Teachers Pet

Along with better known bands such as Devo, Rocket from the Crypt, and Pere Ubu, the obscure Teacher's Pet were members of Akron, OH's oft-overlooked, but creatively visionary, punk rock and new wave scene of the mid-'70s. Born from the ashes of a hard rock cover band named Wizard in the fall of 1977, Teacher's Pet's first lineup consisted of guitarist Kal "Rex Lax" Mullens, drummer Mark Fisher, and vocalist Dave Marsteller, who would soon pick up the bass guitar when Kal's brother, Ron (aka Pete Sake), took over as frontman after parting ways with the Rubber City Rebels, who were moving to L.A. The new four-piece immediately got busy playing at nearby clubs, developing a set mixing both covers and originals as time went on, and shopping demos to local record labels. The first to take notice was Akron's own Clone Records, which, after some initial hesitation, agreed to finance a session at local Bush Flow studios, and then released Teacher's Pet's debut single, "Hooked on You" and its B-side, "To Kill You," in early 1978. Unfortunately, the single (featuring very unusual synthesizers -- for a punk record -- courtesy of Ron Mullens) went nowhere and both Fisher and Marsteller had quit by the following summer, unhappy with the band's increased performance workload with so little to show for it. Undeterred, the Mullens brothers auditioned, admitted, and fired several candidates over the ensuing months before finally settling on a permanent rhythm section consisting of bassist Gary Elliot (aka Jack Hammer) and drummer Billy Tomazic (aka Billy Whipp) by the time 1979 rolled around. With their lineup solidified at last, Teacher's Pet became major players in the Akron indie scene that year, playing numerous shows and penning a wealth of new material, which, thanks to Ron's...