Freddie Brooks wants to create a time capsule for the band Detroit Energy Asylum.

The Metro Detroit producer and label owner discovered that analog tape recordings of the group’s past studio sessions were starting to disintegrate and raced to preserve them.

“I had roughly three dozen of these big two-inch reels [of analog tape] and some of them were starting to shed,” said Brooks, who produced and managed the band from 1980 to 2000.

“The [tape] was falling off, and I ended up having to bake all those tapes and to transfer them for posterity. That’s when I started going through them, and that’s what happened with the ReCreation record [in 2019]. I was going through them and thought, ‘These songs are mostly finished. Most of them haven’t been released.’ I put the ReCreation [record] together, and beyond that, later on, I started listening to some of the other ones.”

Brooks realized there was a wealth of Detroit Energy Asylum material to unearth and share with fans—both past and present.

The multigenre band performed and recorded in Southeast Michigan from 1980 to 2000, featuring singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Carolyn Striho as its frontwoman.

“Once again, I decided to do it bit by bit, a time capsule of all this stuff over like 40 years,” he said. “I’m trying to represent the different basic phases of the band because we spent a lot of time recording.

“We released a couple of CDs [and] a couple of cassettes, none of which are still available. A lot of this stuff, nobody has really heard it, and we never really got any of it outside of Southeast Michigan. We never had a distributor. I just thought it would be a good idea to put together an overview of the work we did.”

What resulted is Landslide of Life: 82/22, a compilation album that features Detroit Energy Asylum’s studio and live recordings over 40 years.

“A lot of the songs weren’t mixed, and we had taken a safe approach with them,” said Brooks, who owns and operates the independent label Orchide Records. “At this point, we’re not trying to break a band as such; it’s more of a historical thing. I wanted to bring out more of the elements that we might have been a little timid with in their original form.”

The album includes eight studio tracks and two live tracks. Collectively, it reflects a variety of genres, ranging from rock and funk to punk and alt-rock, and features different lineups of the band.

During the band’s tenure, Striho performed with saxophonist David McMurray, keyboardist Luis Resto, guitarist Randy Jacobs, guitarist Tommy Cicola, bassist Jervonny Collier, bassist Pam Marcil, drummer Buster Marbury, drummer Andre Hawkins, drummer Ken Scott, trumpeter Rayse Biggs, and others.

They were also collaborations with MC5’s Wayne Kramer and Sponge’s Vinnie Dombroski, Mike Cross, and Joey Mazzola, and Patti Smith, as well as overlapping bandmates with Don Was and Was (Not Was).

“When you work with really good players, sometimes they’re going to get called up to do something else that’s more important than playing at a local club,” Brooks said.

The band’s evolving lineup and the unpredictability of the music industry inspired Brooks to name the album after a phrase writer Russell Baker used in The New York Times.

“He had mentioned something about ‘landslide of life,’ and it had stuck with me,” said Brooks, who had written for the Ann Arbor Sun from October 1972 to March 1975. “And I had really wanted to do something with that title since like 1980 … because amidst all the chaos of being in a band and trying to build a label, it just seemed like it fit at the time.”

Brooks put together Detroit Energy Asylum—then known as Rough Cut—with Striho in August 1980. He had met Striho after she opened several shows for Fred “Sonic” Smith and his Sonic’s Rendezvous. 

Between May 1975 and July 1980, Brooks had worked with Fred "Sonic" Smith and Sonic's Rendezvous booking and recording gigs, designing poster artwork, transporting and setting up their gear—whatever needed to be done short of playing onstage.

After Sonic's Rendezvous performed its final gig in July 1980, Brooks was free to work with Rough Cut.

“Carolyn had left The Cubes to do Rough Cut, and I had released a single by Rough Cut in March of 1981,” he said.

In 1981, Rough Cut was opening for The Slits and The Ramones in Southeast Michigan. A year later, they had opened for Iggy Pop and wrote and recorded “Maiden Energy.”

“Maiden Energy,” which now serves as the lead track on Landslide of Life: 82/22, was co-written by Striho with guitarist Tommy Cicola.

The song highlights the energy and bravery of women, encouraging others to be strong in the face of societal restrictions.

“Tommy had the guitar riff, and I fit the lyrics into that,” Striho said.

By 1983, Rough Cut stopped having opening bands at its live shows and started playing two long sets, which meant coming up with more songs. That included adding covers of The Cubes’ “Changing Fractions” and The Stooges’ “I Need Somebody” to its setlist.

“The band took ‘Changing Fractions’ right away, gave it a hard funk groove, and [it] was fun to play,” Striho said. “‘I Need Somebody’ was great for my vocal range, had a languid feel, and was fiercely lonesome. It also gave us a chance to breathe.”

Live recordings of those two tracks both appear on Landslide of Life: 82/22.

“I think those songs were recorded at a place called The Ritz [in Roseville],” Brooks said. “I just wanted to make sure people understood that the album wasn’t just a studio project, and that people could actually play live.”

Rough Cut then took its live show overseas to Japan in 1983. The band spent six weeks there and played 39 dates out of 42 days.

“We mostly stayed at this one club and did a residency there,” Brooks said. “We took [drummer] Buster Marbury with us on that, and a guy named Kerry Turman, [who played bass]. Both of those guys ended up playing with The Temptations for like 30 years.”

In 1985, Rough Cut ran into a legal issue with the band name. Brooks, Striho, and the group discovered Warner Bros. had released an album by a band called Rough Cutt with two “t’s.”

“We had a suit against Warner Bros. in 1985 over the name Rough Cut,” Brooks said. “It was like a three-month lawsuit, and we ended up selling them the name. We changed the name to Detroit Energy Asylum mostly because we had gigs booked, and I didn’t have time to do a big name search.”

With a new name in place, the band continued to write and record. It wasn’t long before they recorded the song “Shadow,” which was co-written by Striho and guitarist Randy Jacobs, and is now featured on Landslide of Life: 82/22. 

“I had written the lyrics to ‘Shadow’ sometime before that,” Striho said. “It was originally a poem. I had ideas for it musically, but heard Randy playing this riff at sound check, my lyrics fit with the melody, and the song developed from there.”

Detroit Energy Asylum's lineup mainly featured Striho, Randy Jacobs, David McMurray, Pam Marcil, and Ken Scott from 1985 to 1990. They also performed live with Wayne Kramer and members of Seduce in the early 1990s.

“We did a handful of gigs with [Seduce’s] Mark Andrews and David Black in 1991,” Brooks said. “In [February] 1993, we did a series of gigs with Wayne Kramer, and some of those gigs are on YouTube.”

After working with Mark Andrews, David Black, and Wayne Kramer, Detroit Energy Asylum started collaborating with Sponge vocalist Vinnie Dombroski, guitarist Mike Cross, and guitarist Joey Mazzola.

“We had met Vinnie and those guys from Sponge before their first record came out,” Brooks said. “They were still playing as Loudhouse. Mike Cross did a session with us. Joey Mazzola started playing with us and doing sessions, and he’s still working with us.”

“Ceiling’s That Way,” the closing track for Landslide of Life: 82/22, features Dombroski on drums and Mazzola on guitar.

“We had just basic tracks on that, so I called some of the guys back together, and we finished putting that song together,” Brooks said. “It just started out with Carolyn playing guitar with bass and drums. Carolyn’s vocals were half done, so I put [vocalist] Terena Boone on to alternate with her.”

In 1995, Detroit Energy Asylum backed Patti Smith on a few shows. Brooks had put together a seven-piece band with Detroit Energy Asylum vets Striho, David McMurray, Luis Resto, Rayse Biggs, Wayne Gerard, Pam Marcil, and Ken Scott to support Patti Smith. 

Luis Resto, David McMurray, and Rayse Biggs also had recorded with Patti Smith on her cover of Willard Robison's "Don't Smoke in Bed" for the Ain't Nuthin' But a She Thing compilation album.

"We rehearsed for a couple of months and did [several] gigs with her," said Brooks, who produced Patti Smith's cover of "Don't Smoke in Bed."

Outside of collaborations, Detroit Energy Asylum expanded its sonic palette by adding more keyboards to its live performances and studio sessions, thanks to Luis Resto.

“It was an element that was kind of missing from our songs, and [Luis] helped make them a little more cinematic,” Brooks said. “Instead of being a straight guitar band, he’s [been] able to add these textures that move it into a whole new area.”

By 2000, Detroit Energy Asylum had stopped recording as a band. Instead, Striho, Luis Resto, and David McMurray recorded and released a collaborative album called Secrets & Space, which pays tribute to Detroit and its musical legacy, and features Striho and Patti Smith on "Reach Out / I'll Be There."

“In general, Luis had a big role for Secrets & Space,” Brooks said. “He contributed a lot to ‘Breathing Space,’ and most of the keyboard stuff is just Louie being Louie.”

The trio did five gigs in support of Secrets & Space in 2000, and then went on hiatus.

“And after that, once again, people’s schedules got kind of crazy, and so Carolyn and I went back into the studio and started recording as much as possible,” Brooks said. “We have at least probably two dozen songs right now in various stages of production.”

That now leaves the door open for releasing an expanded version of Landslide of Life: 82/22 and other Detroit Energy Asylum albums.

“Recording’s already happening,” Striho said. “Freddie’s deep into production on a batch of incomplete songs we’d started after the release of Secrets & Space, which should be finished this fall. There’s also a number of songs that were recorded alongside the Landslide material that we’ll get to in the near future.”

And there’s always the possibility of reuniting Detroit Energy Asylum for another live show.

“As far as gigs, we’re still friends and in touch with all the musicians,” Striho said. “Most everybody’s busy with Don Was or their individual projects. The logistics of coordinating rehearsals and so on with everyone’s schedules are complicated. But I’d love to do it—never say never.”

Lori Stratton is a library technician, writer for Pulp, and writer and editor of strattonsetlist.com.