Ramones were co-managed by Linda Stein with Danny Fields. She also managed young folk troubadour Steve Forbert. Forbert released his debut album Alive on Arrival in 1978 on Nemperor Records.
Here is the discography surrounding Steve Forbert's debut album:
Goin' Down to Laurel (1978 single) Alive on Arrival
Thinkin' (1979 single)
Arriving Live (1979 promo single)
The Oil Song (1979 single)
"Grand Central Station, March 18. 1877" by Steve Forbert
Cheetah Chrome and the Dead Boys were encouraged to move permanently from Cleveland to New York on the recommedation of Joey Ramone. The Ramones formed in 1974 and quickly became one of the leading and foundational bands of New York's punk scene. Their debut album Ramones came out in 1976 on Sire Records.
Here is the discography surrounding Ramones's debut album:
Radio City Demo (1975 Feb 10 demo)
Live at CBGB's (1975 May 15 live bootleg)
Live at CBGB's (1975 live bootleg)
The 914 Sessions (1975 live session)
Blitzkrieg Bop (1976 single)
I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend (1976 single) Ramones
Live at "The Club" (1976 May 12 live bootleg)
First Euro Show (1976 July 4 live bootleg)
Live at The Roxy Theater (1976 August 12 live bootleg)
Live at Starwood (1976 August 16 live bootleg)
We end our tour of the survivors from Rocket from the Tombs with Gene O'Connor and Johnny Madansky. They were the only ones who kept their stage names from their Cleveland days and are still known as Cheetah Chrome and Johnny Blitz, respectively. They formed the band Dead Boys with frontman Stiv Bators. After a move to New York, they released their debut album Young Loud and Snotty in 1977.
Here is the discography surrounding Dead Boys's debut album:
Eve of the Dead Boys (EP compilation of 1976 material as Frankenstein)
Sonic Reducer (1977 single) Young Loud and Snotty
Live at The Waldorf (1977 live bootleg)
Younger Louder and Snottier (1977 rough mixes)
The third thread from the Rocket from the Tombs cloth is another individual, like Laughner, who floated from band to band. Craig Bell just did so with less urgency. Although other members of Tombs spinoffs wanted Bell as a member for their groups, he instead moved to Connecticut. Music was still in Bell's life, but not his life. He created a handful of bands with his wife and friends over the years and his most notable group was Saucers. Saucers never released a proper studio album, but a compilation of their singles and other takes was compiled in 2002 (hot on the release of the Rocket from the Tombs compilation).
Here's the complete discography for Saucers:
What We Do (1979 EP)
A Certain Kind of Shy (1980 single)
I Love New York (I Hate New York) (1983 single as The Plan)
America Now (1985 compilation song as The Bell System)
Die Orgasmus Bigband (1985 compilation song as C.W. Bell with Cassie O'Tone) What We Did
Babylon's Burning: The Rough 'n' Ready Rise of PUNK RAWK (1973-1978) (2007 compilation song with Peter Laughner)
Second Saucers (2011 EP)
The life of Rocket from the Tombs was short lived and broke into many different bands that survived it, each kept a different affectation of the artistry of the original alive. Peter Laughner originally survived the band as an original member of Pere Ubu with David Thomas. He co-wrote and performed a couple of Ubu's first singles but fell out of the group due to his substance abuse. Though he is often seen as an important string of Ubu (not wise and a venturesome mistake), it's probably best to view his work (and any, if any, influence) as a singular discography outside of it to better put it all in perspective.
Laughner never released a proper studio LP during his life time, but many demo, radio and live recordings survive him either as a solo artist or a member of a band. Although he had talent as a guitarist, singer and songwriter, he was aware that (but could never escape) his greatest weakness, a hero-worship of the New York scene, of Lou Reed specifically, and to a lesser degree Dylan and old bluesmen, could only be tempered by being in a band. So he had many of all kinds: a blues trio, a folk duo, proto-punk, punk, art-punk, post-punk, and new wave. My favorite is probably his collaboration with Don Harvey on reed organ. Each were unique from the others but only a couple (Rocket from the Tombs because he had no real control and Pere Ubu because the project wasn't his) really could distance themselves from Laughner's influences. That influence usually came out as an unnatural number of Reed or Television covers (always the same ones throughout his recordings), songs that needed to be reworked time and again so they wouldn't be mistaken for a Reed or Dylan song, a singing voice that only stopped imitating when he was too drunk or high to try, and his inability to keep a band together due to his abuse of drugs and alcohol and lack of leadership skills despite having great potential to be a leader. He was a better guitar player sober, but was hardly ever that by the end of his life. Bands were often better off without him but couldn't survive without his impetus, ideas, charisma, or star-power.
On the Cleveland rock scene, David Thomas remised the fatal flaw of Cleveland punk as simply being unlikeable from the outside looking in, a counterpoint to the cool New York scene. To him, Laughner's fatal flaw was trying to be a New Yorker, to escape his Cleveland fate by bridging the two cities together through his music and to a more tragic extent, through his body. Neither were successful in accomplishing it, but his death was. It forged a myth and misunderstanding around his music and influence and extended it to the Cleveland scene that could no longer escape his phantom fingerprints. For better or for worse.
He died at 24. The best compilation of his work to date is Take the Guitar Player for a Ride released in 1993.
Here is the complete discography for Peter Laughner:
Do Re Mi (1972 live recording as The Original Wolverines)
WMMS Coffee Break (1972 live recording with John Sferra)
Cinderella Backstreet's Last Show (1973 live bootleg as Cinderella Backstreet)
Early Demos (1972-1974 demos and other recordings)
Live on CWRU (1974 live recordings plus demos)
Cinderella's Revenge Last Show (1975 live bootleg as Cinderella's Revenge)
Rehearsal (1975 rehearsal recording with The Wolves)
Live in January (1976 live recording with The Wolves)
Creem Offices (1976 recordings with Lester Bangs)
The Ann Arbor Tapes (1976 recordings with Don Harvey)
Setting Son (1976 acoustic home recordings)
Earth by April (1976 bootleg compilation as Friction)
Live at Pirate's Cove (1976 live bootleg as Friction)
Last Rehearsal (1977 live recording with The Wolves)
Nocturnal Digressions (1977 home recordings)
Peter Laughner: (1982 compilation album)
Baby's on Fire (1992 single with The Finns) Take the Guitar Player for a Ride
Babylon's Burning: The Rough 'n' Ready Rise of PUNK RAWK 1973-1978 (2007 compilation song with Craig Bell)
Play On Beloved Son (2015 compilation album)
Rocket from the Tombs didn't last long but their remains are many. The longest lasting and possibly most influential remains are the art-punk incarnation called Pere Ubu, a band headed by ex-Tombs member David Thomas. They released their debut album The Modern Dance in 1978.
Here is the discography surrounding Pere Ubu's debut album:
30 Seconds Over Tokyo (1975 single)
Final Solution (1976 single)
Street Waves (1976 single)
The Modern Dance (1977 single) The Modern Dance
Datapanik in the Year Zero (1978 compilation EP)
Live at the Longhorn (1978 live bootleg)
Girly Machine, and many other of Ohio's Columbus punk scene, owe a lot to Cleveland's punk scene of the mid-70s. A lot of these bands released their debut recordings on the Datapanik label, a label that got its name from a Pere Ubu single. Of course, the fountainhead of the Cleveland punks was proto-punk band Rocket from the Tombs. Although Tombs never released a proper album, their 1975 bootleg recordings played an important role in mapping out the development of early punk music (especially outside of the New York scene). Rocket from the Tombs released a compilation of these recordings in 2002.
Here is the discography surrounding Rocket from the Tombs's debut album:
WMMS Live (1975 radio performance)
Ain't It Fun (1975 single)
The Day the Earth Met the Rocket from the Tombs (2002 compilation of 1975 recordings)
"Search & Destroy" by Rocket from the Tombs
"30 Seconds Over Tokyo" by Rocket from the Tombs
"Never Gonna Kill Myself Again" by Rocket from the Tombs
