Texas Music News
Jordan Mackay contributed to this regular Ranch feature from October, 1997 to August, 1998.
(Page 4 of 8)
On the Record: Los Skarnales, Vatos Rudos, (Pinche Flojo Records). Since first hearing about this band several months ago, I’ve been trying to get a copy of their new album released back in June. Finally, after many calls, it arrived. It was worth the wait. This Houston ska band, one of the vanguards of the Rock en Español movement, goes at their tunes like there’s no mañana. Rendering their songs alternately in Spanish and English, they bring extreme gusto and energy to their music. Yet their exuberance is well matched with tight playing and carefree, liberating songs that reflect the band’s rock, ska, rockabilly, and Latin influences.
—Jordan Mackay (1/1/98)
The Toadies, The Black Experience in Country Music, The Bobby Fuller Four
Toad Tunes: The Toadies, Fort Worth’s raging rockers, are huge—easily the biggest alt-rock band to make it out of Texas since the Butthole Surfers. Right now they’re in Austin, working on their as-yet-untitled next album. Produced by Butthole Surfer Paul Leary (whose work last year on Sublime’s album, propelled the group to icon status), and scheduled for a summer release, the effort is the band’s major label follow-up to 1994’s smash hit and platinum-selling Rubberneck. “They’re keenly aware of their sophomore status,” Leary told me. “They’re very anxious not to become your typical sophomore band that doesn’t make it and gets forgotten.”
The album may show the band moving in a new musical direction. Leary says that lead singer Todd Lewis is deliberately trying to get away from the older material. And while Rubberneck was primarily influenced by the Pixies, The Toadies mentioned that they’ve been listening to new and broadly varied styles of music like Stereolab, Thin Lizzy, and Elvis while writing the songs for the new album. There are other reasons the new album will probably present a different sound. For one, the first album was primarily the brainchild of lead singer Todd Lewis; many of the songs were born of the residual pain he carries from his difficult relationship with his father, a minister, as well as the ordeal of going through a divorce during the album’s recording. The new album is supposed to be more of a group effort. Also there’s a new band member, Clark Voegler, formerly of the Dallas group Funland.
What’s more, the Toadies are having a lot of fun recording; they say it’s a different and profoundly better experience than the first record. Lewis said that it’s a relief from Rubberneck, the culmination of 18 years of songwriting, to be recording songs written over the course of one year and lots and lots of touring. The band also mentioned how nice it was to be recording in Texas. “There’s a misconception,” said bassist Lisa Umbarger, “that to make a good recording you have to go out of Texas, that the studios here don’t have good enough equipment. But that’s [not true].” Evidently the band members like being just a few hours from their homes in the Metroplex, and are easing right back into the languorous rhythms of Austin. Hey, one of the recording or mixing venues they’re using is Pedernales, Willie’s studio!
Despite the reputation of morbidity they’ve achieved from the dark lyrics on some of the songs on Rubberneck, especially the hit Possum Kingdom, Leary says, “They’re like large children,” noting that they leave candy wrappers all over the studio and often sneak out to visit local comic book stores. (Several of the band members are confirmed Star Wars fanatics, and, in fact, Umbarger played an Ewok in Return of the Jedi.) Leary says, “They’re actually quite a bit of fun. I never think of them as being gloomy, except every now and then when I think of the lyrics of Possum Kingdom. That sounds gloomy.” thetoadies.com
On the Record: From Where I Stand: The Black Experience in Country Music (Warner Brothers.): This three-disc compilation was born of a 1993 poll which found that 24% of country music’s listening audience is black, an astonishing number considering the small percentage of black country artists. Thus this collection, which is everything and nothing you may want. It is solidly-put-together, nicely packaged, and contains a highly interesting book, but some of the music is kind of boring. The project seems to have more value as an archive than for everyday listening.
That said, the compilation approaches black country music broadly. Disc one contains old country, bordering on blues with lots of acoustic, rural music. Disc two is comprised of famous country songs interpreted in the soul idiom by such figures as Al Green, Etta James, and Ray Charles. Finally, disc three features more traditional country music written, covered, and recorded by black musicians. There are several Texas artists represented here: the Dallas String Band in 1928, Ivory Joe Hunter in the ’40s, Joe Tex in the ’60s. Disc three is laden with early Charlie Pride, which, surprisingly, isn’t all that bad. If you’re interested in this historical area of black endeavor, From Where I Stand is something you’ll want for your collection.
Never to be Forgotten, The Bobby Fuller Four (Del-Fi): This is a three-disc compilation on Mustang Records, a subsidiary of Del-Fi. Of course, El Paso’s Fuller is best known for the international hit, “I Fought the Law,” and for his mysterious and premature death at age 23. Fuller’s promise was universally acknowledged and the talent he displayed, even at that young age, was prolific, but sadly he’s never received the posthumous greatness usually conferred on rock stars who die young. “I Fought the Law” is the prototypical West Texas song and was penned by fellow Texan and former cricket Sonny Curtis (who also wrote the theme song to the Mary Tyler Moore Show), but Fuller’s own music displays a broad command in moving from excellent surf guitar in “Our Favorite Martian,” to ballads like “A New Shade of Blue,” to pop candy songs like “Fool of Love.”
Did Fuller commit suicide as the LAPD report concluded? Not likely, since he was found roughed up and drenched with gasoline. The more likely explanation is that he was keeping intimate company with someone else’s girl, a club owner with mob connections who had intended to put a scare in him but left Fuller in his unventilated car where he accidentally died after inhaling fumes all night.
This is a fantastic collection. If you’re looking for a thorough primer on Fuller, this is an excellent place to go, with two discs of his Mustang singles and a third disc comprised of a live performance. It also contains a wonderfully informative booklet recounting fond remembrances and a detailed account of the weird circumstances surrounding Fuller’s death. The music is pure, honest, forceful, and fun.
—Jordan Mackay (2/15/98)
Going home with a Grammy, Swingin’ in Cyberspace, Tinseltown Tunes
Going home with a Grammy: In the big categories, Texans did phenomenally well, led by Shawn Colvin who was awarded both Record and Song of the Year for “Sunny Came Home.” Dallas’ Erykah Badu took two awards, collecting R&B Album and Female Vocal of the Year. It was nice to see La Mafia, Roy Hargrove, and God’s Property also bring home the goods. There were a few amusingly alarming moments to talk about, too. When Colvin and songwriting partner John Leventhal walked to the stage to accept their Song of the Year award, Wu-Tang Clan’s Ol’ Dirty Bastard grabbed the microphone and boasted about his band. Later, he was removed from the hall. Also, a strange man danced on stage shirtless with the words “Soy Bomb” painted on his chest while Bob Dylan played. He, too, was removed. And perhaps most strange and beautiful of all, Aretha Franklin filled in for an ill Luciano Pavarotti by singing his signature aria Nessun Dorma from Puccini’s Turandot. Now that’s talent!
Swingin’ in Cyberspace: Here’s a great example of the fusion of popular music and Internet technology: Virtual Voyager, a project of the Houston Chronicle online. Providing reporting crews with digital cameras, audio equipment, and laptops, Virtual Voyager has sent journalists out on assignment around the world and allowed them to report back about their experiences via video and audio on the Web. The newest installment tunes in to Chronicle writers Mark Evangelista and Rick Mitchell, who are on the road with Texas’ kings of western swing, Asleep at the Wheel. Provided the technology is current, “visitors to the site can meet band members, view historical videos and clips from the road, tune into audio segments, and laugh along with Asleep at the Wheel’s joke of the day.” This Voyager thing is a great idea—I’m already imagining future episodes: “Cocktail Hour with Charles Barkley,” and maybe, “Endgame: life on the Chess circuit with IBM’s Deep Blue.”
Tinseltown tunes: Texas music will soon be emanating from as many speakers at movie theaters as from nightclubs. Singing cowboy Don Walser’s contributions on Robert Redford’s upcoming film The Horse Whisperer has been well-documented; but how many are aware that west Texas native Terry Allen has just finished the soundtrack for the new film Baby Dance for Jodie Foster’s Egg Productions? Scheduled for an August airdate on Showtime, the film stars Laura Dern and Stockard Channing. Furthermore, Austin’s Bad Livers did the music to Richard Linklater’s latest, The Newton Boys, starring Ethan Hawke, Matthew McConaughey, Juliana Margulies, and Skeet Ulrich. That film will have its world premier in mid-March at the SXSW film festival.
On the Record: Three Texas bands had significant releases last month—two currently on Trance Syndicate and one that used to be on the indie label before they signed with a major. Founded by Butthole Surfers drummer King Coffey, there’s a certain consonance among the sounds of these Trance bands (not to say that they sound the same—they don’t). Does this herald the coalescence of a scene—that fabled convergence of sound and iconoclasm that ultimately attracts ravenous corporate labels to a signing-frenzy? Will the explosions that occurred in Athens, Georgia and Seattle, Washington happen in Texas with bands of this type? Or will the hype just peter out with a quiet resignation to normalcy?
My Library
