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The Tidal Waves were a quintet from the Detroit area made up of Bob Slap, Bill Long, Mark Karpinski, and Tom and Jon Wearing. The group was part of a vibrant southern Michigan band scene that also included acts like the Pleasure Seekers, the Underdogs, the Unrelated Segments, and the Rationals, as well as a younger and punkier Bob Seger, playing clubs like the Hideout, the Crows Nest, the Hullabaloos (actually a chain of clubs), the Fifth Dimension, and the Pumpkin scattered around the southern part of the state. The Tidal Waves were actually among the best of them, despite their youth (three of them were in junior high when they started out in 1965). They had a hard, aggressive attack on their instruments (which, surprisingly for a band as punk sounding as this one, included a saxophone, à la the Kingsmen), three strong (if not necessarily "good") singers, and a good sense of melody and what to do with it. Their debut single, "Farmer John" b/w "She Left Me All Alone," was recorded i...
