But then the 2013 line-up for Coachella was unveiled and whose name should be listed among the literally thousands of other bands performing but that of revered godfathers of the "paisley underground", The Three O'Clock! Original members Michael Quercio, Louis Gutierrez, and Danny Benair were set to reunite for the first time in almost thirty years. Sadly, original keyboardist Mickey Mariano couldn't get time off from the doughnut shop this time around and has chosen to sit out this reunion.
Still, 3 out of 4 ain't bad. I must admit, I was giddy. After all, I'd stomached the band's "drum machines and synths" phase and still managed to retain a love for the band some 20+ years later. Thankfully, songs like "I Go Wild", "Her Head's Revolving" and "With A Cantaloupe Girlfriend" make it easy to forget the occasional "Neon Telephone".
If you can find a copy of any of the band's first three releases, Baroque Hoedown, Sixteen Tambourines, and Arrive Without Travelling, you can hear for yourself the garage-psych rock greatness that defined an entire genre that Quercio himself coined the "paisley underground". Of course, a new compilation is due in June from Omnivore Records, too.
Since the and's demise in the early 90's, members of the band have pursued decidedly different paths in the music biz with varying degrees of success. Gutierrez recorded four albums with Mary's Danish between 1989 and 1992. He and Mary's Danish singer Gretchen Seager formed Battery Acid, signed to Geffen, and eventually got dropped before their completed album could ever see the light of day. The experience apparently left such a bad taste in his mouth that he left the business altogether, taking a gig as a stock broker. He's currently a very successful financial adviser.
Danny Benair found his way into music publishing, working for numerous record labels before putting out his own shingle, Natural Energy Lab, and becoming one of the greatest sets of ears in the music placement business.
Michael Quercio played bass in Game Theory before forming Permanent Green Light, which, with a change of guitarists (the righteous Jason Shapiro and Dan Epstein), would morph into the Jupiter Affect. For all the talent in the band, not to mention the fact that Quercio had returned to the garage-psych sound that made him an L.A. legend, the band's two stunning full-length releases were issued on fledgling indie labels. In other words, unless you went looking for them, you never knew such albums even existed. 'Tis a shame we lovers of the rock need to seek out our own righteous jams. Used to be all you had to do was turn on the radio or the television.
Speaking of television, The Three O'Clock are turning back the hands of time and reclaiming their past greatness with a performance on Conan O'Brien tonight. It isn't often that a band so underrated for so long is given such an opportunity after all these years, but I BEG everyone who reads this to set their fucking clocks (no, not to three o'clock, although that would be cool) to check out the band's performance on Conan tonight. For more info, click Conan's show schedule page..