All Over Albany

My Exit: Mark G.

It's Monday. Time for another My Exit on WEXT -- where, once a week, a listener picks the music.

This week, Mark G. takes us back to the Buffalo music scene of the early 80s.

About Mark G.

My name's Mark G. and this will be my first My Exit. I'm a contributing writer for the Saratoga Business Journal and I live in Guilderland. But I grew up in Western New York.

The Buffalo music scene

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Buffalo area had an incredible live music scene, with now-closed clubs like the rock castle at McVan's in Black Rock and the Continental downtown. Several local bands had everything going to make it big, but just never got the lucky break. Some of them may have played around here, and you may have seen them. If you didn't, then I'm pleased to have this opportunity to present some of their music to you.

A few songs from Mark's My Exit:

"Sink Your Teeth Into That" - Talas
The metal godfathers of Buffalo rock. This track is an example of their trademark sound -- Dave Constantino's searing vocals, Paul Varga's thundering drums and the legendary Billy Sheehan's feedback bass.

"Sick Girls" - The Jumpers
A punk/power pop band that never got the fame it deserved. This song is tight and aggressive and has snarky vocals that will make you think of the Buzzcocks.

"Zolian Space" - Trek With Quintronic
I saw this band on a sweltering night in a cramped little night club on Hertel Avenue that's also no longer there. This song, recorded years before everybody stateside started using synthesizers, shows how this pair were combining smooth melodies and squonky noises into some amazing music.

"Protection/Intensified" and "Police Feel So Tall" - David Watts and the Great Train Robbery
Both tracks, from the mid 1980s This is Intensified! EP burst out of your speakers with the band's trademark big brass/ska sound and give you a taste of their live shows. Blame yourself if you don't dance.

So grab a plate of chicken wings, and as mayor Jimmy Griffin once said: "Grab a six-pack, wait for the snowplows, and listen to Mark's show." Okay, so he never said anything about my show.

You can hear Mark's My Exit show Monday night at 11 pm on 97.7, Saturday at 8 am, or at exit977.org.

Here's how to schedule your own My Exit show on WEXT.