Iron City Houserockers

Iron City Houserockers
The Iron City Houserockers outside a bar in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the late 1970s.
Background information
Also known as	Brick Alley Band (1976-1977) The Houserockers (1983-1984) Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers (1989-present)
Origin	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Genres	Heartland rock, hard rock, rock and roll
Years active	1976–1984 1989–present (as Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers)
Labels	MCA, Rhino
Associated acts	Joe Grushecky, Joe Grushecky & The Houserockers
Website	www.ironcityhouserockers.com
Past members	Joe Grushecky Gil Snyder Ned Rankin Art Nardini Gary Scalese Marc Reisman Eddie Britt Ron "Byrd" Foster

The Iron City Houserockers were an American rock band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, led by singer/guitarist Joe Grushecky, that existed from 1976 until 1984.

Started in 1976 as the Brick Alley Band by Grushecky, a high school special education teacher in Pittsburgh, the band was a fairly typical bar band. The band was distinguished by Grushecky's taut, focused songs about life in the open hearth and a distinctive, harmonica-and-guitar driven sound owing much to the Rolling Stones and the J. Geils Band, but which also seemed to borrow a lot of the thrashing fury of punk rock. Most of the members of the Iron City Houserockers came from a genuine blue collar background: Art Nardini was the son of a mechanic and a part-time college student, Joe Grushecky was a coal miner's son, and Gil Snyder's father was a construction worker. In 1977 they signed to Cleveland International Records, headed by former Epic Records A&R chief and Pittsburgh native Steve Popovich. Popovich christened them the Iron City Houserockers, but this caused some problems when touring outside their native Pittsburgh — when they played Cleveland their tires were slashed. The band's debut album Love's So Tough was released in April 1979. With dense, no-frills production by Popovich and Marty Mooney, AKA the Slimmer Twins, the album successfully captured the band's live sound. "Hideaway" (the first single) and "Dance With Me" were viewed as standout cuts.

The band's follow-up album Have a Good Time but Get out Alive! was featured by Rolling Stone magazine as its showcase review with the headline "New American Classic" and The Village Voice called it "the strongest album an American band has made this year." The tandem tavern-set tracks "Old Man Bar" and "Junior's Bar" were especially praised. Production was credited to the Slimmer Twins and Mick Ronson, with arrangements by Ian Hunter and Steven Van Zandt. According to the liner notes within Pumping Iron & Sweating Steel: The Best of the Iron City Houserockers, Van Zandt left after producing five songs due to musical differences between himself, Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson.