Armand Schaubroeck Steals

Experimental band, founded January 31, 1963, in Rochester, NY, and was initially made up of brothers Armand Schaubroeck (guitar, vocals), Bruce Schaubroeck (drums), and Blaine Schaubroeck (bass)

In 1962, after a series of 32 burglaries that included groceries, hardware stores, schools and a church, seventeen year old Armand Schaubroeck was sentenced to three years in jail. He was charged with safecracking and thrown in the Elmira State Reformatory, a maximum security prison in New York. He would get out a year and a half later on parole but the impression would remain vivid in his mind.

...Apparently his imprisonment acted as a catalyst to the birth of his very unique and somewhat deranged rock 'n roll persona- he named his band Armand Schaubroeck Steals and all his music seemed to be a cathartic exorcise to the obsessions that haunted him.

His sound borrowed elements from Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and Kim Fowley, spiked with a provocative Andy Kaufman-esque weirdo sense of humour (the monogram of his name reads A.S.S.) and a distinctive fuck-you attitude that came mostly from the fact that he didn't need music to make a living. He and his brothers would found a musical store that is today one of the most successful in the business.

Not only did he have relative monetary independence, he also had a whole place full of instruments for himself. He built a studio in the store's basement, created Mirror Records and recorded a handful of albums that were personal, obsessive, ironic and deliberately abusive to the public ears. He even wrote sneering remarks in the back of his record covers saying "I doubt if you'll ever hear this record on the radio.

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