Dirty Looks Rocked Erie in 1991

Dirty Looks, left to right: Ostergaard, Lidel, Pyers and Harris. Photo ©Debbi Lyon 2014.

Dirty Looks appeared at St. Boniface Community Center on Wattsburg Road in May of 1991. I interviewed lead singer Henrik Ostergaard for an article that was published in Showcase, the weekly entertainment supplement to the Erie Daily Times and Morning News, on May 23, 1991. Here are the highlights of the article:

Dirty Looks is playing in Erie and there's no need to pack up the car and travel to Cleveland, Pittsburgh, or State College to see them. This time, Dirty Looks will load the Marshall stacks into rental trucks and set up shop in Erie, between tour dates in New York and Toronto.

"We're really looking forward to coming, since we haven't been back for four years," said lead singer/guitarist Henrik Ostergaard. "Erie's sort of my hometown."

Dirty Looks has been on tour for the last two months. The band played Cleveland's Agora Theater on April 6, 1991 and about half the audience drove from Erie to see them. 

When Henrik Ostergaard lived in Erie several years ago, he was a member of the local rock band, Crossfire. It released one single 'Love On Demand,' on the Select Sound label. He then formed Dirty Looks, which also included ex-Harpo bassist Jack Pyers and local drummer Steve McConnell. Pyers recently rejoined Dirty Looks after a brief health-related hiatus. The current line-up also includes guitarist Paul Lidel and drummer Jim Harris, a New York City native.

Besides its tour, Dirty Looks has a new album coming soon on Shrapnel Records' Hard Rock series. Bootlegs is a collection of nine original songs, most of which were rejected by Atlantic Records, the band's former label. Some songs, like 'Fang and the Love Pig,' are given two-thumbs down just because a label executive didn't like the title. "'Fang' is a love story about a futuristic pig and a cat called Fang," said Ostergaard. The song has a Faith No More flavor to it.

The album's strongest track, 'Speed Queen,' was written before the Cool From the Wire album was released on Atlantic. It aired on Rocket 101's 'Homegrown Show' and Tommy Edwards said he had been getting lots of calls requesting Dirty Looks. Ostergaard has promoted the album with interviews on WERG-FM and WFSE-FM.

Why did Ostergaard license the master tapes to Shrapnel for the Bootlegs album? "Some people are rich. We have to do it for a living. We needed the money to live on."

The songs, which were recorded at Acme Studios in New York and Dodge City in California, mostly feature the line-up that played on the two Atlantic Records releases (Cool From the Wire and Turn of the Screw); Ostergaard, Pyers, Lidel and drummer Gene Barnett. Barnett went on to perform with Lillian Axe and Paul Lidel joined Dangerous Toys.

Henrik Ostergaard died on January 27, 2011. He was born December 11, 1963.

Find more fun facts and old photos of Erie-based bands and buildings on Old Time Erie.

Henrik Ostergaard pre-Dirty Looks band Crossfire

-ad in the Erie Star, Dec. 1982, courtesy of R. J. Arrowsmith.

Dirty Looks was one of the hottest hard rock bands to come out of Erie, PA, signing with a major label and touring the country. Dirty Looks was lead by Henrik Ostergaard, the enigmatic lead vocalist and guitarist.

Henrik was performing in local bands long before Atlantic Records released Dirty Looks' Cool From the Wire album in 1988.

Henrik fronted the Erie band Crossfire, and released a 45 with the songs "Love on Demand" and "Doctor" on the Select Sound label. In addition to Henrik, the band included Jim Chartley on bass and vocals, Chris Trott on guitar and vocals, and Ed Bosak on drums.

Ostergaard and Chartley moved to California to start an early incarnation of Dirty Looks. By the time Cool From the Wire was recorded, Henrik was performing with Paul Lidel, Jack Pyers and Gene Barnett.

Henrik Ostergaard is shown on the far right in the Crossfire photo, minus his usual long hair, sunglasses and baseball cap. Henrik died January 27, 2011. He was 47 years old.

Keith Veschecco, TRS Audio 1990 profile, Erie PA

Musician/producer Keith Veshecco passed away in his home in Millcreek Township, Erie Co., PA on August 18, 2012. I interviewed Keith for an article called "A Musician's Guide to Local Recording Studios," which was published in the Erie Times-News tab Showcase on June 21, 1990.

T.R.S. Twang Recording Studio

When Keith Veschecco and his partner, John Mazza, opened Twang Recording Studio (T.R.S.) in 1977, it was to record their own band, Twang. Soon, however, the monthly loan payment for the equipment loomed over them, and they opened the studio to other bands as a way to pay the bills. The list of bands that recorded at the old T.R.S. location- Keith's house- includes Rick DiBello, the Peens, Tri-Pod Jimmie, Guardian, the Generic Beat, and Blynde Dog, to name a few.

They opened their new sixteen-track studio at 2617 Peach, Suite 203, in 1988, and charge $35 per hour to record bands. The studio occupies two rooms in an old public school building. The recording studio measures thirty feet by 28 feet, large enough to accommodate the sixty-member choir that recently recorded here. Veshecco said the room is bigger than the one at the Record Plant in New York City where John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen had recorded. The high ceiling at T.R.S. helps acoustically, said Veshecco.

In the past year, Talon, T.H. Latona, the Ed Russell Trio and Marty O'Connor have recorded full-length albums at T.R.S. O'Connor's release is available on cassette and compact disc. In addition, three artists have recorded singles at T.R.S.: Knightwitch, the Change and Bob Guenther.

Instruments are also available at T.R.S., including guitars, basses, guitar amplifiers, MIDI keyboards, a MIDI drum machine and drum kit. There is also a Macintosh computer for MIDI programs. The recording formats are one-quarter-inch and one-half-inch reel-to-reel tape. Veshecco said he wants to see where technology is headed before he moves up to a larger format. 

"What makes a good recording," said Veschecco, "is taking time getting things right." The performance, not the sound, is what makes the music sell. Band members are usually nervous when they first go into the studio. "The longer they're here, the more comfortable they are," he said. "So, it makes more sense to spend 100 hours in a $50 per-hour studio than spending fifty hours in a $100 per-hour studio. You can spend more time on a project and spend less money and still get a goo quality product."

Dirty Looks signed on with Atlantic Records as a result of In Your Face, an album they recorded at T.R.S. and released on the independent Mirror Records. The basic track from the song "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You"(on the Cool From the Wire album), was recorded at T.R.S. and then remixed by Atlantic. "This proves that the quality we can deliver can make it to a national CD," said Vechecco.

Henrik Ostergaard of Dirty Looks recommended T.R.S. "If you want to make good-sounding stuff at an affordable price, you should use T.R.S.," he said. "And if you want to release an LP, CD, or whatever, that's the place."

I'm hoping that my niche will be bringing bands from the bigger cities here to record," said Veshecco of his future plans.

T.R.S. is able to deliver finished cassettes and compact discs by working with outside pressing and duplicating sources. It can also duplicate small runs of cassettes in-house.

"We can help people if they let us," said Veshecco. "If it isn't right, we won't accept a lower-quality level. Our name is on there, too."

Veschecco and Mazza learned recording techniques on their own and through a course they took at Agency Recording Studio in Cleveland in the late seventies. They also spent one month in Cleveland around that time working on the Clockwise album.

Recording hours are flexible. "We try to cater by recording artists at their most comfortable time," said Veshecco. For rock groups, this usually translates to recording at night.

-article ©Debbi Lyon 1990, 2012.

Local Bands on Display

Old Display at the Blasco Memorial Library by Debbi Lyon.

Local Bands on Display

Several months back I gathered up a bunch of records, articles and pictures of Erie bands. The display was up for about a month at the Blasco Memorial Library and I thought I would share part of the collection here. So, here we have it...photos of X-It (featuring Pat Monahan, now of Train), Mars, Brother's Keeper, the Peens, the Arkay IV, Satin Steel, Dirty Looks, Prophecy, Red, White & Blueberry, Marty Lee with Donnie Iris, the Stabilizers, Pistol Whip and the Pulse.