Russ Stedman
A prolific rocker from South Dakota, Russ Stedman’s output has been consistent and strong over the years. Influenced by Zappa and KISS, Russ also produced a compilation called “Where’s My Waitress” with home tapers doing Frank Zappa songs. Originally his label was called Jovial Milkman and that has now been changed to Stedmuzik. He has collaborated with fellow South Dakotan, Evan Peta on many tunes as well.
Above are two of his tape covers and below that a cover from the first band he traded with, M.O.T.O., the project of Chicagoan Paul Caporino. Sorry for the lousy scans of Stedman’s tapes.
The first person I remember trading tapes with was Paul Caporino who, as his one-man-band Masters Of The Obvious (M.O.T.O.) put out tons of great tapes in the 80’s and 90’s and has since morphed into a real life band with all kinds of touring under their belt. I read about his tape “Rock, Roll, and Dismember” in Maximum Rock And Roll around 1986. Sounded kinda neat, so I sent for it and loved it. We ended up writing back and forth for years, and he was one of my earliest encouragements to keep making tapes and was one of the first people outside of a couple local friends to ever hear my stuff. We got to be such good friends that we would talk on the phone occasionally, and he even came to visit once back in the early 90’s. These days, M.O.T.O. is as great as ever. If you like crunchy power-chord pop with an insane sense of humor, I suggest you grab whatever M.O.T.O. realeases you can find. My musical world just wouldn’t be the same without him.
Thanks Paul!
