The Jars: A Not-So-Angry Band From The East Bay

Originally published in East Bay Band Calendar (August 1979)
By Devorah Ostrov

My cover story for East Bay Band Calendar

featuring the Jars (left) and the Mondellos (right)

Take a band that finds it easier to relate to the pop music of the early and mid-sixties, a lead singer inspired by Sha Na Na and Dion, a keyboardist who plays atop a shopping cart, put them in Berkeley, and you have the Jars — a sensational rock 'n' roll band!

Johnny Savior (vocals), Gary Nervo (keyboards), Mik Dow (guitar), Marc Time (drums), and Armin Hammer (bass) feel strongly about the local rock scene and formed the Jars to help improve it.

"There was nothing happening in Berkeley," states Time. "The streets were deserted after 11p.m. We wanted to help create a scene here. You really can't say we've caused the scene, but since we started playing the scene has taken off." (New groups like the Mondellos, the Young Adults, and Psycotic Pineapple are also part of the Berkeley contingent.)

The Jars at Sproul Plaza on the Berkeley campus

Photo: Clayton Call

Formed last September as the Saviors, the band began by giving performances to 75-plus crowds in their rehearsal garage in Albany.

September was also the first time the guys had picked up their instruments. "It's a great excuse," says Dow. "If they say you suck, you can tell them, 'Well, I've only been playing since September.'"

What they lack in experience, they more than make up for with spontaneous energy. The kind of spontaneity that allows them to laugh when Savior says, "Tonight was the first time we had a really good sound system so I could hear my vocals, and this was the night I forgot all my words."

Counting Roky Erickson (13th Floor Elevators), Syd Barrett (early Pink Floyd), and TV commercials among their influences, the Jars energetic set combines cover versions of classic pop songs — "Come on Down" (Every Mother's Son), "High School" (MC5), "Mony Mony" (Tommy James and the Shondells), "Time Won't Let Me" (the Outsiders), and "Hitchin' a Ride" (Vanity Fare) — with their own fast-paced originals.

Savior came to Berkeley from the Midwest last year, looking for the promised land. "We found him on Telegraph Avenue," says Dow. "He was spare-changing us. We said, 'Hey, you look like a rock 'n' roll singer. Wanna join a band?'"

Johnny Savior (left) and Marc Time (right)
Photos: Barb Wire (used courtesy of Marc Time)

Since then, Savior has developed a stage act so athletic he has to wear knee pads to protect himself. "I ripped this pair of polyvinyl chloride pants the first night I wore them," he says, "the knees are gone."

At one time or another, each of the band members has worked in record stores and radio stations, giving them a special insight into the music industry. Time was the first disc jockey in the Bay Area to play the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the UK." He was subsequently fired from the station for playing too much punk rock.

The Jars pose outside the "Jar House" in Albany, 
California. (This photo was used for the cover of
D. Mickey Sampson's CREEP fanzine.)

"All the stations wanna be #1," explains Hammer. "There aren't enough stations who are satisfied to be #5 and still make plenty of money. They all want to play the same 'proven' stuff and get top ratings."

"The worst thing about radio," remarks Time, "is that they don't play any of the local stuff, like the new Dead Kennedys' single." (Mentioned because of vocalist Jello Biafra's presence at the interview).

Despite their complaints about the state of radio, the Jars do plan to release a three-song single, possibly consisting of "Small Town Rock," "(I'm So) Available," and a cover of "Psycho."

"In the studio, our music will sound a lot more clean and bright," says Savior. "'Tear Jerk' and 'Available' will take on a whole other dimension." He adds, "People will just have to imagine the knee drops!"

* Sadly, Johnny Savior (J.D. Buhl) passed away in 2017 after a long battle with cancer.

* * *

A selection of flyers for Jars gigs. You can find out more about the Jars
and peruse lots more memorabilia on their Facebook page. Here's a link:
https://www.facebook.com/The-Jars

* * *

During the group's lifetime, the Jars released two 45s. The first was a 7-inch EP on Subterranean Records with "Start Rite Now" b/w "Psycho" and "Electric Third Rail." The second, "Time of the Assassins" b/w "Jar Wars," was issued on Universal Records. Both recordings featured a four-piece lineup with Mik Dow on lead vocals. Here's a link to "Start Rite Now" on YouTube:

Rox Rocks From Hayward To Japan

Originally published in East Bay Band Calendar, December 1979
By Devorah Ostrov

Rox with vocalist Dyan Buckelew center. Dyan left for a solo career

after the group returned from Japan. She later married Rick Derringer.

They're not the Runaways, and they're weary of the constant comparisons to that heavy metal outfit. "We try to interest the audience with our music," says Rox bassist Toni Falconio. "We can't avoid the fact that we are girls, but we hope that the audience will like our music and not just us."

And after listening to these East Bay rockers, the only comparison to be made is that both groups are all females. Rox — consisting of Falconio, vocalist/guitarist Nina Markert, keyboardist Gere Fennelly, and drummer Christie Nehlick — are all highly accomplished musicians, each with many years of musical experience behind her. There's a toughness in each one, a defensiveness that comes from having to prove herself in a male-oriented field where females are barely tolerated.

While they were rehearsing at Pearl Studios in Fremont, it became a running joke that neighborhood boys would appear at the door wondering who was playing such hard-core rock. And they'd always be taken aback to find GIRLS behind the instruments.

In fact, according to Markert, the only people who don't think Rox is equal to comparative male bands are "guys who don't want girls to make it because they don't want us to show them up."

Cover of the "American Kan Kan" 45

Although recognition has been slow for them in the Bay Area, a recent seven-month tour of Japan found them on the same level as most top American bands, playing to packed halls, being chased for autographs, and hounded for television commercials.

Rox (spelled Roxz before the tour) had been together for less than a year when a rep from Shinka, Japan's largest music publishing company, saw them perform at San Francisco's Mabuhay Gardens and signed them to a Japanese contract.

In Japan, the girls were well taken care of, with all their expenses paid for by Shinka (including chauffeured transportation). They were also given extensive promotional advertising, such as a "shopping tour" of Japanese malls, several TV appearances (two were "dubbed," the rest were filmed live) and dozens of radio interviews.

And, of course, at each promotional stop, the fans were waiting for them. "We had some fans that would follow us to radio stations and wait three hours just to see us," comments Markert. "And when we'd drive away, they'd chase our car!"

L-R: Christie Nehlick, Gere Fennelly, Toni Falconio & Nina Markert

(Photo of Rox originally used in the East Bay Band Calendar)

"At concerts, they would throw all these little superballs onstage and streamers and balloons," adds Falconio. "They have guards standing in the aisles to make them sit down, but you know, if they didn't, it would be total insanity."

Not bad for a group that got its start scarcely two years ago by taking first place in the Hayward Battle of the Bands with a set featuring Kiss' "Detroit Rock City," Thin Lizzy's "Jailbreak," and Montrose's "Rock the Nation" — during which Falconio slipped and fell and Markert's guitar somehow got out of tune.

While they were in Japan, Rox recorded an album (half in Japanese) called Tantrum (only available by import), and two 45s — "American Kan Kan" and "Okay Boys" — written for them by Japanese songwriter Tokura.

They weren't allowed to record their own material because "the company didn't think we could sell anything." But Markert argues that it was the other way around. "You should have heard it ['Okay Boys'] before we rearranged it. We were pulling our hair out, saying, 'We can't rearrange this. It's too far in the pits!'"

As for the album, Nehlick says they're happy with their playing but that the production "could have been a lot better. When we went into the studio, the Japanese producer said, 'Use this amp, use this... this... this...' Next time we go in, it will be nice because we'll know how to use the sound the way we want to."

Rox pose with Abba for a Japanese music magazine!
(Photo courtesy of Gere Fennelly)

Although the LP won't be released in America, it supposedly shows a totally different side of Rox. With the Japanese idea of hard rock being the Bay City Rollers, the girls were forced to record tunes in the commercial pop vein.

"Not pop like power pop," states Fennelly, "but pop like puppy pop." Quite a change for these rockers whose sets usually include Van Halen, Scorpions, Cheap Trick, and Led Zeppelin covers, as well as their own self-penned heavy rock numbers.

Still adjusting to the culture shock of not being chased down the street and only recently returning to Bay Area stages, Rox want to dispel any rumors of their demise. They are still together and rocking harder than ever!