Steve's Screed Dept. - Identifying Anonymous

Sir Winston & The Commons, back when the people were the times, and the times were good ...

The mid 1960s [reminisces Steve Shark - Ed.] was a very fruitful time for the emerging US rock scene, with every corner of the Union spawning garage bands. The result was a tsunami of music by local acts which often faded back into obscurity after one or two single releases.

However, some of these bands soldiered on in one form or another for a bit longer, and here's the tale of just one of them - Sir Winston & the Commons [above and left - Ed.].

Hailing from Indianapolis, the band started out in 1963 as the Illusions playing surf rock. This was a strange choice as Indiana is landlocked, with just a small part of the Great Lakes at its northern border, so not much surfing there! They switched to playing pop covers as the Suspicions, and then changed their name to Sir Winston & the Commons when the British Invasion came along. They started to write their own material and cut a few singles - 6 sides in all, as far as I can discover. There's lots of fuzz guitar (some of it very dirty!) and electric 12 string, and even some rudimentary raga rock textures creeping into their last single "Not the Spirit of India". Truth be told, it's pretty much yer standard US garage rock, but well worth a listen if, like me, you enjoy that sort of sub-Byrds 60s jangle.

A couple of the members - guitarist Ron Matelic and drummer John Medvescek - re-emerged in 1977 to form a band called Anonymous, and recruited vocalist Marsha Rollings and bassist Glenn Weaver. They only recorded and never actually gigged, but the four of them managed to lay down enough tracks for an album - "Inside the Shadow" - clearly influenced by the Byrds, Jefferson Airplane and Buckingham-Nicks era Fleetwood Mac. "Pick Up & Run", in particular, is lovely with some cyclic 12 string a la "So You Want to be a Rock & Roll Star" and great harmony work. A few hundred copies were privately pressed for sale to fans. It's just a shame that the material wasn't better recorded.

Picking up another guitarist, the band soon changed its name to J Rider, after a track on the Anonymous album, and adopted a heavier style, although their main influences were still very apparent. A 6 track album was recorded - this time with much higher production values - but this effort remained in the vaults until a limited vinyl release in the 1990s. The band played a few live gigs, although they led to nothing.

The album itself - "No Longer Anonymous" - is a classic piece of later period psychedelia with AOR touches. The arrangements are well thought out, with several extended songs having sections with different time signatures. There are plenty of instrumental breaks that are never just tacked on, but are an integral part of each composition. Both guitarists acquit themselves very well, with electric 12 string and slide adding variety, and the bass and drums are inventive but rock solid when necessary. Stand out track for me is "We Got More" with clashing 12 strings opening into the verse featuring some nicely meshed dual guitar work, and which then gives way to a slower passage with slide guitar and lots of vocal harmonies.

From what I can gather, Matelic and Medvescek are still playing - in a band called the Doorjams - although this is a recent project after a very lengthy period that saw little or no musical activity from them.

What's in the load down? All 6 sides by Sir Winston & the Commons, Anonymous' album in a two-on-one with the J Rider disc, and also an expanded edition of J Ryder's "No Longer Anonymous". There's some duplication, but some idiosyncratic track ordering and/or titling made my brain hurt so I didn't edit them. They are what they is. There are a couple of albums by the Doorjams knocking around according to Discogs.com, but I couldn't find them in any of the usual dusty depositories. If anyone can help me find them, I'd be very grateful!

I'm counting on Babs for a Mass Debate topic, as I'm fresh out of them...