The second coming of the Invictas isn’t quite the garage rock revival I had in mind.
From 1964 to 1968, the Invictas were a garage rock quartet based in Rochester, NY, and led by Herb Gross, a Charlotte native for the last nine years. Playing a mix of “Louie Louie” — like frat rock and British Invasion-inspired R&B — the Invictas’ moment in the sun was brief but memorable. The band’s suggestive single, “The Hump” — “Come with me, push it in and push it out/Put your hands behind your head and you’ll learn what it’s about” — reached the Billboard 100 but created a stir locally and was banned from Boston radio stations.
The band released its only record, The Invictas A Go-Go, on Sahara Records in 1965 but succumbed three years later to the Vietnam War draft and in-fighting.
“We all have said, ‘We didn’t know what we had,'” Gross writes via e-mail.
That might have been the end of the story, but two years ago Gross and co-founding member Dave Hickey played a few songs with a touring blues band and the idea of a reunion led to three-quarters of the original lineup — Gross, Hickey and his brother Bruce — playing together for the first time since a brief reunion gig in 1980. This time around, an Associated Press feature ran in several newspapers (including USA Today) around the country, and the renamed Herb Gross & the Invictas have an appearance scheduled on The Today Show in late August/early September.
“Starting up again was difficult,” Gross writes. “But after practicing for several months, it all came back. We play now like we did back in the ’60s.”
With the Hickeys still located in upstate NY, Gross, now 62, is looking to form a local weekend touring band here in the Carolinas. He can be reached via e-mail at herb@herbgross.com.
“I prefer older musicians 50+ in age,” he writes. “No drugs or alcohol problems. Guys that are easy to get along with. The band would be run like a business but designed to have fun.”
ANTiTRIBUTE: Orange Country-based punk label TKO Records really couldn’t have chosen a better title — Everybody Loves ANTiSEEN — for its gargantuan tribute to the Eveready bunnies of Southern destructo punk.
“For many years, we at TKO Records have forwarded the theory that everybody loves ANTiSEEN, and those that don’t, should,” reads the accompanying TKO press material. “Now, after devoting countless hours of careful scientific research and experimentation, we are ready to present our findings to the public.”
Everybody Loves ANTiSEEN features 57 bands sprawled over two discs, including notables like Hank III, biker-rock cult hero Simon Stokes, ’70s’ X-rated funk legend Blowfly, L.A. punk icon Jeff Dahl (Angry Samoans), Chaos UK and hosts of others. ANTiSEEN co-founders Jeff Clayton and Joe Young, along with current band mates and fellow provocateurs SIR Barry Hannibal and Doug Canipe, have been hurling dead possums, Southern hostility and wrasslin’ moves at grateful audiences since 1983 and during that time have built up a hard-core cult following. It’s nice to see the kids inspired enough by the wholesome sounds to offer their own tributes.
Marginalia: The Sammies’ juggernaut just keeps on, uh, juggernauting. The Wadesboro Boys will be opening for highly touted Birdmonster on an East Coast swing with dates in Tallahassee, Atlanta, Athens, Raleigh and Washington, culminating with a Mercury Lounge appearance in NYC. You can catch ’em locally at the Visulite on Sept. 2. … “Something I Wanna Give You,” the first single from Charlotte native and supernatural soul songstress Sunshine Anderson, drops on Aug. 28, but you can hear it tout de suite at www.sunshineandersonmusic.com. The full-length, Sunshine at Midnight, is out in January. … Gigi Dover & the Big Love are recording their followup to 2004’s Gigi at the band’s Blue Bubble Studios. Dover’s Web site promises a funkier, jazzier outing — “like Chrissie Hynde fronting Sly and the Family Stone.” Set for a late-fall release, you can get a pre-drop date taste at the Visulite on Aug. 26.
Venue Patrol: The Milestone hosts its end-of-summer megafest on Saturday, Sept. 2, featuring Hell or Highwater, Calabi Yau, Thank God, Magog, Flat Tires, 2013 Wolves, Hot Rod Grease Lightning, David Childers and the Modern Don Juans, the Dead Kings, and Hick’ry Hawkins. … The prior night, the venue hosts the 8th Annual B.O.B. “Battle of the Bands Festival.” Interested parties can contact RodBelford@yahoo.com or go to www.worldfok.com. … The Neighborhood Theatre plays host to the three-day Revlis Records Label Showcase beginning Saturday, Sept. 2. Local and regional artists will have 25 minutes to perform for label reps from across the country. For more information, go to www.neighborhoodtheatre.com.
This article appears in Aug 23-29, 2006.
