GET TECHNIFIED by THE TECHNIQUES

Richmond, Kentucky, teenagers Randy Black, David Burdette, Frankie Turner, Paul Walker, and Wayne Hill began as the Mellow Meditators, straddling the line between garage pop and stage-band soul. By 1972, the group were playing gigs but struggling to find their niche. Math teacher Robert Blythe took on the duties of mediator and manager, ushering in fellow classmates Otis Ballard, Jasper White, Floyd Covington, Cynthia Miller, and Burdette's brother George, and a much needed name change. The renamed Techniques tracked two originals—"Get Technified" and the Intruders jack "When You're Away"—at Track 16 Studio in Lexington, Kentucky. Pressed at Cincinnati's QCA and distributed by Richmond's premier booking agency Progressive, most of the pressing was destroyed in a barn flood. The Techniques remained strong into 1978, but Blythe's relocation to Akron, Ohio, to get technified by an IBM job led to the group's demise.