Many bands were setting up shop in a garage near you in the 1960s. We talk to one Wisconsin band, Mourning Daze, that got its start in the 60s and is still playing today. We also take a look at scientists’ successful cloning attempt of baby monkeys and break down President Trump’s plans for infrastructure before and now.
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Primates Cloned Using 'Dolly Method' For The First Time
Scientists in China have successfully cloned two baby monkeys using somatic cell nuclear transfer, the same method that produced Dolly the Sheep. It’s the first time the process has been used to clone primates, and could have a big impact on disease research. A health and medicine expert shares the details and the ethical concerns being raised.
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A Wisconsin Garage Band From 1965 To Today
In the mid-1960s, Rick Pfeifer was a high school sophomore in Whitewater, flying high because his band, Mourning Dayze, had been invited to open for The Supremes.
Pfeifer and his fellow band members were looking to maintain their long locks to look hip for when they opened for The Supremes, but there was one problem: his school had a strict no-long-hair-for-boys policy.
So Pfeifer made an appeal to his high school principal. It was along the lines of, ‘Sir, I need to keep my long hair in order to properly do my job as a musician.’
It worked — though Pfeifer only found out years later that his mother had marched into the principal’s office, checkbook in hand, and demanded that her son be permitted to keep his long hair, Pfeifer told WPR’s “Central Time.”
Mourning Dayze was founded in 1965, when all the members were in high school. It was a time when garage bands were everywhere — and while Mourning Dayze made it out of their garage and onto a stage, what may be the most remarkable thing about the band is that they’re still playing music 53 years later.
Mourning Dayze today isn’t made up of all the same members as the original 1965 group, and their sound has changed from Beatles-esque rock to a melange of Motown, soul, reggae, Cajun music and pop. Nevertheless, the band is still going strong.
Their style of music isn’t the only thing that has changed during the band’s tenure. Take their name for example.
“Before Mourning Dayze we were called the Coachmen, and we needed something new. So we named ourselves Mourning Dayze for no particular reason other than it was morning, and we were all in a daze” after coming home from being on the road, said Pfeifer, who’s the co-author of the book “Mourning Dayze: A Wisconsin Garage Band.”
Another fun fact: the band’s van was a hearse. That’s where the play on words comes from.
“We bought it for $500 (and) put over 100,000 miles on it,” he said.
The band managed to get one of their songs, “Fly My Paper Airplane,” onto the radio.
With all his years of experience — and his courage in making the music dream happen for himself — Pfeifer has a some advice for aspiring musicians: don’t pretend to be something you’re not.
“You have to discover what you are. You have to experiment a little bit. You may want to be something, but you may (actually) be something completely different, and you have to find out where your soul is in your music. I would play from your soul, rather from your head (and) what you think you should be playing,” he said.
If you want to hear Mourning Dayze in the flesh, you can: they still play shows around the state.
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Wisconsin Garage Band Still Rocking Since The 1960s
Many bands got their start by making some noise in their parent’s garage. And most of those bands rarely make it out of the garage. But in Wisconsin in the 1960s garage bands were popping up all over the state. One of the state’s most successful and long-lasting of those bands is Mourning Dayze, a band that formed in Whitewater in 1965, and they’re still playing music today.
We talk to a founding member of Mourning Dayze who has co-authored a book that chronicles the band’s history and evolution over decades of playing bars, enduring lineup changes, and sticking with the dream of playing music.
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Looking At President Trump's Infrastructure Plan
In President Trump’s first State of the Union address this week, he called on both parties to come together on a plan for “safe, fast, reliable and modern infrastructure” that will generate at least 1.5 trillion dollars for new infrastructure investment. Join us as we talk with a transportation journalist and infrastructure analyst about what’s known – and unknown – about the plan.
Episode Credits
- Rob Ferrett Host
- Judith Siers-Poisson Host
- Dean Knetter Producer
- Karl Christenson Producer
- Breann Schossow Producer
- Dina Fine Maron Guest
- Rick Pfeifer Guest
- Rocky Moretti Guest
- Brianna Gurciullo Guest
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