In the mid 1970s, Jill Kossoris got her Brown Deer High School to win a contest to get power pop band Raspberries to play a concert. The contest’s winner was the school that submitted the largest number of signatures from students asking for the band to play.
“I called WOKY and asked if they had to be actual signatures or if they could be fictional? They said they ‘hadn't actually thought about that, so I guess fictional is OK,’” she recalls. “I was a huge fan, so I got out my spiral notebooks, got to work writing made-up names through all my classes and detentions, and I got away with it because it looked like I was doing homework. It appeared as though I’d suddenly taken an interest in school! I filled notebook after notebook at home and at school and convinced many of my friends to do so as well.”
That sense of passion for music would serve Kossoris well in getting The Shivvers off the ground. Her role, a rare example of female band leader, songwriter and frontwoman can’t be overstated. The band and her presence are still being felt as YouTube covers of Shivvers songs still resonate decades and generations after the band called it a day.
St. Louis’ Rerun Records, along with Bachelor Records from Austria, has re-released the time capsule of recordings by The Shivvers: a dozen songs—no filler, no down time. Just five musicians in the prime of their youth having the time of their life. Raspberries singer and guitarist Eric Carmen would offer to produce The Shivvers.
Drummer Jim Richardson says the band’s early setlist offers a distinct roadmap of the sound they were looking to travel: Dwight Twilley, Cyrus Erie, Flamin' Groovies mixed in with “Tears of a Clown” and the Supremes and Ronettes. A fair mix of familiar radio hits and hook-filled obscurities.
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By the time Kossoris took to songwriting and the band got off the ground, they were guileless, citing influences from ABBA to the Stooges (they would later open for Iggy Pop).
Ramping up to their debut, the band practiced tirelessly and would eventually perform shows of three sets a night. Guitarist Mike Pyle recalls the band’s work ethic of three-times-a-week rehearsals paying off in an era when studio time could be expensive.
“The recording experience was so much different than it is today. Home recording was not as common,” Pyle says. “You booked time and made good use of it. You had to be prepared. I could be wrong, but I don’t remember ever punching in a part of a basic track. I’m pretty sure most or all of the bed tracks were one complete take.”
In 1980, the band released the 45 “Teen Line”/”When I Was Younger,” the A-side finding Kossoris bursting with manic energy and channeling teenage lust. “When I was Younger” showcases Richardson’s muscular drumming which sets up this power pop anthem. Ironically, the band was hardly old at this point—how much nostalgia can you yearn for in your early 20s? With Kossoris shredding her vocals at the chorus—no half measures here—and a bridge that adds 12-string guitar and a neat piano-based section her musical lessons paid off in this passage that nods to The Left Banke.
Throughout the album, guitarist Jim Eannelli’s guitar punctuates the lyrics. “No Substitute” describes person on cusp of adulthood, giving a voice to her peers, and “Don’t Tell Me” voices the rebellion and frustration that shackle so many idealistic young people. Throughout, Eannelli underscores the heady feeling of putting 600 people in a club at $3 a head.
“We came in riding the wave of punk, but combining it with the power pop thing,” Eannelli recalls, wondering if the band’s music didn’t even have a true category or genre. “It was a great time to be in your 20s and be creative.”
He recalls the rush of being in the studio recording and hearing the magic of playing back the tracks, “I could do that all day long. It was really, really exciting. Back then, studio time was $45 an hour, which would be like $300 an hour today. I remember the serious, fun nature of laying down tracks. When we came together as a band, we were better than ourselves individually.”
Keep in mind this music was made in the pre-internet, pre-cellphone era. “Teenline,” ”Hold On” and “Please Stand By” easily recall the days of landlines and parents telling kids to get off the phone.
By a quirk of the cosmos, the Shivvers’ 45 was released on the same week as the lone 45 by Milwaukee band The Orbits, whose bass player, Scott Krueger, would join The Shivvers. With drummer Richardson, Krueger (who replaced Rich Bush) provided a locomotive rhythm section. Plus, Krueger wrote and sang.
His “Life without You” featured harpsichord, and the ambitious tune might offer a clue as to where the band might have headed. Likewise, “Remember Tonight” updates Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, perhaps a big production aimed for major label waters.
This version of the LP updates the 2014 issue on Sing Sing Records, adding more photos, liner notes, a bumper sticker and improved audio. In 2015, the band passed on an offer to play Sprecher Brewery’s 30th Anniversary Bash. Yet, the unrestrained Farfisa organ of “No Reaction” and the energetic bop of “My Association” recall an early innocence of rock ’n’ roll. As far as legacies go, you can’t ask for a better time capsule.
