A term often used when discussing American garage bands is the word 'local'... as in 'local label', 'local act' and 'local success'. The Troup was a band from Pierceton, a town with a population of a little over 1000 in north central Indiana, a few miles from Warsaw. They were truly a local band who scored local success, and released their two 45s on their own local label.

Among collectors, the Troup are mainly remembered for their recording of 'I´m Going Away' a strong up-tempo teen-garage mover, with the fratpunky flipside 'I´ll Be Back'. Lesser known and a little different, are the two sides of their other 45 - 'Jungle Jive' with its wild guitar work b/w the band´s 'ladies choice' title 'Teen Age Girl'.

Amauro "Moe" Obregon and his brother Art were the Troup's founding members. Their father already had his own band and got Moe started to play music himself. While Moe was practicing, Art picked up the bass guitar one day to learn it on his own. Before starting the Troup, the Obregon Brothers played in various bands together. The first was 'Moe´s Combo' in 1964. Later that year they formed the 'DeArMos' with a friend.

For the next year or so Moe played with 'TreMendez', with whom he even released a 45 titled 'Wild Free' b/w 'Twenty Three'. Since 'TreMendez' required a lot of time driving and playing around the region, Moe left to form a group closer to home. This decision became the starting point of the Troup.

The band was formed in the summer of 1966 by Amauro (guitar & lead vocals), who was in his early 20s at that stage, and Art, aged 19, on bass. The Obregon Brothers recruited Dave Wake (age 18), a drummer from New Castle who was going to school in Fort Wayne, and Lyle Porter (age 18) from Wabash as their organ player. "I met Dave while I was going to Business College", remembers Moe, "He was staying in the same dorm as I. We picked up Lyle after we met him while playing with '007', another band that we were around with in 1963/64".

At that time most of the group members were still going to high school but took every chance to rehearse. Soon the Troup started playing locally and regionally around the Indiana area. Their shows featured the 'frat' style of songs that were popular at the time, such as 'Louie Louie', 'Hang On Sloopy' etc, as well as slightly older standards like 'Johnnie B. Goode'. The band commenced playing at school dances, wedding receptions and private parties, bars - anything that was available.

Moe recalls,"At that stage we would take any gig, just to get some exposure. We played mainly on the weekend - Fridays and Saturdays - and we had a group of fans that would follow us whereever we played". "The local scene was great", adds Art. "There were not too many bands around and the people went wild over the live shows". Moe elaborates, "Some of the crazy things from these days that I remember were the fist fights between women that would take place in some of the rough bars and taverns that we played when we first started. You could not see ten feet in front of you because of the cigarette smoke and people were getting upset when they wanted us to play a song that we never heard of".

One time the band backed country singer Janie Fricke, then still in her teens, at an outdoor barbecue gig. The guys were hesitant to do this, because country wasn't really their thing. But it turned out to be fun, and today they can kid about the fact that they helped Janie Fricke to make it big.

During their days with the Troup, Moe And Art were employed at the R.T. Brower Company after school and on weekends. Their boss Ralph Brower and his wife Marge became the driving force behind the group´s recording session. Ralph booked a small Chicago studio, and organized and financed the trip and studio time. He also persuaded Art and Moe to write their own song. So they penned 'I´m Going Away' in a day, just prior to embarking on the Chicago session. Ralph and Marge bought the rights to the other songs from Dennis Puckett, a local musician who had his own band and was also part of the session doing some guitar back-up.

The band left for Chicago in December of 1967. "I remember that we had to take four vehicles for all the equipment" says Moe. "Ralph had rented the studio for the complete day. We laid down the tracks, ate, laughed, joked and went away with our four songs". Art found the session rather tiring, but fun and a great experience.

Both 45s came out at the same time in early 1968 on the bands own RTB Records, named after benefactor Ralph T. Brower who had even paid for the pressing.

Moe explains that "We didn´t have an agent and had to distribute the records on our own. So we were trying to pedal them to area disc jockeys in Chicago, Fort Wayne and Anderson, friends, bars and just anybody that would listen to us. I estimate that we pressed around 500 copies of each 45 and it was Art´s idea to do the picture labels". Another clever novelty about the twin releases is that 'I´m Going Away' and 'I´ll Be Back' are indicated as sides 1 & 3, while 'Jungle Jive' and 'Teen Age Girl' are noted as sides 2 & 4.

Although the records were released at the peak of the psychedelic movement, the 45´s are pure 1965 in sound and feel. Moe clears this up - "We were not influenced by the psychedelic movement. We loved basic and clean sounds and some soft rock and roll, which is what we were playing and listening to during that time. We were more Beatles and Rolling Stones fans, which in a way influenced our music to some degree. We wrote and recorded the type of music that we were playing at the time - late 65 and early 66".

Only a few months after the recording session, Amauro and Dave were drafted. Lyle and Art tried to find players to fill in, but it never worked out and that was the end of the Troup. When Amauro returned from the service, Art went into the Army himself and was stationed in Germany for two years. It was not until he was discharged, that the Obregon Brothers formed the rock band 'Traces'. By that time they had already lost contact with Dave and Lyle.

Art today lives in Warsaw, Indiana, and works for Bi-Met. He runs marathon all over the country and worked as a baseball coach for a highschool team in his hometown. Dave is thought to live in New Castle, Indiana and Lyle still resides in Wabash. Moe moved to Springfield, Missouri about 18 years ago and currently owns an accounting and tax practice.

Now, 35 years after their only recording session, the Troup are back
- marching to the beat again!