History

Ted Hyland’s first recording studio location was the ground floor, front half of his apartment on lower Central Avenue. It was next door to World’s Records with no signage. Dirty Face would rehearse there and record demos in the mid 80’s. There were a couple young kids that lived next door who were often outside playing on the sidewalk. They seemed pretty feral, and provided us with some harmless moments of entertainment now and then. One day, one of the kids was teetering on the edge of the street curb balanced upon a wheel-less skateboard while repeatedly singing/chanting “I am a rock-n-roll”. My bandmate Matt Hayes and I were really struck by this and would randomly break out into this kid’s song, being the earworm that it was. When Ted finally got tired of hearing us repeat our new catch phrase, he asked where we heard it. When we told him about his neighbors’ kids, he said “oh, those are the paint chip kids. I think they’ve been eating some of the paint chips off of the windows.” For some equally feral reason, we seriously considered re-naming the band “The Paint Chip Kids”.

Now obviously, making light of children with lead poisoning would be a terrible thing to do. And that certainly was not our intent. No, there was a deeper realization in the term. The philosophical read is that in mankind’s vain desire to beautify itself it actually hurts the very ones it should be protecting. A cycle of vanity, stupidity, pain, regret, ugliness and penance. The artist’s read would have something to do with the fragments and aftermath of the creative process. At least, those are the ways I looked at it. And once I got past the serious morality (or lack thereof) behind it, I did what any young, punk-rock-wannabe would do – I embraced the anger and the comedy in it.

When I approached our then manager Charlene Shortsleeve (co-owner and manager of the QE2 nightclub), she was amused by the concept. So much so that she actually added a byline to our name in the QE2 show listings. It read “Dirty Face – The Paint Chip Kids”. Over time, clearer minds prevailed and we let that idea pass. Actually, I think Char’s initial response was “that’s stupid” but she entertained us for a short while.

I should note that at that time, Dirty Face played the QE2 more often than any other artist. Char went out of her way to help us. We were in the regular rotation at her previous clubs – Duck Soup and 288. She, along with her husband Dave, would give me weekly jobs to do. At QE2, I would run the lights, man the coat check, be a bar runner, and I also was a driver for their limousine. A highlight of the limo job was driving Elvis Costello around and arguing about not believing him when he said that the Grateful Dead were his favorite American band. Anyhow, I digress.

Dirty Face’s first tour (aptly named the “Bad Things Will Happen” tour) roughly followed the same path of our second one – west beneath the Great Lakes, down the Mississippi, east above the gulf, and then back home up the east coast. Unbeknownst to us, Char passed a jar around the bar for a week or so and handed the collections in a Crown Royal pouch to my girlfriend (now wife) Teresa. She, along with our ex-roommates Billy Riley and his girlfriend (now wife) Kathy were meeting us at the Blue Note in Columbia Missouri. Of course, we were flat broke and that bag of money literally fed us and gassed us around the eastern half of the country and back.

As I became more involved with the promotional aspect of the band, and as we prepared our second full length release, titled “Mad Again”, I decided to use a record label name instead of my own. I chose Paint Chip Records. The 1991 release was only on cassette. At that very beginning it was just Char and I trying to promote Dirty Face in hopes of landing a record deal.

It was in preparation for the second tour that Char and I became more serious about the promotion of the band. As a talent buyer herself, Char had acquired a vast database of not only nightclubs, but local press and radio stations. Char shared that database with me. And for the kids at home, “database” did not mean a computer file – it was a pile of papers, magazines and calendar notes. I also used my relationships with friends at WCDB to get more information and maybe I also snagged a few industry magazines (CMJ, Hard Report, etc.) from their office. Another great resource was an early supporter of the band and a DJ at WEQX known as “The Beast Of The Northeast”. Some may now know him as Howard Glassman.

Those promotional efforts built on what I’ve done in the past with Dirty Face. Our first release, the 7” single “Carousel” (SIDE A) backed with “Understand” (SIDE 1) was partially funded by George Guarino and his BUZZ Magazine. Although the label itself was the Mark Ernst’s MCE Records. Our second release, the 12” album “I Can Hurt Myself (If I want To)”, utilized paid advertisements on the back of the album sleeve from QE2, The Music Shack and Buzz Magazine. The actual label on that release was Art Snay’s Arabellum Records.

Back in the late 80’s / early 90’s, my efforts to promote Dirty Face meant phone calls, promo packages via the US Mail, and several “showcase” gigs at CBGB’s. Mad Again and the band’s live shows got some great press, rave reviews, and generally positive responses. But we couldn’t quite land a deal for a recording contract. I think we had the songs, instrumental talent, attitude, energy and look to get signed but I simply did not have a good enough singing voice. After a few months of rejection and the strain that put on me and the band, Dirty Face took a short break. During that pause, I remember hearing Smells Like Teen Spirit for the first time. I was driving down Madison Ave listening to WCDB and I had to pull over. I was blown away and inspired. That led to a writing spree and a band reformation to record the first Paint Chip Records CD “Big Lollipop Head”. That re-started my promotional efforts under the guise of Paint Chip Records.

Unofficially, I had a partner in Billy Riley, who provided all of the artwork for Dirty Face. Billy and I met in 1983. My band at the time – The Fan Club (later, Names For Numbers) shared the stage with his band The Brink and we became close friends. We shared an apartment on the corner of Lark St. and State St. It was while living there that we both met our future wives, Teresa and Kathy.

Anyhow, the promotional efforts for Big Lollipop Head resulted in failure, by which I mean it did NOT get us signed to a record label. I certainly did learn a lot though, and in the process, developed contacts and relationships throughout the music industry.

I also became more knowledgeable about and the recording process. I was always into the audio engineering side of music. I learned a lot back in the early 80’s working with Mark Ernst at MCE and then Art Snay at Arabellum. The development continued with Ted Hyland at Hyland Recording. Unfortunately, the Big Lollipop Head recording process went horribly wrong. That really ended the the Dirty Face era. Still, in local circles, there were several bands that took notice to my efforts, both musically, technically and business-wise. So, Paint Chip Records became my new priority.

– Dominick