The Gruberger Brothers, Solomon and Jay, were originally from Brooklyn New York and are well known for being members of the Proto-Punk band O. Rex who formed in 1973 and released an independent 3-song 7inch ep in 1976. The third member of O. Rex was Kenne Highland who later became famous in the Punk world as a member of The Gizmos. It seems that O. Rex never actually played a live show and by early 1977 the Grubergers and Highland combined forced with Kim Kane of the Washington D.C. band Slickee Boys to form a new band called Afrika Korps. Recording commenced with the results released in September 1977 as the Music To Kill By LP. During 1977 Afrika Korps played some live shows and their setlists included some of the O. Rex songs. For reasons unclear the Gruberger brothers dropped out of the Afrika Korps at the end of 1977 and first Solomon moved to Reading Pennsylvania and was later followed by Jay. Once they were set up there they tried to put a band together but found that people and clubs in Reading were not interested in original music. But, with a hired drummer named Mitch, they went into Jake Hain’s Unisound Recording Studio on N. 8th Street to record tracks for a proposed record. The name of the band was to be Spike and the record was to be a 7inch ep titled 90 Miles Per Hour. Eight songs were recorded but the record was never released. Over the next two years the brothers would record ten more songs at Unisound with drummer Ron Roberts. None of this material was released to the public at the time. Had the 90 Miles Per Hour ep been released in 1978 it would have been the first Punk record from Reading Pennsylvania. While the Grubergers were involved with music playing in cover bands in Reading, Spike apparently never played live and the Gruberger Brothers never played their original material live. Both brothers did return to playing with Afrika Korps in the 1980s. Sadly, Jay Gruberger was killed in a car accident in January 1993. In 2011 all these tracks were mastered from the original reels and released on this LP. Solomon passed away in 2012, almost a year after the release of this album.
Since this album is available to purchase at Midheaven and I’m sure other places I have only included a couple of track so you can sample them – if you like them get the album
Thanks for the tape files Brett Noise Addiction II
