The Gizmos were an American punk band formed in

Bloomington, Indiana Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the central region of the U.S. state of Indiana. It is the seventh-largest city in Indiana and the fourth-largest outside the Indianapolis metropolitan area. According to the Mo ...

, United States, in 1976. The original band was made up of Ken Highland, Eddie Flowers, Ted Niemiec and the members of a group called Cerberus; Rich Coffee, Dave Sulak, Rick Czajka, and Jim DeVries. The Gizmos released three 7-inch EPs on Gulcher Records in 1976, 1977, and 1978. In late 1977 the band broke up. Then, Ted Niemiec recruited new members to form a new version of the Gizmos. This version of the band released one EP, "Never Mind The Sex Pistols Here's The Gizmos". After Niemiec left the band, new member Dale Lawrence carried on using the band name with new members.

After the Gizmos

Ken Highland later relocated to Boston, Massachusetts, where he has been in a long string of garage-oriented bands over the years, including Club Linehan a Go-Go, the Hopelessly Obscure, Johnny & the Jumper Cables, the Kenne Highland Clan, the Goody Goody Gumdrops, and the Vatican Sex Kittens. Eddie Flowers and Rich Coffee moved to Los Angeles in the late 1970s and become active in the underground rock scene there. Flowers started Crawlspace with members of the Lazy Cowgirls in 1985. Coffee sang and played in Thee Fourgiven and the Tommyknockers, influenced by late 1960s pre-punk

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest ha ...

bands like the MC5 and

the Doors The Doors were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore. They were among the most controversial and influential rock acts ...

as well as more recent acts like

the Cramps The Cramps were an American rock band formed in 1976 and active until 2006. Their lineup rotated frequently during their existence, with the husband-and-wife duo of singer Lux Interior and guitarist Poison Ivy the only ever-present members. ...

, the Gun Club, and

Billy Childish Billy Childish (born Steven John Hamper, 1 December 1959) is an English painter, author, poet, photographer, film maker, singer and guitarist. Since the late 1970s, Childish has been prolific in creating music, writing and visual art. He has le ...

. The bands of both Coffee and Flowers were associated with the

Sympathy for the Record Industry Sympathy for the Record Industry (also known as Sympathy Records or Sympathy 4 the R.I.) is a mainly independent garage rock and punk label formed in 1988 by Long Gone John. The first Sympathy release was the Lazy Cowgirls' ''Radio Cowgirl'' ...

record label.

Members

Cerberus

*Rich Coffee — guitar, vocals *Rick Czajka — guitar *Dave Sulak — bass *Jim DeVries — drums

Gizmos #1

*Ken Highland — lead guitar, lead vocals *Eddie Flowers — lead vocals *Ted Niemiec — lead vocals *Rich Coffee — rhythm guitar, background vocals *Dave Sulak — bass *Rick Czajka — rhythm/lead guitar (EP1 only) *Davey Medlock — background vocals *Don Jaskulske — background vocals *Jim DeVries — drums #1 *Jim Kohl — drums #2

Gizmos #2

*Ted Niemiec — lead vocals *Dale Lawrence — rhythm guitar *Steve Feikes — rhythm guitar *Billy Nightshade — bass *Phil Hundley — tambourine, background vocals, percussion *Shadow Myers — drums *Don Jaskulske — background vocals

Gizmos #3

This version of the Gizmos was one of the first corn punk bands in the U.S. *Dale Lawrence — vocals, rhythm guitar *Billy Nightshade — bass, vocals *Tim Carroll — guitar *Shadow Myers — drums #1 *Crash Kinser — drums #2 *Robbie Wise — drums #3

Gizmos #4

This is a re-union of the original 1976 line up.
Main members *Ken Highland — lead guitar, lead vocals *Eddie Flowers — lead vocals *Ted Niemiec — lead vocals *Rich Coffee — rhythm guitar, background vocals *Davey Medlock — background vocals Rhythm section #1 *Ian Brewer — guitar *John Terrill — drums *Max Demata — bass Rhythm section #2 *Craig Bell — bass *Kelsey Simpson — drums *Sam Murphy — guitar Rhythm section #3 *Kenny Kaiser — guitar *MJ Quirk — bass *Matt Burns — drums

Discography

EPs

Gizmos #1 *"Muff Divin'" EP (1976) *"Amerika First" EP (1977) *"World Tour" EP (1978) Gizmos #2 *"Never Mind The Sex Pistols Here's The Gizmos" EP (1978) Gizmos #3 *''Hoosier Hysteria!'' (

Split album A split album (or split) is a music album that includes tracks by two or more separate artists. There are also singles and EPs of the same variety, which are often called "split singles" and "split EPs" respectively. Split albums differ from " va ...

with Dow Jones and the Industrials) (1980)

Compilations

*''1975-1977: Demos & Rehearsals'' (2000) - Gizmos #1 *''1976: The Rockabilly Yobs Session'' (2001) - Gizmos #1 *''The Midwest Can Be Allright'' (2001) - Gizmos #3 *''1978-1981:Never Mind The Gizmos Here's The Gizmos'' (2002) - Gizmos #2 and #3 *''Rock & Roll Don't Come From New York'' (2004) - Gizmos #3 *''1976/1977: The Studio Recordings'' (2006) - Gizmos #1

References

External links

* *1977 Gizmos article from Big Star fanzine: http://ffanzeen.blogspot.com/2012/05/the-gizmos-quims-queens-teens-and.html *Ken Highland interview 1978: http://www.bostongroupienews.com/BGNGizmoInterview.htm *JOJOBLOG #24 The Bostonians- Kenne Highland and Jody Moore; http://jojofiles.blogspot.com/2010/01/bostonians-interview-24-kenne-highland.html *Eddie Flowers interview at Perfect Sounds Forever: http://www.furious.com/perfect/gizmos.html *Eddie Flowers website: http://www.slippytown.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Gizmos Punk rock groups from Indiana Sympathy for the Record Industry artists