MIRRORS After the Velvets' La Cave residency, Jamie Klimek and Jim Crook began recruiting musicians (or amenable nonmusicians) for a group of their own. In 1971, Klimek met Craig Bell through Syd Barrett. Sort of. "I had these Syd Barrett albums that Jamie didn't have," says Bell. "They were only available on import. Jamie wanted me to come over." When Bell stopped by with The Madcap Laughs and Barrett in tow, Klimek repaid the favor by playing tapes he'd made of the Velvets at La Cave. Obviously, Bell would fit into the Mirrors aesthetic. The only problem was he didn't play an instrument, so Klimek assigned him the bass. "Jamie handed me a guitar and said here, there's E, A, D, G—figure out the rest for yourself," says Bell. "And I did." As a learning aid, Bell wrote the names of notes on masking-tape squares and stuck them under the instrument's strings.             For drums, Klimek recruited a guitarist who'd never touched a drumstick. But Michael J. Weldon agreed to play, because, he says, "I didn't have to buy any equipment (a minimal kit had been left behind by an earlier recruit), I liked most of the same music that Jamie and Jim did and I had nothing better to do."                The U.S. Army, however, kept stealing Mirrors members. First to get drafted was Crook. He returned in April 1973, but as the band struggled toward competency, it was Bell's turn to get drafted. Mirrors carried on and shifted lineups until Bell returned in January 1974. That fall, Mirrors began a weekly residency at a bar called Clockwork Orange that lasted into the next spring. The club's owner insisted that Mirrors buy a keg of cheap beer to give away. "There was no response," says Paul Marotta. "People hated us, you know? The only reason that people came was because we were giving them free beer. We're talking 25, 28, 30 people, and you knew every one of them by their first name."             One of those few fans was Peter Laughner, an unquestionably talented singer/songwriter/guitarist who bounced from band to band and moonlighted as a music journalist for publications like Creem. In an article for daily newspaper The Plain Dealer in October 1974, Laughner lauded Mirrors: "Their originals are such perfect distillations of basic rock that one wonders how the New York Dolls or Elliott Murphy ever got record contracts." But by the fall of 1975, Mirrors had run its course. The band's last year was its best, Weldon says, "then all of a sudden, it was over."             In September 1975, the Eels and Mirrors both played final shows at Case Western Reserve University's student radio station. Also on the bill was the Poli Styrene Jass Band, led by Marotta, with Klimek on guitar and Mirrors keyboardist Jim Jones on bass. After a few name changes, they became the Styrenes. "I had this vision for the Styrenes to be a little more inclusive musically, to go into different areas than just 4/4 rock," says Marotta. "And Jamie was amenable to playing it." next!!! page!!!