Onstage at TLA: Buzz Zeemer

Bring back the 90s! 😍 Watch the complete live 1996 performance of Buzz Zeemer at Philadelphia’s Theatre of Living Arts. Premiered July 1996 on PRISM.

Lost and Found Record Release Party - Buzz Zeemer

Last week on Friday, March 29—two concerts in one day from a band that I found out about in 2004. When I shared my “Buzz Zeemer reunion” meme last year, I did receive a couple of “yeah, it’ll never happen”-type comments. So, I never thought I’d get to witness them live in my lifetime, but dreams do manifest themselves in the most unusual ways! 🤩 

The WXPN Free at Noon was a solid performance, but I could never have imagined the transcendental event that would transpire later that evening. What Frank Brown, Tommy Conwell, Dave McElroy and Ken Buono, brought to us onstage that night didn’t happen by magic—they must have practiced for a long time and been really thoughtful about their performance to give us the kind of quality show they knew we would be expecting from them. Buzz Zeemer was the best band in America in their prime and they truly lived up to it! 🎸🎶 

I went through a universe of emotions with each song as it was playing and thinking about the years I’ve spent enjoying them: Don’t Hang Up, This Town, Porch, Sometimes, Lost and Found, Crush, Don’t Pull Away, These Things, Shelly Don’t Mind—so many songs! 🥰 

How awesome was it to hear the cheers of “one more song”—the audience was so loud! And seeing the younger kids in the audience flashing “heart hands” after “Through It All” in the encore—amazing! 

Life can make us see our past in rosy shades and attempts to recreate moments may only muddy our memories. But the music experience with Buzz Zeemer in 2024 has left a positive impact on me--getting to meet new friends, hearing their stories and realizing how much the music means to any community willing to support their artists. 

Yes. Let’s do this again next year.

Buzz Zeemer, Lost and Found, Philadelphia Inquirer Article - March 29, 2024

 ENTERTAINMENT | MUSIC

The pandemic made a Philly power-pop band go digging for its old songs. Today, it’s playing its first shows in 17 years.

'Lost and Found' by Buzz Zeemer is an unearthed gem from the 1990s. The group, fronted by Frank Brown and featuring Tommy Conwell, plays two shows at Ardmore Music Hall tonight.

Buzz Zeemer, the Philly power-pop band, is led by singer Frank Brown (left) and guitarist Tommy Conwell, seen rehearsing here in Manayunk on Monday, March 25, 2024.
Steven M. Falk / Staff Photographer

by Dan DeLuca

Published Mar. 29, 2024, 5:00 a.m. ET

High on the short list of Philadelphia bands that coulda, woulda, and shoulda made it big in the 1990s is Buzz Zeemer.

The power-pop outfit fronted by songwriting savant Frank Brown and local guitar hero Tommy Conwell grew out of Brown’s previous band, Flight of Mavis, which, like Buzz Zeemer, featured drummer Ken Buono and bass player Dave McElroy.

Buzz Zeemer packed Philly clubs like Upstairs at Nick’s and J.C. Dobbs, played CBGBs in New York, and traveled twice to the SXSW festival. Two stellar albums — Play Thing in 1996, and Delusions of Grandeur two years later — were released on Philly’s Record Cellar label before the group split.

Since then, the band — named after a neighbor of Brown’s in Horsham who frequently operated a chainsaw — has played just one gig, a reunion at the Grape Room in 2007.

Last September, a newly unearthed album of the band’s previously unreleased material was released. Called Lost and Found, its 14 tunes are so good that it’s puzzling why they stayed in the vault so long.

On Friday, a deluxe streaming version with five bonus tracks will be launched by the band’s manager and ardent supporter Pat Feeney, who owns Main Street Music in Manayunk.

The band will celebrate with two shows at Ardmore Music Hall on Friday. First, the quartet will do a Free at Noon broadcast on WXPN-FM (88.5), followed by a full-on performance with the Tisburys opening. The evening show will be streamed on live music platform Nugs.net.

This week, The Inquirer spoke to Brown and Conwell, their guitars at their side — a Les Paul and Fender Telecaster, respectively — at the Manayunk rehearsal space where, along with Buono and McElroy, the band has been working up nearly three dozen sparkling 3-minute pop songs from Brown’s Buzz Zeemer songbook.

Philly power-pop band Buzz Zeemer in the 1990s. Left to right, Ken Buono, Tommy Conwell, Frank Brown, and Dave McElroy. The reunited band's new album of unreleased material is "Lost and Found." The quartet will play a Free at Noon concert at Ardmore Music Hall on Friday, March 29, that will be broadcast on WXPN-FM (88.5) and then again that night at the same venue.

Back in the 1980s, Brown, 59, remembers hearing Tommy Conwell & the Young Rumblers’ “I’m Not Your Man” on WMMR-FM (93.3) while driving to high school when Conwell, the Hooters, and Robert Hazard and the Heroes were Philadelphia’s great rock and roll hopes.

In 1988, Flight of Mavis opened for the Young Rumblers at the Chestnut Cabaret. “They made an impression,” says Conwell, 62, who had a two-album run on Columbia Records that came to an end with Guitar Trouble in 1990.

“I was sitting in my kitchen, and my manager called and said ‘Tom, we got dropped,’ Conwell, who grew up in Bala Cynwyd, recalls. “And I cried.’”

Putting rock star aspirations behind him, Conwell got a degree from Chestnut Hill College and taught third grade for five years while playing locally with his Blues-based combo Tommy Conwell & the Little Kings.

By the time Conwell started playing with Brown, Buono, and McElroy in 1995, the trio who grew up together in Horsham had also been through the music industry wringer.

The album cover to Buzz Zeemer's "Lost and Found." The Philly power-pop band plays a Free at Noon show at Ardmore Music Hall on Friday and a second show that evening at the same venue. MSM Records.

Flight of Mavis first caught Feeney’s attention when he was working at Neil Drucker’s Record Cellar store in Northeast Philly.

The teenage trio gave him a tape, and “I couldn’t get the songs out of my head,” he says. It brought to mind Marshall Crenshaw, as well as Brown’s heroes, Nick Lowe and Terry Adams of NRBQ.

Flight of Mavis’ debut came out in 1989, and the band flirted with big-time success, touring steadily and opening for Sinead O’Connor on a run of dates that year. By the early 1990s, the band was without a deal and frustrated.

“I was tired of it,” Brown says. The band called it quits, but Brown kept writing songs “and they kept getting better,” says Feeney. “More mature.”

“I know it seem ridiculous,” Brown says, “to have two different bands with the same three people in them.” But Brown, Buono, and McElroy started recording new material with producer Adam “Red” Lasus at his Queen Village studio, this time as Buzz Zeemer. When Conwell heard a demo tape, he was blown away. “This is out of character for me, but I said to Ken, ‘This is amazing music. If you ever need a guitar player, give me a call.’”

Before long, they did. Their fourth member, guitarist Kevin Karg, couldn’t make a gig at the Grape, and Conwell stepped in, injecting the indie band with wildcat rock star energy. “I was having a ball,” he says. When Conwell formally joined the band, the band started fresh with Play Thing and left the older tracks behind.

Many Lost and Found songs feature Conwell, like the jangly earworm “Shelly Don’t Mind,” that XPN has been playing regularly. Others feature guitarists like Karg, Kevin Salem, and Philadelphia players such as Andrew Chalfen and Mike “Slo-Mo” Brenner.

Buzz Zeemer flirted with wider success. They “knocked me out the first time I laid ears on them,” Peter Jesperson, cofounder of the Twin Tone label who discovered the Replacements, recalls on the Lost and Found notes. “This is classic power pop!”

But no label deal materialized, and the band — now older, starting families, and no longer committed to relentlessly touring — split up.

Meanwhile, Feeney kept listening to the songs that would become Lost and Found. “I always loved it. I always wanted to put it out.”

Buzz Zeemer, the Philly power-pop band, is back performing together. It's led by
singer Frank Brown (left) and guitarist Tommy Conwell.
Steven M. Falk / Staff Photographer

Brown and Conwell both stayed active in music. Brown lives in Havertown, teaches fourth grade math in Upper Darby, and fronts Travel Lanes, which released Let’s Begin to Start Again in 2015 and On in 2020.

Conwell, who lives in Oreland, works for his brother-in-law’s company, the Fence Guys. He reassembled the Young Rumblers for 2019′s Showboats & Grandstanders and is headlining the Wayne Music Festival with them on June 8.

During the pandemic, Brown started digitizing old cassettes. He found a rough mix of a song called “C’mon If You Can” to be “just blazing.”

He sent it to Feeney, and the two started digging for songs, turning up 22 that hadn’t been released. “The whole thing has been a labor of love,” says Feeney.

It’s been a challenge pulling a show together with Buono living in Nashville and McElroy in Virginia. But for Buzz Zeemer to get back together, Flight of Mavis needed to reunite first.

So in June of last year, Brown, Buono, and McElroy played a Flight of Mavis date at Wayne’s 118 North. “I hadn’t played with those guys in forever,” said Brown. “So that was really the first step.”

The show sold out the 180-capacity room, gathering old fans to sing along, and pointing ahead for Friday’s show at Ardmore, a venue three times the size.

Conwell is “really excited” to be back on stage with the band. “Buzz Zeemer is some of the best music I’ve ever played. There’s craftsmanship to Frank’s songs. But a lot of art there, too.”

Going forward, one gig a year sounds good, he thinks. “I don’t see why we couldn’t do it again.”

But first things first, says Brown. “This is a big deal. We’ll see if we can pull it off.”

“It won’t be flawless,” says Conwell, with a laugh. “But it will be fun. The spirit will live.”

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Dan DeLuca
I cover pop music, from what's happening in the local scene to national trends and touring acts.

Buzz Zeemer - Record Cellar 1999

Promo pic of Buzz Zeemer (left to right: Tommy Conwell, Gordon Townshend, Frank Brown and Dave McElroy) for the Record Cellar label, 1999. Photo credit: Eric Hartline.

103.9-FM WDRE Modern Rock DREgional: Buzz Zeemer

From the liner notes of "103.9-FM WDRE Modern Rock DREgional: Volume 1"-- a compilation of Philadelphia-area bands released by now-defunct modern rock station WDRE in 1996.

Buzz Zeemer – I Live Next Door

          With guitars at turns jangly or biting, hummable melodies, and killer songs, Buzz Zeemer live in a world somewhere between Matthew Sweet and a younger, tighter version of NRBQ.
          The band is led by Frank Brown on vocals and guitar, with Philly legend (and really nice guy) Tommy Conwell on guitar and vocals, Dave McElroy on bass and Ken Buono on drums.
          After kicking around town for the past couple of years, they released Play Thing, and from the songwriting and playing to the production and even the artwork, this is one of the best local discs to come down the pike. In fact, the release party in March ’96 was like a who’s who in the Philly scene, and with fans like Inquirer music critics Dan DeLuca and Tom Moon, the City Paper’s a.d. amorosi, WXPN’s Bruce Warren, and DRE’s own Rumour Boy, the future looks up for Buzz.
          Voted most likely to get a record deal in 1996, we’d love to help make it happen for one of Philly’s best – Buzz Zeemer!

Onstage at the Theatre of the Living Arts: Buzz Zeemer

In 1996, PRISM, a now-defunct cable television channel in Philadelphia, aired a concert special -- PRISM and The Art Institute of Philadelphia Present ‘Onstage at the TLA: Buzz Zeemer.’ 

Included with concert footage of Buzz Zeemer at Theatre of the Living Arts were thirteen songs, interspersed with interviews of the band: Frank Brown, Tommy Conwell, Dave McElroy and Ken Buono.

*Complete concert*

Setlist: 

• Sometimes 
• Break My Heart
• I Live Next Door 
• Everything You Should 
• Downed 
• She Don’t Care 
• Chosen One 
• Red Balloon 
• Don’t Pull Away 
• Crush 
• Lost and Found 
• Goin’ Home 
• Through It All 

Buzz Zeemer on Walnut Street - 1996

Buzz Zeemer plays on Walnut St.- Philly-1996. Tommy Conwell, Ken Buono, Frank Brown, Dave McElroy.(Image from Buzz Zeemer's MySpace page.)

Buzz Zeemer PRISM Interview - 1996

To quote Tommy Conwell -- "Frank (Brown) is a great songwriter..." ‪

Buzz Zeemer's lead singer and songwriter, Frank Brown, talks about the "three-minute, thirty-second" pop song and how it fits into the band's mold. 

Interview on PRISM with Tommy Conwell, Ken Buono and Dave McElroy in 1996. 

I Live Next Door

“I live next door to Buzz Zeemer!”

This video performance showcases an early version of Frank Brown’s Buzz Zeemer featuring Kevin Salem (Dumptruck) on lead guitar. With Dave McElroy on bass and Ken Buono on drums.



A different version of the recording for the song "I Live Next Door" was later officially released on Play Thing in 2006.

One Shot - Singer/Songwriter Frank Brown

The following is an excerpt from articles originally found on www.mpprojects.com/tc. Originally published in 2007.

Singer/songwriter, Frank Brown, formerly of Flight of Mavis, hooked up with Tommy Conwell in 1996 and Buzz Zeemer (along with drummer Ken Buono and bassist Dave McElroy) and recorded a pop masterpiece, Plaything. Zeemer featured Brown’s witty, tuneful songcraft complimented by Conwell’s tasty hooks and grooves. Buzz Zeemer’s sophomore effort released in 1999, Delusions of Grandeur, generated a buzz with music critics. The band performed at South by Southwest in Texas along with countless gigs at their home court - Grape Street Pub in Manayunk.  After a long hiatus, Buzz Zeemer reunites and records a new song titled One Shot, featured on Record Cellar’s fifty-song compilation titled Town and Country.   

Tell me about the new song, "One Shot."

Frank Brown:  One Shot was one of five songs I sent Dave (McElroy) to choose from for Town and Country.  We recorded it on one of the hottest nights of the summer with producer/engineer Matt Muir in Manayunk.  Learned it and recorded it the same night. I like it.

Tell me a funny story from a Buzz Zeemer live gig.

Frank Brown:  I think the funniest Zeemer gig stories are when the joke is on us. When you agree to play anywhere, you never know where you will wind up. We played at a Best Buy store opening. A 40th birthday party down the shore. We played a gig where so few people showed up that we started playing any Steve Miller song we knew. "Swingtown," anyone?

You have spent time with Tommy Conwell in the recording studio. What makes Tommy a sought-after guitarist?

Frank Brown:  Tommy is an absolute blast to play with.  I had a song called Crush that was recorded with a couple different guitar players before Tommy played on it.  It was never how I heard it.  I asked Tom to play it in a certain way and in a minute, it became the song it is today. Much like the rest of the band, Tom enjoys playing all kinds of music. We can be very rock at times and very nice at times. It's nice to play with someone who can play anything you ask ...and more.

What was your reaction hearing a Flight of Mavis song on the alternative radio stations for the first time? 

Frank Brown:  I never get tired of hearing our stuff on the radio. I think the first time we were played on the radio was on XPN when Jim Moran (of the Wishniaks) played our 4-track demo. It was fun. We were extremely green. 

Who are your musical heroes?  

Frank Brown:  There's so many...Terry Adams, Lennon and McCartney, Nick Lowe, Captain Beefheart, Brian Wilson, Rick Nielsen, Bill Evans -- all the good ones.

Your songwriting has been compared to Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, and Squeeze.  How do you go about writing a song?  

Frank Brown:  All different ways! It depends on the situation. Sometimes the music is first, sometimes the lyrics. The best ones take about fifteen minutes.  The rest are much longer -- sometimes 45 minutes.

The Philadelphia press reported that you offered sleeping accommodations to former Replacement Tommy Stinson.  Tell me the story.

Frank Brown:  I had the pleasure of opening for both Tommy Stinson and Slim Dunlop (latter day guitarist of The Replacements) and actually had both of them stay at my house in West Philadelphia. I think the Westerberg story was written in the paper but wasn't actually true. I would hate to think that we opened for Westerberg and that I had no memory of it?!  Then again... our place in West Philadelphia  was host to a lot of bands on Peter Jesperson's Medium Cool label.  They were all very fine guests but I think we enjoyed Slim the most. Great character and great stories.

Buzz Zeemer’s Let Them Eat Rock is a crowd favorite.  Any chance it will ever be recorded?

Frank Brown:  I would like to think we'll have a live version of it from our reunion gig at Grape Street.  I can't imagine it ever being officially recorded by us.  We're in awe of the original by The Upper Crust.

What is in the future for Buzz Zeemer?

Frank Brown:  I would hate to think that the reunion show is the last time we will play together.....but it might be.  As of now, there are no plans to do anything together in the future.  Regardless, as long as everyone continues to have a pulse -- you never know!

Buzz Zeemer Interview - 1996

A 1996 interview featuring Buzz Zeemer's lead singer and songwriter, Frank Brown, who talks about the "three-minute, thirty-second" pop song and how it fits into the band's mold. Also Tommy Conwell, Ken Buono and Dave McElroy.

Buzz Zeemer Reunion - 2007

It's a Buzz Zeemer reunion!

Buzz Zeemer Reunion Show, Grape Street Philadelphia 1/12/07

Show starts 8 pm on Friday, January 12, 2007. Door charge is $10. Buzz Zeemer will play from 9 pm-10:30 pm.

Check out a music review of their sophomore effort, Delusions of Grandeur, from CityPaper, Philadelphia's independent newspaper in 1999.

January 21–28, 1999

Delusions of Grandeur (Record Cellar), the second album by Buzz Zeemer (Philly's answer to the Traveling Wilburys), mines that expanse between '90s modern rock and '70s folk-pop. And as surprising as this is for me to admit, I actually like it. The lineup for this album includes core members Frank Brown and Tommy Conwell as well as guest appearances by onetime Low Road frontman Mike Brenner and Original Sins keyboardist Dan McKinney. As the chipper and strummy tunes bounce along, it's easy to picture the members of Buzz Zeemer driving their beat-up VW bus against the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains. The influences of bossa nova and '50s doo-wop occasionally rear their heads, but mostly these are laid-back, jangly, semi-acoustic tunes. 

Buzz Zeemer will play on Sat., Feb. 20, at Upstairs at Nick's. Record Cellar, P.O. Box 188, Bala Cynwyd, PA, 19004.