grady challenges. "Basically [our name] is us trying to

get people conscious of what's going on and try to battle against it. It's

about trying to make the environment a better place."

The band was originally called Mind Against The Tides, he admitted, but that

was too close to Rage Against The Machine, another popular - and signed -

modern rock band. So to avoid confusion, the name was rearranged somewhat and

has stuck ever since.

Mind Tydes has already landed its first gig: Thanks to winning the Radio 104

contest, Mind Tydes was contacted by All Access Consulting, a booking firm.

Thanks to All Access, the band played at the Webster Theatre in Hartford last

Saturday night along with four other bands, including Mighty Purple.

Rehearsals for the next four weeks are going to be a bit tricky for Mind

Tydes. Greg has one more month to finish up studies at St. Andrews College in

Laurinburg, N.C., before he is off for summer break. Which means the band will

have about five weeks for rehearsals before the big Radio 104 Fest in Agawam.

But that's four weeks more than they took to rehearse for the competition last

month, and look how well that turned out. Besides, Mind Tydes may still have a

few tricks up its collective sleeve. For now, the band seems to have upped the

ante in the local bands front.