Con-Airs, The

Originally a Link Wray cover band called The Missing Links, they were hired in 1990 to back up NYC lounge singer/writer Jennifer Blowdryer because her NYC band wouldn’t play out-of-town gigs.

Members were Richard Drews (SubMensas) – guitar / Dennis Crowley (from Frederick Md. band The Skeptics) – bass / Mike Bell (Platinum Slugs / SubMensas) – drums / Jennifer Blowdryer (from San Francisco punk band The Blowdryers) – vocals. Back-up Vocals – Elvia Diaz and Amanda Pollock. They worked up a set of Link Wray, Dick Dale, and surf-rock covers to open the set, then Jennifer would come onstage to sing her original songs and some Della Reese covers.

{Mike Bell} “A funny story about the January 18^th show – The Con-Airs are backing some dancers, before Jennifer comes on, with some Link Wray covers. One of the dancers, Flo Glow, who is wearing fluorescent body paint, takes off her bra, twirls it around, and sends it right behind her towards the drum kit, just as I’m crashing the cymbal. The bra hooks onto my drumstick, and goes flying over the audience’s heads with the crash, and lands in the hands of some guy near the back of the room, who puts it in his pocket and bolts out the door! And then after the show Flo gets mad at ME for losing her favorite bra!!!”

The band traveled to NYC to back up Jennifer for some gigs, and were featured playing music on an NPR program about the venue ABC No Rio on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. By the summer of 1991 Mike had moved to NYC, and traded drums for guitar to form a new band – Jennifer and the Qualifiers – with Ray Sage on drums and Tom Goebels on bass. They released a cassette “Unloaded” and a 7″ 45 “Cheap” / “Goody Goody” (a Della Reese cover). 

The Con-Airs could be seen at Scallio’s Tavern, The Medusa Club, The Tiki Lounge, The 14-Karat Cabaret, SoWeBo Festival, and NYC clubs The Nightengale, The Right Bank,  and ABC No Rio.

Jennifer Blowdryer and The Con-airs reunited one more time in 1993 with Richard Drews on guitar and Jean Owens (former keyboard player for the Platinum Slugs) on bass. The bill that night also included The Motor Morons, and Richard and Jean’s new band “The Matt Clark 5”.

Drews previously played with The SubMensas, later with Matt Clark 5… Bell remained in New York, continuing on with the Qualifiers, and playing with The Billy Syndrome, The Thundering Lizards, The Purple Gang, Jolly Ramey, and many others, along with leading his own garage rock band Mike Bell and The Bellviews. Returning in late ‘90s as a founding member of The Dirt, and founding Fuzz Unlimited in 2003 with the surviving members of the Platinum Slugs, and for the past 10 years recording and playing live with veteran players Sam Lohman on drums (36, Acid Mothers Temple, The Baltek, Nik Turner’s Space Seed), Sparky Grinder on keyboards (Motor Morons, Fuji’s Navy), and Mick Short on bass (The Wire Orchestra, Heroin UK). They have released over a dozen CDs and cassettes, many available at SonicLove.bandcamp.com   and   IlluminatedPaths.bandcamp.com

In the early 2000s Bell, Drews, and Owens formed Led Pipeline, covering “classic rock” hits in a surf-rock instrumental style. After that Drews and Owens formed surf-rock band The Tritons, and Bell was one of several drummers for that project.

Thanks to Mike Bell for band information, photos, and audio.