Pugsley Munion

Started in mid 1969 under the guise 'Mask,' the members of Pugsley Munion - keyboardist/vocalist/main songwriter John Schuller, guitarist Ducky Belliveau, and drummer Ed Kelly - came together as a vehicle for their own original material, after years playing in high school cover bands. A homemade demo they made that year found its way to J&S Records, a small R&B label in New York City that had gone a couple years without a hit. The label put up some cash to cover recording costs and brought the band to the city to record an official demo tape, also signing them to a single album deal. Shortly after the demo was recorded, the label discovered the 'Mask' name had already been registered to another band, and the members started to consider new names. They took 'Pugsley' from a street sign outside New York, while 'Munion' was the name of a local cop who gave the band's road crew dirty looks following a gig in a local donut shot. They put the two words together originally as a joke name to use for a single gig, but the name stuck. In mid 1970, Pugsley Munion began the two days of recording at Bell Sound Studios in New York City they had booked for their first album. Live, they played as an organ/bass pedal, guitar, and drum trio, but they decided to use bass guitar in the studio to get a better sound. As they laid down the tracks, the band experimented with different bass parts with the intention of going back in during a later session to complete or replace them. Rough mixes were prepared of the songs after the two days, and trio assumed they would go back into the studio to overdub the bass tracks and polish up the vocals. To their surprise, however, the record company released the album in its unfinished form, without the original artwork selected by the band and with incorrect liner notes. The title of the album had been altered as well to Just Like You, after the song released as the first single. Pugsley Munion tried unsuccessfully to stop the album's release. In spite of the record label's disingenuous treatment of the band, the album did get some airplay, but shortly after its release, Schuller was drafted, bringing a halt to the project. His stint in the Navy was short, however, for medical reasons, and he rejoined the band, which had added a bass player and a vocalist in his absence. They played throughout the next couple years in local clubs and developed a solid following but never again recorded as a unit, although each member went on to experience success as studio players.