Aug. 23, 1975: Select Sound Studios

 

One of Buffalo’s leading recording studios, just as it was getting started. 

Aug. 23, 1975 

What’s That in the Basement?

A Recording Studio, Naturally 

MAYBE IT’S A SIGN of these electronic times. Where there used to be basement rock bands echoing decibels off the plumbing, now there’s guys with recording studios, soaking up the sound with acoustic tile and putting what’s left on tape.

          Select Sound Studio, a compact subterranean operation north of Buffalo, fits the form.

          The tapes Bill Kothen has taken of the house band – Topaz – are exceptionally clean and well-defined. And out on the front lawn you can’t hear a thing.

          Engineer Kothen’s story pretty much tells how such things come to pass:

          “I had some equalizers and mixers upstairs and I was foolin’ around with two- and four-track machines, recording my brother Nick’s band.

          “The first batch of tapes wasn’t so hot, but the next batch – that was the one that got us saying: ‘Let’s start a studio.’”

* * *

KOTHEN moved down cellar the first of the year, paneled the place, built a little control room and filled it up with an eight-track mixing board.

          Brother Nick, meantime, quit the band so he could start a record store in Old Town, U.S.A. The band regrouped and stayed in the basement, catching a lot of recording experience helping Kothen work out the bugs in the system.

          Some of their sessions lasted to dawn. The culmination is a demo tape of a sweet homesick country-rock song called “This Old Silver Highway,” which has harmonies that hail the Eagles.

          “Of course,” says Kothen, “I charged them for it. But not that much. What I’m trying for here is a situation where people can come in and not have to give their eyeteeth to record.”

* * *

THE DEMO tapes of “Silver Highway,” which was written by guitarist Dick Bauerle, and another Topaz tune called “Everyone Sees,” went to Amherst Records, where the producers thought they were good enough to be pressed as is.

          “You know what they say,” Kothen says proudly. “Inside every big recording studio is a small one.”

          The songs will come out on a new Amherst subsidiary – LuAnn Records. But no one knows when. Due to the current flurry of activity at the company, the record has been put on “indefinite hold.”

          The delay sets back Topaz’s plans to parlay their record into some high-powered gigs. Presently they’re booked through Great Lakes Agency at the Iron Horse on Dingens Street tonight, then they’re giving equipment man Jeff Leverett a couple weeks off while they work up new material.

          “Other groups have had songs out and only got local play,” says keyboard player Tim Hacker. “The Captain & Tennille didn’t make it big on their first record. You’ve just gotta keep throwing things at the wall until something sticks.”

* * *

TOPAZ IS at that early mature stage that’s ripe for a leap to success. The guys are in their early to mid 20s and have day jobs. Hacker’s been into music for 10 years. Bass guitarist Don Nuttle has been playing even longer.

          Drummer Jim Kam and Bauerle were the nucleus of the local group Hard Times in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, then formed Topaz to play heavy metal three-man music. That all changed with the addition of Hacker last winter.

          “We used to turn our amps up to about 10,” Bauerle recalls. “It wasn’t very danceable, plus we didn’t really enjoy it that much anyway. Now we’re more into stuff we like.”

          That accounts for the wide-ranging mixture of Top 40, heavy metal and oldies in their workmanlike sets.

          They follow the tight rhythm of ZZ Top’s “Have Mercy” with the twists and turns of “Band on the Run,” then lighten it up for a singalong of the Beach Boys’ “Fun, Fun, Fun” before drummer Kam gives a fluid and expressive rendering of Loggins & Messina’s “Danny’s Song.”

* * *

THEY TEST their versatility with their original songs too. Bauerle writes country-rock. Nuttle goes in for the heavy stuff. Kam, whose birthstone is topaz, leans toward the commercial. And Hacker’s tuned to ballads.

          “In the old days,” Bauerle remarks, “we didn’t try to copy the original records much. But with this band, since we all sing, we pick whoever sounds the most like the singer on the record.

          “Let’s face it,” he says, “if you’re copping other people’s music, what you want is the best imitation you can get.

          “Our original stuff goes over well too. If we can do our own stuff and still keep the people going, then we figure it’s good enough for Top 40 radio, right?”

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTOS: Top, engineer Bill Kothen at the mixing board. Bottom, the group Topaz harmonizes as tapes roll. From left, Tim Hacker, Jim Kam, Don Nuttle and Dick Bauerle.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: It wasn’t long before Bill Kothen moved Select Sound Studio out of his basement to a building on Elmwood Avenue, just north of the Kenmore village line, and he's had it there ever since. It offers classes in recording techniques and a variety of other services.

          Dick Bauerle went with the studio to Elmwood Avenue. As noted in his Buffalo Music Hall of Fame bio (he was inducted in 1988), he became the in-house producer. He’s worked with a great variety of people here and in New York City.

          He’s also continued playing guitar. He was with leading local country band Kenny Gunn and the Pistols in the late 1970s, then he discovered jazz. He put a band together that became the Dick Bauerle Group and recorded a track that got the attention of music director John Hunt at WBFO. Hunt used Select Sound for his live jazz concert broadcasts on NPR. One of those concerts was the group’s first gig.  

          Bauerle landed a song he wrote, “I Just Wanna Be Loved by You,” on the soundtrack of Mel Brooks’ “Spaceballs” movie. He was inducted again into the BMHOF in 2004 as part of the band Joyryde, which he joined in 1989. He’s continued to play with Joyryde, which has evolved into a special event band, as well as a group called the All Star Project, or ASP, which just played a few weeks ago at the Sportsmen’s Tavern.

He shows up occasionally as a talk show host on WBEN (his controversial brother Tom is a longtime afternoon talker on the station) and he’s on the Internet too. He’s put 41 of his songs on his website, dickbauerlemusic.com, and is very active on Facebook.

* * * * *

FURTHER NOTE: All of these transcripts of old reviews and feature articles about the Buffalo music scene can be found here in a somewhat more legible and searchable form on my Blogspot site: https://www.blogger.com/blog/posts/4731437129543258237.