The Miracle Workers were a rock and roll

Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...

 band in the 1980s, who began as a garage rock

Garage rock

Garage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name...

 revival band in Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

.

Background

The Miracle Workers were formed in January 1982 by Gerry Mohr (vocals), and Joel Barnett (bass guitar). The original guitarist and drummer, who were friends of Gerry's, but weren't interested in garage rock, left the band early on. Matt Rogers, a friend of Joel's, became the guitarist. Ron Sheridan became the drummer, though would later leave to pursue a business career. The band stabilized in 1984, with the addition of Dan Demiankow (guitar, organ), and Gene Trautmann (drums).

The Miracle Workers lineup in 1987 became Gerry Mohr (vocals), Matt Rogers (guitar), Robert Butler (bass), and Gene Trautmann (drums).

Recording career

Several songs on compilation LPs, with the band line up being Gerry, Matt, Joel, and Ron. Recordings from 1982.

• Miracle Workers, was a four-song EP on Moxie Records, released in 1984. Line up was Gerry Mohr, Joel Barnett, Matt Rogers, Danny Demiankow, and a short term drummer, Jeff Grassi.
• A Thousand Micrograms of the Miracle Workers, on Sounds Interesting Records, 1984, 6 song EP, marked Gene Trautmann's recording debut with the band.
• Inside Out, Voxx/Bomp 1985 LP, was recorded in Los Angeles. This is the band's most successful LP, and received critical acclaim in North America and Europe. It has since been re-issued on CD. Of all the recordings it is the easiest to find.

These recordings, and the band's style was in line with contemporary garage rock revival acts, such as The Chesterfield Kings

The Chesterfield Kings

The Chesterfield Kings are a rock band from Rochester, New York, who began as a retro-1960s garage band, and who have heavily mined 1960s music, including some borrowing from the 1960s recordings of The Rolling Stones...

 and Lyres

Lyres (band)

Lyres are a Boston-area garage rock band led by Jeff "Monoman" Conolly. Lyres were founded in 1979 following the breakup of DMZ. Their most popular songs included "Don't Give It Up Now," "What A Girl Can't Do" and "Help You Ann"...

.

The Miracle Workers' liking for harder edged, late-sixties/early-seventies bands such as the MC5

MC5

The MC5 is an American rock band formed in Lincoln Park, Michigan and originally active from 1964 to 1972. The original band line-up consisted of vocalist Rob Tyner, guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred "Sonic" Smith, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson...

, The Stooges

The Stooges

The Stooges are an American rock band from Ann Arbor, Michigan first active from 1967 to 1974, and later reformed in 2003...

, and Flamin' Groovies came to the fore. Their sound became very influenced by this and it can be heard on their LPs Live at the Forum, Overdose, Primary Domain, and Roll out the Red Carpet, with the first two being especially notable.

The 1989 LP on Get Hip Records

Get Hip Records

Get Hip Records is an independent Pittsburgh based music label and distributor formed by Gregg Kostelich in 1986. Kostelich used the label to release music by his own band, The Cynics, as well as other local, indie and retro garage rock bands.-Releases:...

, Moxie's Revenge, supplemented this period with outtakes and unreleased recordings.

Los Angeles

In the Spring of 1986, the band decided to move to Los Angeles. Joel Barnett left the band at that time. Robert Butler, from The Untold Fables, became the bass player and Dan Demiankow quit over musical differences. Due to problems with drug use

Recreational drug use

Recreational drug use is the use of a drug, usually psychoactive, with the intention of creating or enhancing recreational experience. Such use is controversial, however, often being considered to be also drug abuse, and it is often illegal...

 by some members of the band, they split up in 1992.

Break up and slow fade

Gene Trautmann quit the band circa 1990 and was replaced on drums by Aaron Sperske. Aaron Played on the Roll Out the Red Carpet album. The Miracle Workers split in the early 1990s, but before calling it quits they returned to Portland and recorded a new CD, Anatomy of a Creep, for their label, Triple X. Gene Trautmann resumed drumming duties. This record was apparently issued, but in small quantities, as it is difficult to find.

Members of the group resurfaced in Portland, Oregon in the mid-1980s and in Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 in the late 1990s, in several bands playing blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

, psychobilly

Psychobilly

Psychobilly is a fusion genre of rock music that mixes elements of punk rock, rockabilly, and other genres. It is one of several subgenres of rockabilly which also include thrashabilly, trashabilly, punkabilly, surfabilly and gothabilly...

, and garage rock

Garage rock

Garage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name...

, such as The Bo Diddley Headhunters; Cavemannish Boys; The Wicked Ones; The Get Lost

The Get Lost

The Get Lost were a Garage Rock band formed in 2000 in Bern, Switzerland by founding members of the Portland, Oregon eighties garage revival band, The Miracle Workers. Members included Gerry Mohr , Robert Butler Chris Rosales and Kat Aellen . The group recorded one LP for Switzerland's Voodoo...

 and Queens of the Stone Age

Queens of the Stone Age

Queens of the Stone Age is an American rock band from Palm Desert, California, United States, formed in 1997. The band's line-up has always included founding member Josh Homme , with the current line-up including longtime members Troy Van Leeuwen and Joey Castillo , alongside Michael Shuman and...

. In LA the band incorporated more hard rock

Hard rock

Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...

 and alternative rock

Alternative rock

Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

 influences paralleling the grunge

Grunge

Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...

 scene in Seattle. The Miracle Workers were amongst the founding bands of the stoner rock

Stoner rock

Stoner rock or stoner metal is a subgenre of heavy metal, combining elements of psychedelic rock, blues rock, traditional heavy metal and doom metal. Stoner rock is typically slow-to-mid tempo and features a bass-heavy sound, melodic vocals, and 'retro' production...

 movement.

In the late 1980s, alternative cartoonist Joe Sacco

Joe Sacco

Joe Sacco is a Maltese-American comics artist and journalist. He achieved international fame through the 1996 American Book Award-winning Palestine, and his graphic novel on the Bosnian War, Safe Area Goražde.- Biography :...

 followed the band on their Europe tour, as T-shirt salesman and chronicling comics journalist. These comics have been collected in the compilation But I Like It, published by Fantagraphics in 2006.