Hackamore Brick

Hackamore Brick was an American band from Brooklyn that released the album One Kiss Leads to Another on Kama Sutra in 1971.

Members: Chick Newman (vocals, piano, guitar), Robbie Biegel, Bob Roman, Tommy Moonlight (vocals, piano, guitar)

Background

Hackamore Brick formed in Brooklyn, New York, when keyboardist Chick Newman, who had been playing Farfisa organ in a local Canarsie garage band, connected with fellow musician Tommy Moonlight. Both grew up immersed in music—Moonlight inspired early on by Jimmy Durante and Chico Marx, and Newman by family singalongs and big band records. After jamming together in college with a short-lived lineup, they retained drummer Robbie Biegel—a local legend—and eventually recruited bassist Bob Roman, who had relocated from the Lower East Side to Park Slope, where rehearsals began in earnest.

Initially going by the name Ice, the group experimented with a minimalist, organ-driven trio format that contrasted sharply with the guitar-heavy direction of most contemporaries. This early version performed at Steve Paul’s Scene and briefly attracted interest from Sire Records, followed by a contract with Koppelman & Rubin in 1968. Though that lineup dissolved before any recordings were made, Moonlight and Newman regrouped with Roman and rejoined Biegel to solidify the lineup that became Hackamore Brick.

The band recorded a demo at the Record Plant on West 44th Street in Manhattan and delivered it directly to Kama Sutra Records, where it caught the ear of label staff. Kama Sutra signed them in 1970 and scheduled a full LP session at Bell Sound Studios on West 54th Street. Working quickly over roughly 40 hours.

One Kiss Leads to Another

Hackamore Brick released their singular album, One Kiss Leads to Another, in February 1971 on Kama Sutra.

The album centers around keyboard interplay and concise song structure. Guitarist Tommy Moonlight and keyboardist Chick Newman share writing duties and alternate instrumental focus with a balanced, understated dynamic. Moonlight’s wiry, clean-toned guitar lines offset Newman’s compact phrasing on electric piano and Farfisa organ. Their tonal blend emphasizes clarity, contrast, and melodic direction over dense layering or instrumental excess.

One Kiss Leads to Another opens with “Reachin’,” where terse keyboard accents and clipped rhythms yield to brief bursts of sharp-toned guitar. “Radio” and “I Watched You Rhumba” trade on restrained pacing and clean electric textures, holding back intensity to spotlight the vocal phrasing. “Peace Has Come” folds brittle guitar lines into a bed of warm electric piano, moving at a hushed, deliberate pace. “Got a Gal Named Wilma” introduces relaxed swing elements with offbeat keyboard voicings and a spoken-style lyric. “And I Wonder” breaks the frame entirely—its central section expands into a long, searching keyboard solo that arcs through wavering sustain and clustered phrasing, shifting the album’s internal logic before returning to its prior compactness. 

A1. “Reachin’” (4:44) – Written during the Vietnam era, the song addresses war and ongoing conflict, using a small amplifier to create controlled distortion on the guitar parts during recording.
A2. “Oh! Those Sweet Bananas” (2:18) – Moonlight wrote the song immediately before the album sessions; its lyric outlines a narrative that later echoed real-life events for him.
A3. “I Watched You Rhumba” (2:57) – The lyric centers on a younger man observing an older woman, while the arrangement deliberately blends piano and organ within the same passages.
A4. “Radio” (3:33) – Moonlight framed the song as a story of a date unraveling, drawing on the period’s fascination with small-scale personal mishaps and miscommunication.
A5. “Peace Has Come” (3:00) – Roman wrote the lyric, which Moonlight set to music and first performed informally in Prospect Park; the recorded version preserves its spontaneous piano-and-guitar arrangement.

B1. “Got a Gal Named Wilma” (3:24) – Inspired by fictional and cinematic figures named Wilma, the song reflects Moonlight’s interest in character-based songwriting.
B2. “I Won’t Be Around” (1:34) – Newman wrote the song shortly before leaving home, grounding its brevity and directness in a moment of personal transition.
B3. “And I Wonder” (7:26) – Originating with the earlier group Ice, the track took its final shape after Biegel rejoined, expanding into the album’s longest and most exploratory arrangement. It stretches into a mid-track improvisation built on keyboard tension and unresolved harmonic figures.
B4. “Someone You Know” (4:23) – Newman wrote the song after moving into a new apartment, with its structure shaped by ideas carried over from a contemporaneous side project.
B5. “Zip Gun Woman” (2:50) – One of the few Moonlight–Newman collaborations on the album, the song sketches a rebellious female character within a concise, driving framework.

Hackamore Brick recorded One Kiss Leads to Another at Bell Sound Studios in New York City in September 1970. Producer Richard Robinson tracked the sessions with a dry, clear mix that centers the live performance and leaves space between the instruments. The recording uses minimal effects and places little emphasis on overdubs or studio layering.

Joel Brodsky shot the cover photo on a fire escape, following a concept proposed by the label. Kama Sutra issued the album through American Record Pressing, with early copies marked by the ARP runout stamp and a distinct label design.

Hackamore Brick plugged the album at multiple New York venues—including the Bitter End, Ungano’s, and Electric Circus—and spent six weeks performing in St. Thomas over the holidays at Duffy’s Place in the Sun.

Kama Sutra issued the non-album “Searchin’” backed with the album track “Radio,” which received local airplay on WNEW in New York. Disagreements over studio terms for a second LP led to their split with Kama Sutra.

Postlude

Hackamore Brick never formally ended. Moonlight and Newman continued to write and record intermittently through the 1970s and 1980s, including a full set of sessions in Austin, Texas, in 1984. A chance reunion at a wedding renewed their collaboration and led to the release of both archival and new material, including Long Way Home (2009), From There to Almost Here (2013), and Snails in Astoria (2016). Across the years they worked under multiple names—including Stars, Ice, Horsesugar, and Tommy Anaheim & Chick Cucamonga—and they continue to record and perform in changing lineups.

Discography:

• One Kiss Leads to Another (1971)

Sources:

• Discogs: Hackamore Brick
• RYM: Hackamore Brick
• Hackamore Brick (official); Bio
• PsychBabyMag: Hackamore Brick