"Max" has got to be one of the worst names for a band - especially in today's googley age. They performed a 6+ minute 70s-metal style song called Highways.
Pete Furzer - Vocals
Paul Hanson - Guitar
Edwin Tancioco - Drums
Brian West - Bass
There's just something about this song that puts it miles above the rest, in my opinion - and everyone I've played it for agreed that it's a pretty good tune. It's a shame that they don't seem to have any more material out there that I can find - at least, then, they can be immortalized through this one.
Some links I found:
Ann Boleyn (of Hellion?) trying to find the members: http://pnwbands.com/guestbook2006.html
Pete's truly one of the coolest guys I've ever met in my life. We occasionally hung out during 1981-83 and again in 1986 after I lived back east for a couple years. It's great to see that you really like one his bands' songs. I just did a Google search on his name and found your page here. Here are a few anecdotes from the proverbial "good ol' days"... One of Pete's earliest bands, circa 30 years ago, was called New Rome. When I first met him in 1981 I think his band was called something else but I can't remember what. They were a trio that included Pete's girlfriend Jaryn and a drummer named Ozzie. They had some great original material and a unique sound. Pete's shrill lead vocals and Ozzie's tight drumming were what really powered the band in my opinion. Jaryn definitely held up her end of the deal on lead guitar and backup vocals. Every band has to get its start somewhere. I think they were looking for any way they could possibly find to get some exposure, you know, to get the word out. In late 1981 they somehow discovered an old dance hall with a stage, for rent in the small town of Quilcene along the western shore of Hood Canal on the Olympic Peninsula. Pete liked to joke about the town's name sounding a lot like a drug! It really does! They decided to rent the hall for awhile and play frequent concerts there, something like every weekend I think. In a way it was a strategy ahead of its time: a certain Olympic Peninsula trio that formed six years later in Aberdeen, did quite well... Pete and Jaryn lived in a travel trailer Pete owned at the time, parked next to the hall. I think Ozzie slept in some side room of the hall. A quick last word about Ozzie: even though he was a great drummer, about a year or so after the Quilcene experiment he made the very uncool decision to depart the band by stealing all its equipment and skipping town, never to be seen or heard from again. Needless to say this totally bummed Pete and Jaryn out. They purchased an electronic drummer and continued as a duo. Back to the Quilcene story... A close childhood friend of Pete's named Leon and I were both attending college in Seattle at the time and shared a big house near Green Lake with four other people. In mid-December 1981, on the Friday my final exams were done, Leon and I made the long trek out to Quilcene from Seattle in my '75 Plymouth Duster TO PARTY ALL WEEKEND!!! You had to drive all the way around Hood Canal back then because the new bridge still wasn't finished after the old one broke apart in a windstorm in early 1979. It must have been at least 120 miles each way. Among some other things we brought, Leon brought along a bottle of mezcal and I brought along a huge box of navel oranges. I also brought along an excellent Panasonic boom box I had at the time and a bunch of cassette tapes recorded from a friend's gargantuan record collection. I remember people being really glad about those tapes because I think they were previously listening to nothing but Bob Seger, over and over...if I had to listen to the same artist over and over, and could pick, IT SURE WOULDN'T BE SEGER!!! But I also remember Pete becoming annoyed and telling me to stop playing my Genesis tapes at one point. Some bands I really liked (Genesis and Rush come to mind), Pete was not into at all. But we were in total agreement on others like the Floyd and "Fred Zep" as Pete and Jaryn liked to call them. Here are some other miscellaneous memories from that weekend: The first night about six or seven of us sat in a circle passing the mezcal around. So who got the worm? Who else but Pete! One of their neighbors was a Viet Nam vet who seemed out of sorts. They suspected him of possibly harboring a large illegal stockpile of guns. It made me kind of nervous the whole weekend. The only time he came over to the hall was for the concert, thankfully. Some recording executive wannabe stopped by the hall at one point during the day to listen to the band while they were rehearsing. Pete could tell right away they had no reason to pay any attention to him, but still, the guy showing up seemed kind of interesting to me. Pete, Leon and I took the Duster over to a nearby public beach one morning to get out and walk around a little. For some reason there were a bunch of dead fish washed up all along the beach, like salmon or something like that. They were pretty big fish, and there were LOTS of them. As if that wasn't weird enough, when we arrived back at the parking lot, within sight of my car, a police officer was there scoping it out looking inside through the windows. Unsettling...to say the least! (And I do mean...THE LEAST!) So who do you suppose totally handled the situation? Who else but Pete! He walked straight over, introduced himself with hand extended and launched into a friendly conversation. It turned out the officer was investigating a theft that occurred the night before, so everything was cool. Fast-forward to 1986... By far the best party I've ever been to in my life was at Pete and (his then wife) Pam's place in Tacoma, either in late May or early June 1986. It was freaky because old friends were showing up unexpectedly from faraway places even though there weren't that many people there. One of my favorite co-workers from the late '70s at Lynnwood Lanes named Ron (R.I.P.) showed up with his (then) wife Donna. They lived clear up in Marysville! What were they doing way down in Tacoma??? I was living up in Lynnwood at the time myself. The same exact thing happened with at least two other people there, and I think one of them lived east of the Cascades!!! Frrreaky.... Another really memorable thing is the band kept playing at high volume until around 4 AM and this was like, right in the middle of a residential neighborhood! Probably helped that it was a college neighborhood (Univ. of Puget Sound), but still, it was so cool nobody complained! When the party finally broke up I found a good spot to crash on the floor. So who thoughtfully got a blanket and slung it over me to keep me warm, even though he must have been way ready to crash himself? Who else but Pete! (Hey mon if you ever see this, thanks again that was SO TOTALLY COOL OF YOU!!!) I'd say it was Pete who turned me into a metal fan more than anyone else, even though it didn't happen until years later. I still remember heading south late at night in my diesel Rabbit somewhere around Lubbock, listening to a metal station on my way to Austin when I moved there in August 1989. I cranked it way up to stay awake. They were playing some really good songs and I totally got into it. I remember thinking to myself, "HEY I GET IT!!! I CAN SEE WHY PETE ALWAYS LIKED THIS STUFF SO MUCH!!!" Metal and grunge have been two of my favorite musical genres ever since that time, almost 20 years ago now. Haven't talked to Pete since summer 1990 when I phoned him from Austin. I remember him telling me he had a new girlfriend at the time and he'd recently done some work with Metal Church, I think producing. Pete if you ever see this, thanks again for all the great times! I wish you peace and happiness forever! Mark
Comment left on unknown date:
I think Ann Boleyn worked with Edwin Tancioco, Brian West, and Furzer and they were on a track on the California's Best Metal album--trial by fire?