Tin Huey -

Tin Huey was an American new wave/art-rock band from Akron, Ohio, that made two DIY EPs and the 1979 album Contents Dislodged During Shipment. Saxophonist Ralph Carney led the Swollen Monkeys and scored Eighties hits with The Waitresses.

Members: Mark Price (bass, vocals), Ralph Carney (horns), Chris Butler (vocals, guitar), Michael Aylward (guitar, vocals), Harvey Gold (keyboards, guitar, bass, vocals), Stuart Austin [aka Napoleon Lemans] (drums), Ralph Legnini (guitar, vocals), Bob Ethington (percussion)

Background

Tin Huey formed in 1972 as The Rags, an earlier Akron trio with guitarist Mark Price, bassist Michael Aylward, and drummer Stuart Austin (aka Nappy Lemans). The arrival of keyboardist Harvey Gold infected their sound with Zappa elements.

After a sequence of short-term members (Arthur Baranoff, Wayne Swickley, Lochi MacIntosh), they welcomed reedist Ralph Carney (b. January 23, 1956), the son of William Carney, a polyester research for Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. Aylward’s younger brother inspired the band’s name change.

Tin Huey (EP)

In 1977, Clone issued the debut Tin Huey EP, a 7″ with four originals: one each by Ralph Carney (“Puppet Wipes”) and Harvey Gold (“Cuyahoga Creeping Bent”) and a third (“The Tin Huey Story”) by Gold with Mark Price. The three group-wrote “Poor Alphonso,” a live number.

Tin Huey features the original five-piece lineup of Price, Lemans, Aylward, Gold, and Carney, who plays tenor, baritone, and soprano sax.

“Puppet Wipes” jerks through a clipped opening, then erupts into a heavier middle section as Gold barks half-deciphered vocal fragments. “Cuyahoga Creeping Bent” shifts between hard ensemble passages and melancholy saxophone phrases; the vocal text lands in odd, declarative fragments.

A1. “Puppet Wipes” (2:45)
A2. “Cuyahoga Creeping Bent” (3:00)
B1. “Poor Alphonso (Live)” (5:00)
B2. “The Tin Huey Story” (2:13)

Gold co-engineered the EP with John Monol and Tom Krieger. The record appeared in a picture sleeve with a group photo by Fred Toedtman.

Breakfast With the Hueys (EP, 1978)

In 1978, Tin Huey returned with Breakfast With The Hueys, a standard single titled as an EP with two Mark Price numbers.

“Robert Takes the Road to Lieber Nawash” opens with inter-coiled bass and sax. The vocal passes through sung phrases, spoken lines, and shouted breaks; the leaner single version wiry and exposed.

A. “Robert Takes the Road to Lieber Nawash” (4:00) – Price
B. “Squirm You Worm” (3:15) – Gold, Price

Tin Huey taped both cuts at Bushflow Studios in Akron. Breakfast appeared on Clone as CL004, between singles by The Bizarros and Human Switchboard.

Harvey Gold – Experiments

Amid Huey singles, Harvey Gold cut a solo record, Experiments, a standard single dated 1977 but released as CL005 with one original and a John Cale cover.

“Armadillo” splices brisk song passages into rural-cadence turns and cracked performance detours. The track treats each section as a jump-cut, with Gold’s vocal changing placement as the arrangement swerves.

A. “Keep a Close Watch” (3:35) – originated on Cale’s 1975 release Helen of Troy.
B. “Armadillo” (3:03) – Harvey Gold

Tin Huey became a sextet with guitarist Chris Butler, a former Kent State sociology student with a prior bassist stint in 15-60-75, the Numbers Band.

Contents Dislodged During Shipment

Tin Huey released their singular album, Contents Dislodged During Shipment, on March 2, 1979, on Warner Bros.

The album presents Tin Huey as a six-piece with bassist Mark Price, percussionist Stuart Austin (drums, percussion, Synare drum synthesizer), guitarists Chris Butler (electric, percussion, birdcalls) and Michael Aylward (electric, slide), keyboardist Harvey Gold (piano, synthesizer, guitar), and reedist Ralph Carney (bass, tenor/alto/soprano saxophones, clarinet, organ, percussion, piano, harmonica). All six members added vocals.

”“I’m a Believer” swells through broad group-voice refrains and bright studio punctuation; the familiar chorus lands as stiff ceremonial singalong. “The Revelations of Dr. Modesto” fractures terse vocal lines across sudden rhythm changes and short instrumental breakpoints. “I Could Rule the World If I Could Only Get the Parts” careens through hyperactive vocal bursts and machine-rule comic text; vaudeville pivots sharpen the stage-patter cadence. “Coronation” clatters through circular chant phrases and quick-cut section pivots.

“Hump Day” hurries through workday slogans on a taut dance backbeat; clipped vocal replies lock the text to office-life satire. “Puppet Wipes” jolts through surreal doll-head images and abrupt rhythmic corners; brittle breaks cut the vocal line into quick scenes. “New York’s Finest Dining Experience” opens on a blunt guitar riff, then splices talk-sung lines into sharp section pivots.

A1. “I’m a Believer” (3:11) – Diamond, popularized by The Monkees. This version draws from a 1974 arrangement by Robert Wyatt, who added sustained guitar licks before the chorus.
A2. “The Revelations of Dr. Modesto” (3:54) – Gold
A3. “I Could Rule the World If I Could Only Get the Parts” (3:14) – Butler
A4. “Coronation” (2:23) – Butler, Gold
A5. “Slide” (3:37) – Butler

B1. “Hump Day” (2:57) – Butler
B2. “Pink Berets” (3:01) – Butler, Gold
B3. “Squirm You Worm” (2:29) – Price, Gold
B4. “Chinese Circus” (1:47) – Aylward, Gold
B5. “Puppet Wipes” (2:34) – Carney, Gold
B6. “New York’s Finest Dining Experience” (2:59) – Aylward, Gold

Tin Huey recorded Contents Dislodged During Shipment in 1978 at Warner Bros. Recording Studios in North Hollywood with producer Paul L. Wexler, engineers Kenny Deane and Lee Herschberg, assistant engineer Cary Pritikin, and mixdown engineer Lee DeCarlo.

Mike Holmes created the cover art with airbrushing by Stephen Nicol; Jeff Day photographed the back cover. The front sleeve places four orange-and-black cartoon panels below a block-letter band name. Those panels show shipping boxes and loose globes beneath the title text.

Warner Bros. issued “I’m a Believer” as a July 1979 single (b/w “New York’s Finest Dining Experience”). The label also serviced a 1979 three-track promo with “I’m a Believer,” “Hump Day,” and “The Revelations of Dr. Modesto,” plus a July 1979 mono/stereo promo of “I’m a Believer.”

“English Kids”

In 1980, Tin Huey returned to Clone for one final single, “English Kids,” a Chris Butler original released as CL011.

“English Kids” creeps out of a slow opening, then breaks into tight chord shifts and bright ensemble surges. The lyric addresses a visiting transatlantic band in clipped second-person lines.

A. “English Kids” — Butler
B. “Sister Rose” — Gold, Keith

“English Kids” appeared between Clone singles John Rader and The Housekeepers, whose 1981 release “Down the Road (Mizzle the Mode)” became the label’s final title.

Discography: