Michael "Cub" Koda (born October 1, 1948 – July 1, 2000) was an American rock and roll singer, guitarist, songwriter, disc jockey, music critic, and record compiler.
Koda was born in Detroit, Michigan, and graduated from Manchester High School, in Manchester, Michigan. He became interested in music as a boy, learning drums by the age of 5, and by the time he was in high school he had formed his own group, the Del-Tinos, which played rockabilly, rock and roll, and blues. The band released its first single, "Go Go Go" (a version of a Roy Orbison recording), in the fall of 1963. They released two more singles but broke up in 1966, when Koda wanted to pursue other options.
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| The Del- Tinos (Cub at left) |
Koda spent a year attending Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan. Koda formed and reformed several bands at this time with other musicians in the area, such as the Del-Tinos. His original songs and over the top performances drew crowds everywhere the band played. His habit of playing a guitar with a 'y' cord plugged into two Fender Twin Reverb amps gave him plenty of volume. He also played harp and slide guitar. After a year Koda decided college wasn't his thing and moved to Las Vegas where he worked as a sideman. This was his springboard to forming Brownsville Station. The last incarnation of his backing band regrouped as Walrus and became a local and midwest institution in their own right.
Koda then worked as a solo artist, releasing two singles, "I Got My Mojo Workin'" and "Ramblin' on My Mind", and working with a couple of bands, before forming Brownsville Station in 1969. Formed in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Brownsville Station also included drummer T. J. Cronley, bassist Tony Driggins, guitarist Mike Lutz, and later Bruce Nazarian and Henry Weck. The group was influenced by Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, the Who, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Link Wray.
The band began performing throughout the American Midwest and released several singles before getting noticed. They released their first album in 1970. The 1973 single "Smokin' in the Boys Room" remains their best-known song. It went to number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and eventually sold over two million copies. They continued to perform until disbanding in 1979.
Before the breakup of the band Koda purchased a multitrack recorder and started producing one-man-band tapes of rockabilly, blues, R&B, country, early rock and roll, and jazz, which he released as the album That's What I Like About the South. He became more focused on performing solo. He also began writing for numerous music magazines, notably his column "The Vinyl Junkie" for Goldmine Magazine (later for DISCoveries). He wrote three volumes of the acclaimed Blues Masters series. He also wrote reviews and contributed to books published by Allmusic.
From late 1979 to late 1980, Koda began playing with three members of a Detroit-based band, Mugsy, calling themselves Cub Koda and the Points. Their eponymous debut album was released in early 1980 by the Boston-based Baron Records on hot pink vinyl. Also released was an EP, "Shake Yo Cakes." Because of financial difficulties, the band broke up in late 1980 before releasing a second album.
By 1980, Koda was performing with Hound Dog Taylor's backing band, the Houserockers, with guitarist Brewer Phillips and drummer Ted Harvey. They performed and recorded together for 15 years. The group's first album was It's the Blues, released in 1981. Their second album, The Joint Was Rockin' , was released in 1996. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Koda continued his busy schedule of touring, recording, and writing. He recorded a solo album, Box Lunch, released by J-Bird Records in 1997, and recordings he made with the Del-Tinos were released by Norton Records in 1998. He also re-formed Cub Koda and the Points and released Noise Monkeys (one of his last works) in 2000.
In 1993, the twin release of "Smokin' in the Boy's Room: The Best of Brownsville Station", was released on the Rhino Record Label, and "Welcome to My Job," a retrospective of his non-Brownsville material was released on the Blue Wave Record Label, followed a year later by Abba Dabba Dabba: A Bananza of Hits on Schoolkids Records.
On June 30, 2000, while promoting his new album, he became ill. Although he had been recovering from kidney disease, which required dialysis, Koda died the next day in Chelsea, Michigan at the age of 51. He is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in Waterloo, Michigan. His headstone features a Fender amp, with a microphone and harmonica resting on top of it. "I Will Always Love You, If Only in my Dreams" is inscribed on the tablet.
Cub Koda was inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame in 2016.
(Edited from Wikipedia & AllMusic)