It all began in a garage in Burbank, California when Alan Kuczer walked in coming from Missouri and shared his guitar music passion with drummer Bill Mickesh (The Animal) and Bob Massini from Illinois on bass. Together they began to work on Alan's guitar riffs and searching for the ideal vocalist. After a long search they found the perfect vocalist songwriter the Boston Brat himself Steven Annese and within months started playing shows in Hollywood and surrounding Los Angeles area. Just before their first show came about the name was not set for the band and with the pressure of their first gig at the Waters Club they chose Alan's last name KUCZER. It was not long until they became a Hollywood headliner writing 32 songs with help from Kevin Campbell and brother Chris whom road managed the band. Raymondo Upton (Tiffany, Mike Love Beach Boys) was also trying to help get this band noticed as they were by Jet Records. In 1990 Kuczer was chosen as the best original band in Hollywood and performed at Rinconfest on the beach of Rincon, Puerto Rico.
NEW BUSINESSMEN ON SUNSET STRIP
By Steve Appleford
Chicago Tribune
March 25, 1990
LOS ANGELES — ''Have you guys ever thought about wearing makeup"
That`s exactly what Raymundo asked, sitting there in guitarist Alan Kuczer`s Burbank apartment, smiling pleasantly above the starched white collar folded around his neck. It wasn`t the sort of question the young, long-haired men gathered around him expected at all. They caught one another`s eyes with a quick glance, but they didn`t interrupt. Raymundo, after all, was here to tell the members of this quartet named Kuczer how to become rock `n` roll stars.
The man who called himself Raymundo, but whose business cards said he was Raymond Upton, went on. Soon he moved from makeup to hair, from hair and hair extensions (add-on hair for those budding rockers who can`t grow theirs long enough quickly enough) to flashy costumes and other show-biz tools. Before long, Raymundo was reminiscing about Kiss, that campy mid-`70s hard rock act that had its members painted up like two-tone comic book heroes.
Kuczer hadn`t been aiming for anything like that. This first meeting with Raymundo was in part to win over the pop music veteran as their manager while picking up some of his secrets to rock success. Alan Kuczer had come to Los Angeles from St. Louis for his shot at stardom, singer Steven Annese had come from Boston, bassist Bob Masini from Chicago, and drummer Bill Mickesh from Burbank.
Now the 2-year-old band was scheming to conquer Hollywood`s hard rock scene, centered a short drive away on the celebrated Sunset Strip.
For Raymundo, this was all just extracurricular activity, something to do on his time off from Beach Boys singer Mike Love`s Global Entertainment Organization, which produces concerts for the Beach Boys and other groups, including the Kokomo Girls, the female answer to New Kids on the Block.
He quickly adopted the lecturing tone of a friendly, though firm, career counselor. The band listened in grim silence as he spun off a dizzying rap about budgets, business plans, strategies and month-by-month expenses.
''A group needs to know as much about the business side of things as the music side. It`s just as important,'' Raymundo insisted. ''Everything that happens has to be part of a very carefully planned strategy.''
The language of business is becoming the common language of the Strip for the nearly 500 bands struggling night after night to fill West Hollywood clubs and somehow win a recording contract. The anti-establishment rebellion that ruled the club scene here a decade ago with the punk movement has given way to rock commercialism.
The current migration to Hollywood of would-be rock stars began after hard rockers Motley Crue, Poison and Guns N` Roses launched their platinum-selling careers from the Sunset Strip in the mid- to late-`80s.
`Bands everywhere`
''There`s bands everywhere now, man. Everywhere,'' said bass player Rob Swanson, 24, of the band Lixx Array. ''I don`t know where they`re from. Every block and corner there`s a band. They`re a dime a dozen.''
The history of rock `n` roll on the Strip goes back to 1963. The era of glamorous eateries like Ciro`s and the Macombo was coming to an end. Bill Gazzarri transformed the Plymouth House restaurant into a nightclub named for himself. Six months later, the Whisky a Go Go opened just a few blocks away, stealing Gazzarri`s main rock act, Johnny Rivers.
When he arrived in town, Gazzarri was just another sandpaper-throated New York-bred dealmaker looking to make his mark on the West Coast entertainment circuit. Soon he was booking shows for other club owners, before opening his first namesake establishment on Santa Monica Boulevard.
That small rock venue was overshadowed a few years later by Gazzarri`s on the Strip. In the subsequent years, Gazzarri has watched innumerable competing clubs, restaurants, bars and hangouts come and go, while he has established himself as a longtime, if less than humble, force in the grass roots of rock. Gazzarri is still at the club most nights, his ears safely plugged from the rattling musical volume, when he`s not wandering over to the nearby Rainbow Bar & Grille. The tall concrete cube of Gazzarri`s remains a busy gathering spot for new musicians. Weekend crowds invariably fill the front sidewalk, watched over by patrolling sheriff`s deputies and a painted likeness of the club`s grinning founder dressed in a white fedora and suit jacket. Nearby, huge letters declare Gazzarri ''The Godfather of Rock and Roll.''
The slogan and painting, Gazzarri said, are from a leftover promotional campaign from years ago. But what truth there is to the boastful claim lies with the three decades of bands that have used Gazzarri`s as their starting point.
''In the `60s, it was hard to find a rock `n` roll band,'' Gazzarri said. ''There were the Byrds, the Righteous Brothers, Sonny & Cher. It was a small handful. We used to book a band to play by themselves for two weeks, five 45-minute sets a night, six nights a week. Nowadays we play five different bands every night.''
That`s not the only change Gazzarri has seen.
''The scene has simmered down some,'' he said. ''For a time in the `70s, they got pretty rowdy. Now, they seem to be leaning more towards business.''
''That`s disturbing to me,'' said Mio Vukovic, who searches for new talent as part of Geffen Records` artist and repertoire department. ''These kids have this plan, and they know what kind of band format they want. They write songs and fix their hair a certain way to fit that. I walk in and see a marketing plan on stage. It`s a real turnoff.''
But not all agree, including the man who signed Skid Row, the New Jersey group whose debut album has sold more than 3 million copies. ''A lot of it has to do with attitude,'' argued Jason Flom, vice president of artist and repertoire at Atlantic Records. ''For these bands to take a business approach makes a lot more sense than for them to be getting stoned all the time.''
For some groups, the focus on the business of music, on working toward specific goals, offers a sense of direction and progress that is otherwise hard to attain on the club circuit.
Standing backstage at Gazzarri`s just after a Lixx Array set, Swanson, the group`s bassist, said his four previous bands never thought much about the financial complications of playing music.
''This band has really made me understand what it`s all about, and what you`ve got to do,'' Swanson said. ''It basically woke me up to the whole industry. I never paid attention. I was just a kid, you know, going to clubs thinking, `I want to do that.` ''
During one crowded night on the Strip, Alan Kuczer and bandmate Bob Masini were marching up and down, handing out fliers for their upcoming show at Gazzarri`s. Scores of other young musicians were doing the same, so that when the crowds finally headed elsewhere in the early morning, the sidewalks lining Sunset were covered by a patchwork quilt of discarded fliers.
''This is what you have to do out here,'' Kuczer said. ''You have to promote, you have to advertise, you have to have fliers, you have to print pictures in magazines. We meet people, sell tickets, tell them about the band and give them phone numbers to call us.''
The quarter-mile along which the Strip`s main rock clubs can be found is a crush of lipstick and black leather most weekend nights. Motorcyclists lean forward on their parked bikes to watch the slow-rolling traffic. And young rockers spill onto the boulevard as they squeeze by one another, back-slapping, promoting bands, or just trying to pick up on those girls in the short black skirts and form-hugging, low-cut tops.
Crush of groups
The crush of hard rock groups in Los Angeles has created a level of competition unknown in other cities. In recent years, a controversial booking system has developed at the main clubs where unknown bands vying for gigs are required to buy 100 or more tickets for as much as $1,000. Club owners like Gazzarri have left most of the daily talent booking to independent promoters. The promoters, in turn, sell the bands tickets to cover the rental of the hall. The bands are then forced to actively promote their shows to make back their investments.
''It`s work,'' said Robert Wood, who books young groups for CIA, an independent promoter working out of Gazzarri`s, the Roxy and the Whisky. ''A lot of bands would rather just kick back. We`ve found that if the bands don`t take on the responsibility and get behind it, it just doesn`t go. It`s hard to get bands to take things seriously. It`s too easy to come out here and live the life of a rock star, without actually making any real progress.''
It`s a system even an admittedly cash-poor band like Kuczer is willing to accept. Between songs during a rehearsal in the garage of drummer Mickesh, Alan Kuczer methodically replaced a broken string on his zebra-striped electric guitar.
Pacing in the cool air nearby, singer Steven Annese argued the importance of maintaining a visible presence along West Hollywood`s main rock `n` roll drag.
''If (music industry people) don`t see your face all the time, they`ll forget about you, no matter how good you are,'' Annese said.
An unreliable place
Vukovic of Geffen said the pay-to-play system has corrupted the scene, making the Strip an often unreliable place to find a quality act. He occasionally still wanders into the Whisky or Gazzarri`s to see a new band. But his most recent signings, Junkyard and Little Caesar, usually frequented the lesser-known underground clubs off Sunset.
A week after that first meeting with Raymundo, the members of Kuczer drove an hour to Anaheim for the National Association of Music Merchants convention. The three-day gathering was an odd mix of gray business suits and black leather, bald heads and big hair, all mingling around the music industry`s newest musical gadgets.
Alan Kuczer had already persuaded the people at the St. Louis Music Co. to sponsor him with some free speaker cabinets. Now, in a sprawling hall across the street from Disneyland, Kuczer and his band were looking for more. Their first appointment was with former Uriah Heep organist Ken Hensley, who guides St. Louis Music`s sponsorship of 24 musicians, ranging from obscure bluegrass and country artists to heavy metal stars.
In 1984, Hensley ended his performing career, long after his chosen profession had grown into an $18 billion worldwide industry. He said the dynamics of a musical career have changed dramatically since his early days playing in English pubs every night.
''The difference now is that it is much less personal,'' Hensley said.
''The careers are much more short-term, where it`s rare when a band stays together five years now. You have to make a quick buck and get out. I`m disappointed that it`s become so generic. The packaging, the videos.''
Kuczer finally left the convention with promises for a new guitar, bass and stage monitors for its members. Prospects were also good for a wireless microphone setup for singer Annese. It was the kind of success Kuczer insisted is neccesary for the survival of his band, given its continuous financial shortcomings.
Near the end of his day there, the guitarist waited patiently to talk with an executive of a guitar-string manufacturer who had been sent press clips about the band. But as Kuczer made his pitch, it became obvious the executive didn`t remember him or the band.
Kuczer was undaunted. Soon he was hurrying to his next targeted manufacturer. ''So this guy doesn`t remember me,'' he said, looking back over his shoulder. ''I don`t care. I`m a businessman just like he is.''
Alan continued blazing his musical trail in the San Francisco Bay Area club scene in a band he formed, created the music and logo called MobLand. With the renewed passion of playing guitar and the thought to see his old KUCZER band mates, the band did reunite in 2022 although without Bob due to family issues. Alan made many friends along the way and invited bassist Patrick Howe from Skeleton Cru band to rock the bass. Lead Vocalist Steven has been busy with his rockin' band RexRoller and Bill has been beating the drums with Chris Holmes on guitar in Wood band in So. Cal.
After the first united jam at Louie's Park in Morgan Hill, CA it was amazing that this band would sound so great again! Performances have returned to Nor Cal stages and their original home of Hollywood. We are all so excited to share the great fun, music and soul that Rev It Up screams!