This show was a double bill. John Eddie And The Front Street Runners opening for Mink DeVille at the Fast Lane in Asbury Park … some summer night in 1981. The exact date escapes my aging brain cells. Don’t remember if anyone went with me to see this show. But for those who might remember … you now what to do … write about it in the comments. Makes me wish I would have written in my journal a bit more back then. And so it goes ….

When I get my Mink DeVille negatives scanned … they will go up as a separate post.

Hope you enjoy the photos. Click the “Continue Reading” link below. And if you know anything about this show … leave a comment.

Thanks … Joe Continue Reading > > >

Ever since my first blog post about my friend Gary Croslin’s band Junior Smoots And The Disturbers, people have come in droves. It amazes me still! One … that people Google Junior Smoots. And Two … that I’ve reconnected with all the (living) members of the band and quite a few fans. One of the people who recently found me was Bruce St. Laurent. Bruce was the sound man for the Smoots band in the early days. And thank goodness he did. Because now boys and girls … we have thirteen … count them … thirteen well recorded live songs, recorded direct from the sound board,  from an early gig at the Harbor Inn in Brielle, NJ.

If you were a Smoots follower … you know The Smoots band played the Harbor Inn A LOT! When I was living with Gary, Judy, & Kenny at the Smoots house in Wall Township, I’d go to most of the shows. I know I’d go and dance all night long too! We all would … you know who you are!

Without any further fanfare … Continue Reading > > >

As some of you may have noticed … there’s a new menu item added to my blog. If you look at the very top menus above you will see a new menu item named “joMusic“. This is a search that will pull up all posts pertaining and containing my own music. I’ve been a musician for a good part of my life. You may have read my previous post about my old band “The Human Element“. In that article I said I’d eventually post some of my own music. And now I have. I will continue to post more music as I record it, and post older music as I digitize it.

Most of the things I will post will be demos of things I’ve worked on or am currently working on or finished. They may not be the best mixes in the world … but I just thought it was time to put some of this stuff out there in some form or another.

So come back often and check for new music, photos, and news about what’s going on in my life.

In 1980 I was attending school at  CW Post Center of Long Island University. I was also sharing an apartment in Oyster Bay Long Island with 3 women: Cande Roth, Ellyn Solis, and Dorothy (Orant) Morrison. The night I moved into this insane asylum I ended three years of being a non-smoker. I purchased that pack of Newports … and torched up the first smoke, and didn’t quit again until the early 90′s.

In my years at Post I was a communications major and later film major. I also did radio shows on the college station WCWP 88.1 on the FM dial. I also was a photographer for an NYC club magazine called Non-LP B-Side. Those were some exciting times. Musicly there was the whole UK & US punk explosion that brought so much amazing and exciting music. I use to spend a lot of my extra cash either at Bleaker Bob’s in NYC or a few of the independent music stores on Long Island that specialized in British imports. Buying the latest import singles & LPs my radio shows were something to hear. I loved bands like The Clash, The Jam, The Sex Pistols, XTC, Elvis Costello, Ian Dury And The Blockheads, Fashion, Richard Hell And The Voidoids, Tom Verlaine with or without  Television, Graham Parker, The Undertones, Ultravox, The Ramones, Talking Heads, all the assorted Stiff and Two-Tone bands and so much more. And what money I didn’t spend there I was spending on photographing some of these bands and paying to have the film processed at professional color labs, in NYC or on “Lonkisland”.

Dorothy was also an avid musicologist and fan girl of so many of those bands. That was one of our many connections. She also turned me onto a lot of stuff that she loved too. We influenced each other. Hell … when I met this girl she was “sittin’ on the hood of a Dodge” in the parking lot at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. A friend of mine and I were waiting to buy Springsteen tickets. We drove in from southern NJ the night before and slept in  my car. Early the next morning, before “the line formed”, I was wandering around the parking lot and here was this beautiful blond wild child, sitting on the hood of that car (but no soft summer rain) and asking me … “hey you like Costello too?” I was wearing an Elvis Costello t-shirt at the time. And that was that. We talked and that started the long slow process of friendship … and years later … a bit more.

Dorothy and I were in L. O. V. E. with the Clash. There was always something about their music, attitude and politics that resonated with us, and the world. They were so much less nihilistic than the Pistols. Plus they had huge hearts. You could see it in the passion they showed onstage and off. Continue Reading > > >

“In the beginning the gods created the Pony (or the Poney to some) … they saw it was good. Maker and breaker of many a hopeful lot. Time passed and many a legend was born and sent out into the world to make good. Some did. Some didn’t. But time is a funny thing …. ha! Just when you expect just another R&B clone, fate deals you a joker. Enter … “The Human Element.” Why the Pony? And why such a place for their very first gig? These and many other questions can only be answered … in time!”

First entry in The Human Element scrapbook … Joe Streno 1986

Post Updated: 06/07/2009 added photo of The Human Element T-shirts.

Continue Reading > > >

It’s funny … I was searching my negative files for photos of my band, The Human Element. I’m working on a huge post about T.H.E. But while I was searching for group promo photos that my friend and artist Dorian LaPadura took, I stumbled upon black & white promo photos I took of the Junior Smoots band at the old Wall Township, NJ house. They even include new trombone player Tommy Meares.

To my amazement, I also found the few photos I took of the Smootsters, well at least Gary, Judy, Kenny (see Kenny I DID take photos of the drummer!) and the engineer/producer, who’s name escapes me right now, at the NYC recording studio where they recorded these three songs. I also don’t remember the studio name either. I’m sure someone out there will remeber those details. And I’m almost positive there might be more studio photos … but then again that could be my mind playing tricks again. Continue Reading > > >