In my opinion, here’s one of the of the greatest bands of the mid-60s, the Rogues from Lafayette, Louisiana with three killer 45s. All are rare now, I don’t own any of these.
They seem to have had some lineup changes during their existence. Members included Fred Brechtel on lead vocals, Mark MacDiarmid (or McDiarmid) on lead guitar (and lead vocals on “I Don’t Need You”), Mike Schwartz on rhythm guitar, Tommy Withrow on keyboards, John Bonar on bass, and Glen Hebert on drums.
Cyril Vetter of the Greek Fountains saw the Rogues and produced a release for them on the Montel-Michelle label, though he changed the band’s name temporarily to the Dry Grins. The Dry Grins release has the excellent “She’s a Drag”, written by Fred Brechtel for Red Stick Music, backing the only slightly more commercial “You’re Through”. It was produced by Cyril Vetter & Sam Montel, and released as the Montel-Michelle M/M-959 (74 M/M 14) circa late 1965.
The band changed their name back to the Rogues for their second single, “Put You Down” b/w a version of “Stormy Monday Blues” that I haven’t heard. “Put You Down” features only a single guitar, bass, drums and vocals, and no keyboards unlike other songs by the band.
“Put You Down” was written by Kendrick & Gainer (Rich Gainer, Mort Kendrick? as it appears on a signed copy I’ve seen). I’m not sure if these two were in the band or how they ended up as song writers for the Rogues. The Rogues recorded the 45 at Jay Miller’s studio in Crowley, and it was released on Mike Miller’s MBM label (MBM -2002, master # SoN 29801) in February of 1966.
Their last 45 had a song I haven’t heard on the A-side, “Tonight” which Teen Beat Mayhem describes as “swamp-pop ballad with crooner vocals.” On the flip though, is “I Dont Need You”, one of their best songs, written and sung by Mark McDiarmid for La Lou Music, and released on the La Louisianne label, LL-8094-B, in April of ’67.
Andrew Brown wrote that Tommy Withrow joined a group called the Swingin’ Machine, obviously unrelated to the now-legendary Swinging Machine from South Norfolk, VA.
Anyone have a photo of the group?
Teenage Shutdown vol. 7 has a small photo but I would love to see better ones if anyone has them. I could also use good scans of the sides not pictured here.
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