Ken Ludacer, Randy Ludacer, Hal Ludacer
& Harry Verderci on South Street in 1977.

In 1977 after graduating from college I spent a couple months at home (Freeport, LI) before finding a place to live in the city. While I was home, my brothers and I were fooling around with 2 guitars and a bass, trying to teach ourselves some Ramones songs. This was the beginning of the band “Ludacer”. (Randy, Ken & Hal Ludacer) Debuting at CBGB’s with drummer Harry Verderci (of the “Sic Fuks“), later replaced by college classmate and painter, Bill Komoski. “Ludacer” offered original songs such as Quality Control, Fair Trade and Class of 77.

Poster for 1977 debut of Ludacer

The place I eventually found to live was a shared loft on South Street with 3 other RISD graduates. Roommate, John King also had musical aspirations so we made a very half-assed effort to soundproof a rehearsal area. “Ludacer” and John’s newly formed band, “The Coachmen” began rehearsing there. (The Coachmen included young Thurston Moore who later formed “Sonic Youth.”) Over the next few years we played primarily at CBGB's, Max's Kansas City, and Tier 3. “Ludacer” made some demos, but never put out a record. Gradually my brothers needed to move on with their lives, college, etc.

Part of a poster for a Max's Kansas City gig (LUDACER with Bill Komoski on drums)

The Green Scene


The Green Scene (Mach 1): Randy, Ken, George & Bill

After “Ludacer” disbanded Ken, Bill and I reformed as “The Green Scene” with George Sempepos on guitar. “The Green Scene” appeared in various incarnations, and eventually evolved into a post-punk, bossa-nova sort of shtick. Contributing talent in those years included George Sempepos, Ken Ludacer, David Hanson, Peter Moser, John Scherman, Barbara Merjan, Paolo Rangel, & Brazilian singer, Kenia. A three song EP was released during this period. Songs included: Hot Water, Green Scenery and Betting on Gravity. (See product)

The Green Scene: George Sempepos, Barbara Merjan, Randy Ludacer, Peter Moser & John Scherman

Cargo Cult
The Green Scene disbanded around 1984 and remaining members formed “Cargo Cult” (me, George Sempepos, Hearn Gadbois, Steve Cohen (later replaced by Gary Kelly), Michael Lauren, and Paula Jeanine.)

[Note: NY “Cargo Cult” not to be confused with the Austin, Texas band of the same name. We wrangled with them over who owned the name. We won the trademark, but they are probably better known. Their front man was also named Randy (Turner), adding further fuel to the potential for confusion.]

Cargo Cult continued to build on The Green Scene’s bossa nova thing, adding more urgent percussion and denser, latin-influenced arrangements. Playing primarily at the east village club, “8BC” Cargo Cult developed a stage routine that involved giving away handmade musical souvenirs (cargo) to the audience during every performance. These included such primitive artifacts as bowls made out of melted records, maracas made out of promotional calendar paperweights, etc. Cargo Cult was signed by Public Records and released one album of 10 songs, produced by Chris Butler (of “The Waitresses”) entitled: Concrete Island. Line up at the time of the album was: me, George Sempepos, Hearn Gadbois, Gary Kelly, and Michael Lauren. This album can occasionally be sighted on Ebay. A single was recorded after Paula Jeanine joined us, but sadly this was never to be released.

Poster for Pyramid & 8BC gigs

In 1986 the family and I move away from NYC (due to housing difficulties in the Bronx) and “Cargo Cult” was no more. I wrote a few lyrics for George’s up and coming Greek/American band “AnnaBouboula” (see Smoking in Bed on their album entitled, Burn Down The Coffee House)—but this was pretty much the end of musical endeavors for a while and the start of a 13 year non-musical period... No guitar, no singing, no listening to radio, stereo system not-in-working order, etc.

Midlife Guitar Crisis
One night in 2000, I found an old guitar in the basement and tried to tune up its 13 year old strings. That led to my trying to remember some of my old songs--and trying to remember what the chords were to my old songs... This went on, late into the evenings, for a few weeks. Now living on Staten Island, I began writing some new songs and the first of these was Staten Island Rocker. Slowly, in gradual stages, I began to feel that performing again in public might actually be a doable thing. I remember the sort of desperate, conquer-the-world-or-bust feeling that attended any NY artistic endeavor in the 80's. Maybe those competitive ambitions are just part of being young and in NY, but they can also eclipse what's good and worthwhile about playing and listening to music in the first place. Now that I’m an irrelevant old geezer, I feel like I have less to gain, but nothing to lose.

Less is More than Sufficient
I started playing solo around the corner at the Cup and Martini Red—something I wouldn’t have had the nerve to do when I was younger. (And it's not like I've become a whole lot more accomplished as a musician after 13 years of not playing music!) Still, for the purposes of getting the songs across, one guitar + one voice can be more than sufficient. I remember when I had played in bands with four or five people, there was a tendency to arrange songs so that all the players could play all the time. No one would ever sit one out. Looking back on it now, I’d venture to say that not all of those parts were what you'd call essential to the song.

And then, like the peddler in “Stone Soup,” I found myself thinking, “These songs would sound even better with drums...”