Rock guitarist Michael Purkhiser enters new dimension with ‘3-D’
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Rock guitarist Michael Purkhiser is back with a new collection of songs.
Actually, it’s an old collection.
The Stow native enjoyed regional success in the 1980s as a member of The Action and The Walking Clampetts, packing clubs from Akron to Kent to Cleveland to Youngstown.
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His studio project “3-D,” which was recorded in 1997 at Big Adventure Sound in Akron, has finally been released after 25 years. In trying to describe the raw, energetic fusion of styles, Purkhiser has coined a new term.
“It’s not surf music per se, but it kind of sounds like surf music,” he said. “And at the time I was writing this stuff, I was listening to British movie soundtracks and TV soundtracks. We needed a name for this thing, so I called it ‘surftrack’ music. It was surf but it was also soundtrack music.”
Want to check it out?
The four-song instrumental EP is available in limited-edition red vinyl via MuSick Recordings or can be downloaded on Bandcamp. The album available July 22 features previously unseen art by the musician’s late brother Erick Lee Purkhiser, better known as horror-punk legend Lux Interior, the lead singer and co-founder of The Cramps.
In honor of the “3-D” release, Purkhiser, 67, took time out in Los Angeles to chat with us about his music career.
Let’s start at the beginning.
British Invasion in Stow
He was 9 years old when The Beatles invaded his childhood home in 1964. Older brother Rick, who had a big record collection, introduced him to the Fab Four.
“He was the one that brought me to The Beatles, The Who and all the British Invasion,” Purkhiser said. “He was totally into music.”
The kid was so inspired that he picked up a guitar and figured out notes.
“I started out on acoustic, but the strings were way off the fret board so it really hurt my hands,” Purkhiser said.
When his Elvis-loving mother, Ruth, realized her son was serious about playing, she bought him an electric guitar at Akron Music Center.
“It was called a Vox Student Prince,” Purkhiser said. “It was like the cheapest model they made, I found out years later, and I actually still have that guitar.”
He played in garage bands for a few years before forming Tea in 1969 at age 14. His mom drove him to rehearsals and his brother, a talented artist, drew a poster. Tea performed at high school dances and random gigs around Stow.
“We played Led Zeppelin, Cream, Hendrix,” he said. “We were into the heavier stuff.”
He and his brother inspired each other. He still wishes he had the letter that Rick sent from California in the early 1970s.
“He wrote me and said, ‘Man, I see what you see in bands now. I’m going to start a band,’ ” Purkhiser said. “That kind of all started his musical thing.”
Rick Purkhiser met his future wife, Kristy Wallace, at Sacramento State in 1972. They lived briefly in Akron before moving to New York and forming The Cramps, a self-described “psychobilly” band. The leader singer took the stage name Lux Interior while the guitarist became Poison Ivy.
“He’s always been really supportive of me and what I’ve done,” Purkhiser said. “I’ve always been really supportive of him and what he did with The Cramps.”
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After graduating from Stow High in 1972 at age 16, Purkhiser attended the University of Akron and earned an Associate of Science Degree in electrical/electronics maintenance and repair technology. He ran an electronics company, repairing, building and modifying amplifiers.
His favorite Ohio bands in the early 1970s were The Raspberries, James Gang and Glass Harp. He recalls seeing The Raspberries at JB’s in Kent.
“They came out, had the matching outfits on, and the Marshall amps,” Purkhiser said. “It was like, ‘Oh, man.’ They were amazing sounding.”
The Action arrives on scene
Around 1978, Purkhiser answered a Scene magazine ad from bassist Brent Warren, who was looking for a guitarist.
“We both liked Raspberries and wanted to put something together along the lines of a power-pop kind of thing,” he said.
Along with drummer Brian Shearer, they formed The Action, a trio that earned critical acclaim if not a lot of commercial success.
Their home was The Bank, an Akron nightclub with a cool scene. They also played at JB’s in Kent, The Agora in Cleveland, Pirate’s Cove in the Flats and The Phantasy in Lakewood.
The group released the singles “Get Back to Me” and “She’s Got My Heart” on Radiogram Records, played New York clubs like CBGB and Hurrah and opened for such acts as The Romantics and Joan Jett.
Purkhiser thinks the band didn’t live up to its potential because of its studio recordings, which, in retrospect, seem lightweight. The group just didn’t sound as powerful in the studio as it did in concert.
“We got into a lot of offices in New York to speak to people,” he said. “A lot of them liked the material, but I think they were put off by the fact that it was a little bit too wimpy.”
The Action’s WMMS Coffee Break Concert from 1982 was the only good recorded representation of the group’s sound, he said.
The band continued for a few more years, with Cliff Bryant succeeding Shearer on drums, but it eventually ran its course and broke up in 1984.
Rockabilly to the rescue
Enter The Walking Clampetts, a rockabilly-surf band that singer-guitarist John Teagle had formed in 1981 as Johnny Clampett & The Walkers. Purkhiser used to go see them at Mother’s Junction in Kent and thought they were cool.
In a sweaty club with a crowded dance floor, the group cranked out classics by Link Wray, Dick Dale, Elvis Presley, Johnny Burnette and others.
“At first, it was like ‘Get up and play a song with us.’ Then it was like ‘Get up and play a couple songs with us.’ Finally, it was like: ‘Why don’t you just be in the band?’ ” he said.
Purkhiser joined Teagle, bassist Bob Basone and drummer Michael Hammer in the group’s classic incarnation.
“It was a good lineup,” he said. “We really had a lot of fun.”
The band opened for Stray Cats, Los Lobos and The Smithereens. The Clampetts mostly did covers, but recorded original material in the late 1980s and talked with a producer about putting something out.
“But nothing ever came of that, so we just kind of let that go,” Purkhiser said.
The Clampetts broke up in 1990, but couldn’t stay apart for long. They started having reunion shows in 1991, which continue 30 years later. The most recent one was in April at Jilly’s Music Room in Akron.
“I try to get back once a year, generally when we do those shows, and I get a chance to see everybody,” Purkhiser said.
After The Clampetts, Purkhiser worked as a front-house engineer who toured with 1964: The Tribute, a well-known Beatles tribute, and the Broadway production “Rain,” also a Fab Four tribute. He built amps to replicate the distinctive sound of The Beatles.
‘3-D’ is studio project in Akron
In 1997, he began writing new material, which led to “3-D,” a nod to his brother’s passion for 3-D photography. He recorded over 20 tracks at Big Adventure in Akron with Marky Ray, Dave “Tate” Stephenson, John Koury and other musicians.
They released a five-song EP titled “Universal Conquest” and planned to release another record, “Stere-O-View,” on a Cleveland label.
Purkhiser told his brother Lux about the album and asked if he could illustrate it.
“So he did the artwork for it and sent it to me, and I thought it was really, really cool,” Purkhiser said. “But the record never came out, so basically the tapes and the artwork went on the shelf for 25 years.”
Lux Interior died unexpectedly of an aortic dissection Feb. 4, 2009, in Glendale, California. He was 62.
“I just thought he was the greatest,” Purkhiser later eulogized. “He was so inspiring and so alive.”
The “3-D” project was all but forgotten. Purkhiser went on the road, doing front-house sound. Other than reunions with The Walking Clampetts, he wasn’t musically active.
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Based in Los Angeles since 2014, Purkhiser is national repair manager in the audio division of Production Resource Group (PRG), a global company that supplies equipment and services for the concert industry.
“I got lucky because I’ve got a good job and I’ve made a lot of new friends here,” he said.
One buddy, Art Bourasseau, owns MuSick Recordings, an indie label that specializes in instrumental rock, surf and garage.
“We get together for dinner once a week, but I never talked about my music whatsoever,” Purkhiser said. “Finally, a mutual friend of ours, Evan Foster from The Boss Martians up in Seattle, heard my music and he really flipped out.”
Foster told Bourasseau he had to check out those killer “3-D” songs.
“And that’s when Art listened to it and decided to put it out,” Purkhiser said.
Foster mastered the tracks at No-Count Studios in Seattle.
Four of the instrumentals that Purkhiser wrote 25 years ago — “Razor Ridge,” “Moonshot ’69,” “Requiem for a Surfer” and “3-D Theme” — are on the new EP, and Lux Interior’s original artwork, including a handheld camera and stereo optical devices, can finally be viewed by the public.
The world’s first surftrack record is a tribute to a big brother.
“He was the one that introduced me to music,” Purkhiser said.
Mark J. Price can be reached at mprice@thebeaconjournal.com.
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This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: From The Action to The Walking Clampetts, Michael Purkhiser is in 3-D
