Captain Whizzo stopped by High Times looking for illustration work, and we gave it to him. His pen drawings were always amazing. More important, the Soul Assassins had hired Whizzo for our second gig (he did have the only authentic ’60s-style light show, and we were—in our minds—the most authentic ’60s-garage-sound revivalist group). Whizzo clued us into a garage rock scene that had recently kicked off in New York, run by Ivy and Ann. Ivy was the daughter of the famous doughnut spokesman from all the commercials, but we wouldn’t learn that factoid until later. Of course, we immediately sent a Soul Assassin tape to Ivy, and, of course, she loved it! And she wanted to book us at the next possible opening, which was at least two weeks away. Meanwhile, I’d sent Andre Grossmann to scout out the Minds Eye and bring back some photos of the scene, you know, a basic recon mission. While going through his photos, I picked out a photo of this exotic rock goddess. “Who’s this girl?” I asked Ivy. “Oh, that’s Allegra,” said Ivy. “She’s in a band. I have her phone number right here.” I immediately called Allegra and invited her up to my High Times office for an important meeting. When she arrived, I got right to the point. “I have this band, the Soul Assassins, and we’re looking for three girls to join the group, and I want you to be one of them.”
Allegra thought it over for a day and decided, no, I have my own band and I don’t want to join your girl group. But I do know the perfect person for you. Meanwhile, Flick had already discovered a girl he wanted in the group. I hadn’t met these girls yet, but I knew their names were Abby and Kimona 117. Even better, Flick had located an amazing new drummer named Dave Rodway. Soon, we would all meet for the first time. You can listen to the original Soul Assassins at Bandcamp.com
Amazing times back then!
Great story…Steve’s perspective.
Very cool!
Ivy’s dad was the cute time to make the donuts guy,
not the be-spectacled wasp from don’t squeeze the evil charmin