Peppermint Presents...Rat Race!: A Journey Through Youngstown Music History

Count Dean and Count Anthony take you on the scariest journey you could ever imagine. We when through our archives and pulled out all the Halloween material we could find (not that much), and even got a visit from our favorite trick or treater...Nicky Mouse.

Best known as the frontman for The Dead Boys and The Lords Of The New Church, Stiv Bators was one of punk rock's pioneers. We talk with two partners from his solo career, Frank Secich and Eddy Best. These guys knew Stiv from day one and served as bandmates, mentors, co-conspirators, and hot dog roasting partners. Listen in and hear how power-pop transformed into punk rock in Youngstown.

The Human Beinz were one of the first bands from Youngstown to break out and have international fame. Their 1968 single "Nobody But Me" was a Top Ten hit, but by early 1969 the band was broken up. Ting Markulin is a founding member, and tells us about their formation, early days, and how he ended up recording singles with his cousin Steve at Peppermint in the early 70's.

Emissions From The Monolith was an underground heavy music festival that happened for nine years at the Nyabinghi on Youngstown's Westside. This year Greg Barratt and Nate Offerdahl bring the festival back, this time at Youngstown's new home for heavy sounds, Westside Bowl. Dean talks to Nate, Jeremy Koerber of Lake Lake, and Sam Buonavolonta of Fear Of Dancing about the festival and the state of heavy music in the valley. The festival takes place October 8-11 and is drawing bands and fans from around the globe to Youngstown...and who said there's nothing happening here?!

Left End is best known as early glam/shock-rock pioneers. Frontman Dennis T Menass' theatrical performances are still talked about to this day, and have influenced generations. Founding members of Left End, Patsy Palombo, Tom Figinsky, and Jim Puhalla join Anthony and Gary for a conversation about their more than fifty year career; which will conclude next month with their final performance. We talk about their earliest days, including their unreleased but soon to be reissued album, "Umbilicus"!

Lance is the curator behind the Brown Acid compilations, which feature many Youngstown and Peppermint artists. So it seemed appropriate to get his take on why he calls Youngstown the Mecca of hard rock...heavy psych...and what heads now just simply refer to as brown acid.

Youngstown native (though LA based) Ryan Nasci is a Grammy nominated audio engineer who has worked with Harry Styles, Portugal. The Man, Katy Perry, Cam, Young The Giant, and many more. We usually are talking about the past (and specifically music that had a very small regional audience), but on today's show we examine the life of a young engineer who is working on major pop records. Dean's on tour, so guest co-host and owner/engineer at Court Street Production Michael Estok joins us as well.

Dedicated listeners are familiar with Nicky Mouse (the Italian American mouse who lives at Peppermint and demands food from us in exchange for not chewing through the studio's cabling). On this week's show, we were called upon by Nicky to give him a ride to the Brier Hill festival. While on the scene we ran into and talked to many friends, business owners, and musicians about what the festival means to them and how the Italian immigrant culture has shaped the Mahoning Valley.

Greg Yochman has played bass with Mom's Apple Pie, Tony Palkovic, and Tony Favazzo (whose catalog we've reissued). From prog to fusion, he shares about his career in music and how he has always done it with a spirit of love and curiosity at the center.

We shine a light on some of the lesser know reissues we have released in the past few years. Just because they're only available digitally, doesn't mean they don't have interesting stories and aren't rippin' jams. So kick your feet up on the desk as we play some tunes, give a little update on our touring lives and what we've been working on at the studio (and even make a tomato sandwich or two.)

Every musician in Youngstown's favorite musician is Shedrick Hobbs. His career began in the 1940's playing in jump blues bands and dance bands in many of the city's Black clubs. He played with Charlie Parker, James Cleveland, Big Joe Turner, Bobby Marchan, Chuck Jackson. Locally, he would always be at a jam session, encouraging young players (Anthony learned how to play jazz from Shed when he was a teenager). He's hilarious and he's always generous to share his experiences and stories. He also gives us the secret on how to make two dozen donuts disappear between Youngstown and Warren.

Call him Sonny... Call him Sonny Needs Money... Call him Sonny Boy Hopcheck... However you know him, wether it's from Underdog Records, Sacksville Rhythm & Blues Band, The Todd...you know that Sonny is one of the best dudes around and a significant figure in Youngstown's musical culture.

In 1971 Jim Connor and his trio, Bull Run recorded an album which would not be heard by anyone until 2024. Jim had played in bands throughout the 60's, but after returning from his service in the military, he wanted to make a statement with his music. The result was a raw, proto-metal masterpiece that got rejected by every single label he sent it to, and the band got dirty looks from nearly every club owner who booked them. Decades later his daughter Kim Connor haded us the tapes and entrusted us to tell their story.

Mark and Tim Roller started Morly Grey not knowing that decades after releasing their only LP, "The Only Truth", original copies with sell for over a thousand dollars...even spawning its own hyper-local bootleg market. This year we reissued that album along with some home recorded demos that they dropped off at Peppermint in 1970. Mark and Tim are always a joy to chat with. They always bring us chili dogs from Jay's and we always end up laughing more than anything.

If you live in Youngstown, you know that Simply Slavic is the area's largest Slavic heritage festival. We talk with John Slanina about how he's help build the festival, why celebrating this heritage is important, and the diverse world of regional ethnic music that has sprung out of it. It's even inspired him to join a tamburitza orchestra.

Glass Harp are one of the best know bands to come out of Youngstown. We talk with Phil Keaggy and John Sferra about their early days playing together as teenagers, forming their first bands, wearing pointy shoes, and how they recorded "Where Did My World Come From", their 1969 demo LP that we recently released for the first time.

Marjon International was a recording studio and label in Hermitage, PA founded by husband and wife duo Martha and Johnny Krizancic. Though both have passed, we share an interview from 2016 that Anthony and Josh Roman recorded with Martha at her home where the studio was. We also talked with Josh, who is the owner and engineer at Mindrocket Recording Studio. Martha and Johnny were mentors to Josh and he is very much the keeper of the flame that they started with Marjon.

No other band recorded more at Peppermint than Blue Ash. We chat with founding members Jim Kendzor and Frank Secich about the band's new compilation of unreleased material, their unmatched work ethic, spending thousands at the Brown Derby, playing for Ettore Boiardi (oh you know him as Chef Boyardee!) and even creating their own musicians' union (kinda).

Our first Casual Friday. What's that? It means we're kickin' back and mostly just playing records. This show's loose theme is WAM records; Youngstown's first recording studio and label founded by Del Sinchak, which laid the groundwork for Peppermint. We even get our first call from Nicky Mouse (the mouse who lives at Peppermint).

Del Sinchak is Youngstown's polka king. He has had a 70 year career playing music which started with polkas and quickly shifted to Rock 'n' Roll and back to polka. Del tells us about recording "Rama-Lama-Ding-Dong" with the Edsels, his three Grammy nominations, starting the first recording studio in Youngstown, running Dusi Music, starting the Penn-Ohio Polka Pals, being the president of the musicians' union, and wrapping it all up with a sold out New Years show for his retirement.