WHEN WERE THE INSOMNIACS NOT THE INSOMNIACS?

 

Rich here to talk about another DIY band I met back in the somewhat early days of my involvement in Cassette Culture. 

 

Back in the early '90s a friend of mine sent me a mix-tape that included a couple songs that I really liked by a band I'd never heard of -- THE INSOMNIACS from rural Illinois. I was strongly attracted to the unique voice of their lead singer, their rough-hewn sound and melodies that bore mid-Sixties Kinks and other British Invasion influences, and the band's heartland appeal. 

 

A few months later I was fortunate to find myself trading some of my self-recorded music with the bass player and principal songwriter of THE INSOMNIACS, Bill Retoff, and we became quite close, often talking on the phone for several hours about how we wrote songs, how we recorded, and about the difficulties of making a living as a musician in the Heartland of America, a subject I knew well, given that before I moved to Seattle in the mid-'80s, I'd tried to make a living as a "road musician" in Kansas.

 

At some point, the tapes and records Bill was sending me were no longer inscribed with the name "The Insomniacs." Instead, they bore the name RETOFF, McKENZIE, BUTLER & PIERCE.

 

Turns out there was another band known as The Insomniacs who were unhappy that someone else was using their name, which they felt they had prior rights to. Being the nice, polite Midwestern guys they were, RETOFF, McKENZIE, BUTLER & PIERCE relinquished the Insomniacs name and adopted a "law firm" type moniker featuring only their surnames. 

 

 

After that, the band lasted only a few short years more (roughly 'til the mid-to-late '90s, I believe). But in 1997 the French label Pop The Balloon Records released a compilation album called "Where Were You . . . When the Lights Went Out! The Retoff, McKenzie, Butler & Pierce Story," a collection that included all the band's recordings. 

 

After the dissolution of the band, Bill Retoff went on to release several solo recordings on his own label (Maize Records), which were recorded in his home, which he calls "The Psychedelic Farmhouse," and he has a busy schedule playing with the bar band Ray's Rockets. Meanwhile lead singer Dan McKenzie has performed with a couple other bands, including The Porcupines and The Gilligans (the latter whom I have written about before) and is a leading figure in local community theatre.

 

But the music of The (Illinois) Insomniacs lives on.

 THE INSOMNIACS - "If I'm Not Your Man" (1989)

"THE INSOMNIACS - "It's What You Do To Me" (1992)