Category Archives: Astoria

disraeli “What Will the New Day Bring” on Mantra Records

Disraeli Mantra PS Spinnin' Round

Disraeli Mantra 45 Spinnin' Rounddisraeli (spelled with a lower case d) self-produced four 45s from 1967-70, finding an original sound that was both accessible and psychedelic.

Band members were Steven Mathre lead vocals, Al Nelson lead vocals and saxophone, Thomas Stangland guitar, Roger Everett guitar and vocals, Steve Kernes bass, and Gene “Geno” Faust drums and vocals. Richard Keefer, who did a lot of engineering work for Oregon and southern Washington bands, also helped produce disraeli’s records.

disraeli Mantra 45 What Will the New Day Bring
Remastered monophonic version of “What Will the New Day Bring” due to DJs being unable to broadcast stereo records
When a copy of their third 45 came up for sale, the seller (I’m sorry, I don’t know who) wrote a good description of the group:

These handsome chaps all attended Astoria High School in the mid 1960’s…

Their freshman effort was “Tomorrows Day” b/w “Humidity 105”. People liked this record everybody bought copies, fellow students, people at the gigs, their relatives of which they had many and their relatives friends.

They had two frontmen, Steve Mathre and Al Nelson who both sang up a storm and played the tamborine so hard they had to wear gloves to keep from getting blisters. Al also played a mean tenor sax … They sold stock certificates to their friends and neighbors, got better gear went back to the studio and recorded another 45.

“What Will the New Day Bring?” and “Spinning ‘Round”, songs about a peeping Tom with a knife and coming home drunk with the whirlies for the first time respectively. The picture sleeve for this 45 was color and featured the band in matching red blazers out on the south jetty at the mouth of the Columbia, a popular spot to party and race cars not to mention neck etc. This record was supposed to establish disraeli. Both sides were predicted to be hits, it was recorded in stereo, a big deal in ’67 for a 45. The record got airplay and charted around the Northwest.

I remember seeing a billboard for the band in Portland Oregon in late ’67 it said:

disraeli….

listen

What Will the New Day Bring back cover
Back cover of the sleeve for What Will the New Day Bring

A band self-releasing a 45 with a color picture sleeve was unusual for the time, and to release it in stereo in 1967 is extremely rare.

45 releases:

Mantra 001 – Tomorrow’s Day (Stangland – Mathre) / Humidity 105
Mantra 113 – What Will The New Day Bring? / Spinnin’ Round
Mantra 114 – Say You Love Me (Stangland-Mathre) / I’ve Seen Her One Time (Stangland-Mathre)
Mantra 115 – The Lonely One (Stangland-Mathre-Wiley-McKune) / You Can’t Do That

Thomas Stangland mentioned to me that “There were probably 8-10 tracks recorded, but never released because of minor glitches or they just didn’t seem good enough.”

Disraeli Mantra PS Say You Love Me
Sleeve for their third 45

The Zero End

The Zero End band

The band came from east of Astoria, Oregon, the small communities of Knappa and Svensen to be exact (the area had a large number of people of Swedish descent).Zero End Garland 45

The members were:

Carl Salo
Bill Tynkila
Tom Kayser (Keyser?) – guitar
Bill Maley
Toivo Lahti – drums

The Zero End’s first 45 on Garland, “Blow your Mind” / “Fly Today” from late ’67 has a dark sound. Their next and last shows the influence of psychedelia, as “Lid to Go” has the lines “don’t you know he’s a flower child/ what a crime, being high.” The version of “Hey Joe” has a good fuzz solo. Dig the cool drum head in the photo above.

Both sides of the first 45 are by Tynkila/Salo. Songwriting on “Lid to Go” is by Bill Maley and Carl Salo. Dale Hansen produced both 45s. The Garland label was from Salem, OR, owned by Gary Neiland of Prince Charles & the Crusaders.

I didn’t much about the band until JP Coumans sent me the article from Hipfish, below. As the article states, the band started out as the Vanchees until Bill Tynkila suggested Zero End. They had a manager, Dale Hansen who booked them throughout the Northwest. At the club below the Portland youth center The Headless Horseman, they saw a band called Seattle Gazebo that was playing the new psychedelic free-form music. It was a revelation to the band, who returned to Knappa and remade their sound completely.

They played venues such as the Riviera Theater in Astoria and the Crystal Ballroom in Portland. The Hipfish article mentions a live recording from the Riviera, which I’d love to hear.


Hipfish – Arts & Culture Monthly, vol. 2, issue 19: Astoria & the North Coast, March 1999
– does anyone have the continuation or know the author?

Thanks to J.P. Coumans for the article scan.