Brownsville Station is an American

rock band A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two guita ...

from

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

popular in the 1970s. Original members included Cub Koda (

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

vocalist Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

), Mike Lutz (guitarist/vocalist), T.J. Cronley (

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...

), and Tony Driggins (

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a Bass (instrument), bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboar ...

/vocals). Later members included Henry "H-Bomb" Weck (

) and

Bruce Nazarian Bruce Nazarian (March 27, 1949 – October 8, 2015) was an American funk and rock musician, recording artist and music producer from Detroit, Michigan. Nazarian was an Apple Certified Trainer and Certified Pro on various professional application ...

(

). They are primarily remembered for the top-10 hit single " Smokin' in the Boys Room" (1973).

History

Early history

Brownsville Station was formed in

Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County, Michigan, Washtenaw County. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851. It is the principal city of the Ann Arbor ...

, in 1969. Brownsville Station's early albums included song covers from bands which had inspired them.Erlewine, Stephen. "Brownsville Station" Allmusic.com. Retrieved 19 August 2009. In 1970, they released their debut studio album, ''No BS'', on a Warners Bros. label. Their biggest hit, " Smokin' in the Boys Room", written by Michael Lutz & Cub Koda, from their 1973 album '' Yeah!'', reached No. 3 on

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

''Billboard'' Hot 100

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

and No. 27 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. The track sold over two million copies and was awarded a gold disc status by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

on 15 January 1974.

Later history

In 1977, Brownsville Station recorded "Martian Boogie", one of their seven singles to chart on the Hot 100. The song was also a feature on

Dr. Demento Barret Eugene Hansen (born April 2, 1941), known professionally as Dr. Demento, is an American radio broadcaster and record collector specializing in novelty songs, comedy, and strange or unusual recordings dating from the early days of phonograp ...

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

show. "(Lady) Put The Light On", their penultimate single, also charted in the Hot 100, at 46. After drummer Cronley left the band,

Van Wert, Ohio Van Wert is a city in and the county seat of Van Wert County, Ohio, United States. The municipality is located in northwestern Ohio approximately 77 mi (123 km) SW of Toledo and 34 mi (54 km) SE of Fort Wayne, Indiana. The po ...

, native Henry "H-Bomb" Weck was called on to fill the position left by Cronley. The band's second-highest Billboard charting single was "Kings of the Party" which topped out at No. 31 in 1974. Original members of Brownsville Station disbanded in 1979 and their final studio album together, ''Air Special'', was released by Epic in 1978. Cub Koda was the most visible Brownsville Station member after their break up. He recorded a number of solo albums and toured with his own group The Points as well as blues man Hound Dog Taylor's backing band The Houserockers. His solo repertoire included the albums ''Cub Koda and the Points'', ''It's the Blues'', ''Box Lunch'' and the career spanning compilation ''Welcome to My Job''. In addition, Koda, a rabid collector of rockabilly, doo wop and blues, wrote liner notes for numerous retro releases (including Jimmy Reed,

Freddy Cannon Frederick Anthony Picariello, Jr. (born December 4, 1936), better known by his stage name Freddy Cannon, is an American rock and roll singer, whose biggest international hits included "Tallahassee Lassie", " Way Down Yonder in New Orleans", and " ...

and

The Kingsmen The Kingsmen are a 1960s rock band from Portland, Oregon, United States. They are best known for their 1963 recording of R&B singer Richard Berry's "Louie Louie", which held the No. 2 spot on the ''Billboard'' charts for six weeks and ha ...

) and countless music reviews for the

All Music Guide AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

series of books and website. He also wrote a popular column ("The Vinyl Junkie") for Goldmine magazine and co-authored the book ''Blues For Dummies''. In addition, he hosted ''The Cub Koda Crazy Show'' for Massachusetts radio station WCGY during a period in the early 80s. Koda died of kidney disease in July 2000 at the age of 51. Mike Lutz went on to

produce Produce is a generalized term for many farm-produced crops, including fruits and vegetables (grains, oats, etc. are also sometimes considered ''produce''). More specifically, the term ''produce'' often implies that the products are fresh and g ...

many bands, including

Ted Nugent Theodore Anthony Nugent (; born December 13, 1948) is an American rock musician and activist. He initially gained fame as the lead guitarist and occasional lead vocalist of The Amboy Dukes, a band formed in 1963 that played psychedelic rock an ...

's '' Spirit of the Wild'' album, and toured in the 1990s with Nugent. Lutz still resides in Ann Arbor, teaches guitar and bass at a local music store called Oz's Music, writes and produces many acts. While still in Brownsville Station, Henry Weck engineered and co-produced the ''Strikes'' album for

Blackfoot The Blackfoot Confederacy, ''Niitsitapi'' or ''Siksikaitsitapi'' (ᖹᐟᒧᐧᒣᑯ, meaning "the people" or " Blackfoot-speaking real people"), is a historic collective name for linguistically related groups that make up the Blackfoot or Bla ...

, which produced two hit singles, "Highway Song" and "Train Train" (on which Koda played harmonica). Weck continues to record and produce in Memphis, in Ann Arbor at Lutz's Tazmania Studios and is the co-driving force of the re-united Brownsville Station. After T. J. Cronley left Brownsville Station, he spent a career in the U.S. Marine Corps as a Marine aviator, and retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1992. He is currently a pilot for FedEx and resides in

Yuma, Arizona Yuma ( coc, Yuum) is a city in and the county seat of Yuma County, Arizona, United States. The city's population was 93,064 at the 2010 census, up from the 2000 census population of 77,515. Yuma is the principal city of the Yuma, Arizona, M ...

. He is also an artist. Bruce Nazarian went on to produce, engineer and perform with his band " The Automatix", who released their debut LP on MCA in 1983. He was the CEO of Digital Media Consulting Group and ran a popular digital media website "TheDigitalGuy.com". Nazarian also produced and hosted The Digital Guy radio show in addition to being a music producer, concert impresario and artist manager. His last band, "The Brotherhood" is slated to release their debut CD "(It's) All About The Groove" in early 2016. Nazarian died in October 2015. In 2008, Brownsville Station was inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame. Through the band's early days, Weck captured over 500 hours of Brownsville demos, rehearsals, live shows and even some special events. In 2012, Lutz and Weck began sorting through the recordings in Lutz's Tazmania Studio. The result is Still Smokin', featuring new songs and updated versions of the band's "My Friend Jack" and “Smokin’ In The Boys Room”. Augmented by new players Billy Craig, Arlen Viecelli and Brad Johnson, Brownsville Station returned to the road in 2013.

In popular culture

In the television series '' King of the Hill'', Brownsville Station is part of the subplot of "Hank Fixes Everything" (Season 10, Episode 10), reuniting for the "Still Smokin' in the Boys Room" tour (incidentally, when the band reunited for real in 2012, their subsequent album would be titled ''Still Smokin). The band is a favorite of the character Lucky (voiced by

Tom Petty Thomas Earl Petty (October 20, 1950October 2, 2017) was an American musician who was the lead vocalist and guitarist of the rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, formed in 1976. He previously led the band Mudcrutch, was a member of the lat ...

), who camps outside the ticket booth to purchase seats for prime viewing of Mike Lutz playing guitar.

Influences

Brownsville Station's early influences included Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley,

Jerry Lee Lewis Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935October 28, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Nicknamed "The Killer", he was described as "rock & roll's first great wild man". A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis made ...

, and other 1950s rock and roll musicians. Koda's onstage antics influenced many rockers including

Peter Wolf Peter Wolf (born March 7, 1946) is an American musician best known as the lead vocalist of the J. Geils Band from 1967 to 1983 and as a solo artist. Early life and education Peter Wolf was born Peter Walter Blankfield on March 7, 1946 in The ...

and

Alice Cooper Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer whose career spans over five decades. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusions, including pyrotechnics, guillot ...

Band members

* Mike Lutz (1969–1979, 2012–present) - guitar, lead vocals, bass, keyboards * Henry "H Bomb" Weck (1972–1979, 2012–present) - drums, vocals
Billy Craig
(2012–present) - guitar, vocals * Arlen Viecelli (2013–present) - guitar, vocals * Brad Johnson (2013–present) - bass, vocals

Former members

* Cub Koda (1969–1979; died 2000) - guitar, lead vocals, harmonica * T.J. Cronley (1969–1971) - drums * Tony Driggins (1969–1972) - bass, vocals *

(1975–1979; died 2015) - guitar, lead vocals, keyboards, bass *

Andy Patalan Andrew Patalan (born March 14, 1970) is an American musician best known as the guitarist and backing vocalist for the alternative rock band Sponge. He also is a founding member of Solid Frog and Throttlebody. He was also the guitarist for Bro ...

(2012–2013) - guitar, vocals

Timeline

Discography

Albums

Compilations

* 1993: ''Smokin' In the Boys Room: The Best of Brownsville Station'' * 2003: ''Smokin' In the Boys Room and Other Hits'' * 2005: ''Smokin' In the Boys Room'' * 2006: ''Rhino Hi-Five: Brownsville Station''

Singles

References

External links

*
brownsville station , Unofficial Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brownsville Station 1969 establishments in Michigan Big Tree Records artists Hard rock musical groups from Michigan Music of Ann Arbor, Michigan Musical groups from Michigan Musical groups established in 1969 Musical groups disestablished in 1979 Musical groups reestablished in 2012 Private Stock Records artists