ROCK IN DETROIT’S
OCTOBER 2025
BAND OF THE MONTH:
MAZINGA
Purveyors of Maximum Cosmic Rock ‘n’ Roll music. Thirty year veterans of the Detroit rock scene. Mazinga is among the most established performers and prolific band in the Metro-Detroit punk scene. Rock in Detroit recently spoke to guitarist Chris Taylor to find out what this iconic band is all about.
ROCK IN DETROIT: Mazinga. Mazinga? Any relation to Mazinger (anime/manga giant robot franchise)? If so, why? If not, whence Mazinga?
CHRIS FROM MAZINGA: Yes. The band is named after Mazinger, also known as Mazinga in America. It was Marc and Big Tony’s idea. We are big fans of the Shogun Warriors toys from when we were little kids.
ROCK IN DETROIT: How cool! I once wrote a song about my childhood hero, Speed Racer. Does the Mazinga (or other similar childhood loves) find its way into your songs?
CHRIS FROM MAZINGA: We have songs about a lot of pop culture type stuff. We don’t have any actual songs about Mazinga, although we have talked about doing a cover of the Mazinger theme song.
ROCK IN DETROIT: Do it! (The Ramones do a great version of The Spider-man theme song.) But let’s get into the band now. Can you give us a quick run down of Mazinga’s current line-up and any significant changes over the last 30 years?
CHRIS FROM MAZINGA: The band consists of Donny Blum on drums, Tony Fero on bass, Marc McFinn on vocals, and me, Chris Taylor on guitar. That is the original line-up from November 1995. Donny left the band in late 2000 when his other group, the Von Bondies, got really busy. We had a series of drummers for the next 10 years. Al King was on drums from 2008 to 2011. We took a few years off here and there. Donny came back to the group around 2012.
ROCK IN DETROIT: To what do you owe your longevity?
CHRIS FROM MAZINGA: We are all childhood friends. We work really well together.
ROCK IN DETROIT: Are there any Detroit or Ann Arbor bands that you would compare yourself to in term of history, music, or whatever? Any bands you consider part of your musical circle?
CHRIS FROM MAZINGA: Of course we are influenced by groups like the MC5 and The Stooges. We love the Laughing Hyenas, Big Chief, Mol Triffid. Those bands were big around Ann Arbor when we were in high school. Right now there are a ton of excellent bands in the Ypsi/Arbor area. Scissor Now, Zzvava, Cobra Youth, Velvet Snakes, King Under the Mountain, Virga. There are too many to list.
ROCK IN DETROIT: Ok, I don’t know all of those bands, but I know that some, like Laughing Hyenas, aren’t around anymore and some, like Velvet Snakes, other them have only been around for a few years. I’m curious whether you can think of any active bands that have been around as long as you guys.
CHRIS FROM MAZINGA: The Hentchmen are also celebrating their 30th anniversary this year. Another Ann Arbor favorite is Human Skull. They are a rockin’ three-piece.
ROCK IN DETROIT: In your view, has the local music scene changed (much) in the last 30 years?
CHRIS FROM MAZINGA: It’s better now than it has been in a long time. Again, there so many great bands and cool venues right now.
ROCK IN DETROIT: Do you have any theories why the scene is so good now given that pop, world, EDM and hip-hop have made such huge incursions into the youth market, which rock used to be king of?
CHRIS FROM MAZINGA: I think social media / internet has something to do with it, compared to thirty years ago.
ROCK IN DETROIT: Fill in the blanks with band names: Musically, Mazinga sounds like the illegitimate child of ______ and _____, baptized with a bucket of beer held by ______.
CHRIS FROM MAZINGA: MC5, Misfits, Radio Birdman.
ROCK IN DETROIT: Right on! Could you name one of your favorite Mazinga tracks, available online, that we can link to so that people can an earful of what you are about.
CHRIS FROM MAZINGA: Check out the first track “This is Fine” on our latest album “Chinese Democracy Manifest, Greatest Hits, Vol. II”
ROCK IN DETROIT: You took an extended hiatus, didn’t you? What was that about?
CHRIS FROM MAZINGA: We took a few years off here and there due all kinds of stuff. Other music projects, personal crap, lack of drummer. But we never called it quits. We would get together to play D&D or hang out and talk about songs we needed to finish. There were one-off shows here and there also. That is how Donny ended up coming back into the fold.
ROCK IN DETROIT: Does Mazinga have a philosophy?
CHRIS FROM MAZINGA: Not exactly a stated one. We’ve taken on some words of wisdom that we received from Jerry Only once. He said “Five or five thousand people–you always rock out with the same energy.” We really took that to heart. We consider our style of live performance coupled with the type of music we play to be sort of “banzai rock,” meaning we are always on the edge of flying off the rails.
ROCK IN DETROIT: Do any gigs stand out as particular high points?
CHRIS FROM MAZINGA: We played the Whiskey-a-Go-Go in L.A. once. It’s a long story, but the short version is we lucked onto a gig there opening for British Punk/Oi band called The Business.
ROCK IN DETROIT: Nice. Now that CBGB’s in New York is no longer around, The Whiskey may be the premiere rock club in the U.S. I’m sure you had more than five at that show! So, having played there, what other achievements does Mazinga you hope to realize? Any as-yet unmet goals?
CHRIS FROM MAZINGA: We would love to play bigger shows to more folks. It would be great to play with some of our favorite bands, like Guitar Wolf.
ROCK IN DETROIT: Invader Ace! If I’m not mistaken, you were involved in organizing Fuzz Fest 2025 at the Blind Pig. What was your involvement and the idea behind
CHRIS FROM MAZINGA: Yeah, I’m the guy who organizes Fuzz Fest. I started it back in 2014. The idea was to have a rock music fest in Washtenaw County. There are a bunch of great music fests in the Detroit area, but there wasn’t much going on like that in Ann Arbor/Ypsi area. So I figured I would try to make something happen.
ROCK IN DETROIT: Speaking of shows, do you have any shows coming up that you’d like people to know about?
CHRIS FROM MAZINGA: We are throwing a 30th anniversary celebration along with the Hentchmen at the Regal Beagle on November 15. Special guests the Strains and Cobra Youth.
ROCK IN DETROIT: Great line-up. The Strains were last month’s Band of the Month. We’ll be there!
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