Mal Practice Band - Love Tunnel (1977)

Mal Practice Band (Malpractice)
Love Tunnel / Devil’s Triangle
Label: Fu Angel Records (0001 • 74-47)
Recorded: Circa Spring 1977, Dancing Moose Studio - Cherryfield, ME
Released: May 1977

Lineup: Kevin Allin (drums), Merle Allin (bass), Jeff Penney (guitar, vocals), Brian Demers (guitar)

Original handmade sleeve, front

Original handmade sleeve, back

Merle's 1993 version, front

Merle's 1993 version, back

The unlikely starting point for the GG Allin saga — an unremarkable barband-style outing whose desirability would be nonexistent if it weren’t for drummer Kevin Allin and his brother Merle on bass. (Though the disc doesn't adequately showcase their raw rock 'n roll talents, both were indeed accomplished musicians.) Malpractice, based in Vermont while Kevin and Merle still lived at home, gigged steadily throughout the Northeast, even playing the Rat in Boston with the Real Kids. At one show Malpractice met Joel Raymond and Peter Suyama, who were starting up a talent agency and record label, and shortly afterwards the duo released the “Love Tunnel” 45 on their startup Fu Angel label. (About the name: Joel Raymond's teenage nickname was "Fat Angel" and Peter Suyama, being Japanese, was called Fu Manchu, so they combined their aliases to form Fu Angel Records.) Joel recalled Malpractice as "basically an Aerosmith cover band," and remembers hearing "Train Kept A-Rollin'" many times — no doubt a Kevin Allin favorite to play with its prominent drum fills. GG in an interview in the late-1980s described the band as “ahead of its time,” however, this sole recorded documentation proves ultimately nondescript. The record basically never was issued with a picture sleeve, although two known copies exist of an original crude sleeve with a band photo pasted to thick cardboard and the center cut out so the record label showed through. Merle made up his own sleeves for some backstock copies circa 1993 using this band photo on one side and a different photo on the flipside, and these are largely the copies that have been circulated online and sold back in the day in the Maximum Rock And Roll classifieds.

Source: Merle Allin

A high energy band from the New Hampshire area, Malpractice kicks out the jams in the Aerosmith style. Left to right, we find Merle Allin, bass; Kevin Allin, drums; and Jeff Penney, guitar. For info, write manager John Baird, Box 45, Lunenburg, VT.
— Rock Scene, March 1977
Source: Ryan Richardson / Circulation Zero