Hackamore Brick

Hackamore Brick are one of the great missing links in the late-'60s New York music scene. In some circles, the Brooklyn-spawned quartet is considered notable for the <a href="spotify:artist:1nJvji2KIlWSseXRSlNYsC">Velvet Underground</a> influence heard throughout the music on One Kiss Leads to Another, the group's album cut for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Buddha+Records%22">Buddha Records</a>' <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Kama+Sutra%22">Kama Sutra</a> imprint, no less. <a href="spotify:artist:42TFhl7WlMRXiNqzSrnzPL">Lou Reed</a>'s singing style is in evidence throughout Chick Newman's flat intonation, but other attributes here range further, eerily anticipating the minimalist charm of <a href="spotify:artist:6hkch2KhRl0tywpeVK5xR5">Jonathan Richman</a>, while some of the material, such as the Bob Roman/Tommy Moonlight-authored "Peace Has Come," makes one think of an embryonic <a href="spotify:artist:0S7Zur2g8YhqlzqtlYStli">Television</a>. There was a lot of talent there and some good instincts about what to do with it, at least as a starting point. Not even the revived <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Buddha%22">Buddha</a> imprint had the courage or enough interest to reissue the album.

As for the band, they did elicit some interest at the time -- the record was well-reviewed by the rock press of the time, and Hackamore Brick played a week at the Bitter End in Greenwich Village and seven weeks in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands -- in addition to their originals, their shows encompassed renditions of <a href="spotify:artist:293zczrfYafIItmnmM3coR">Chuck Berry</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:3WHS9WSnZCtTXEuCfgNdec">Leiber & Stoller</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:2AV6XDIs32ofIJhkkDevjm">Curtis Mayfield</a> songs, and pop standards going back to "I'm in the Mood for Love." They played around New York for a time and issued "Searchin'" as a 45, but a proposed second album never got recorded, reportedly over a disagreements about where to cut it, which led to the single's being canceled. The group split up not long after that -- Chick Newman and Tommy Moonlight stayed in the business, and played such celebrated venues as CBGBs, Max's Kansas City, and Folk City, and even cut a whole album of material together in Austin, Texas in the mid-'80s. Finally, after a false start in 2003, <a href="spotify:artist:0Bdya7zDwdNmqddVfSSaxs">Moonlight</a> and Newman got together for a second bite at the apple as Hackamore Brick in 2008, recording the first new sides under that name in about 38 years. The six-song CD showed up in 2009, not long after their <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Kama+Sutra%22">Kama Sutra</a> debut showed up on CD. And follow-up recordings for 2009 were reportedly in the works, as of the summer of that year. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi