History The Koala

New York-based band that released just one album, which was ignored at the time, but decades later became highly sought-after by collectors of obscure garage pysch. The unit was discovered by the Blues Magoos' producers/managers, Bob Wyld and Art Polhemus, who would secure the act a contract with Capital Records. The label decided to market the group as Australian, a marketing gimmick that seemed to have worked for another New York group, the Strangeloves.

In 1968, the Koala released their only album. The album is uniformly strong and diverse, showing strong Cream, Rascals, and Who influences. The band played a sloppy brand of rock full of power chords, out of control fuzz guitar solos and thundering drums.

The band fell apart after the first LP, with vocalist Jose Mala going on to do a short stint with the Joe Perry Project (which he left before the band ever recorded). Joey Guido became a member of the New York glam rock quintet The Brats, which performed alongside Kiss in its early days and featured lead guitarist Scott St. Clair Sheets, later a member of Pat Benatar’s band. Guitarist Caine (aka Louis Dambra) and brother Joey went on to record with Sir Lord Baltimore.

The band members:

Jose Mala (vocals)

Louis Caine [aka Louis Dambra] (lead guitar)

Joey Guido (rhythm guitar)

Anthony Wesley (bass guitar)

Joe Alexander (drums)

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