27 sierpnia 2005
Special TPMP Preview - Part 4
Fourth in my ongoing, and well read (by Natalie Luna, anyway) series on the bands that are playing at the Club Congress 20th Anniversary.
Friends of Dean Martin(ez): The Friends of Dean Martin were founded by Bill Elm as a sort of side project from Giant Sand. At various points the band included Calexico's Joey Burns and John Convertino, as well as current Jonathan Richman sideman Tom Larkins. At some point, Dean Martin himself sobered up long enough to threaten a lawsuit, so the name was changed to the Friends of Dean Martinez. Since he's gone now, it looks like they will be playing as the Friends of Dean Martin. No word on whether Sen. Dean Martin (R-Phoenix) plans on any legal action.
John Convertino and Joey Burns were fired from the band and Elm decided to move the whole outfit to Austin. This threw the two of them more into their own side project, then called Spoke.
Bill Elm went to St. Gregory High School with me, graduating the year after I did. He was the only guy at my high school to be into Charlie Sexton.
Giant Sand: This band was formed by Howe Gelb way way back in 1979 as the Giant Sandworms, which I think is a Dune reference. The original band consisted of Rainer Ptacek, Billy "Billy Sed" Sedylmayr and Dave Seeger, but was broken up and one syllable was dropped from the name.
The breakup was in part percipitated by Billy Sed's ongoing drug problems. Interestingly, Sed is the son of Pima Savings founder Floyd Sedylmayr and the nephew of former Tucson City Councilman Roger "Steeeeeeeeve Kerr" Sedylmayr.
Over the next few years, Giant Sand's sound was entirely determined by whatever Howe Gelb's interests were at the moment. This means that some albums were not that great, but they were never boring. Although line-ups were pretty stable from album to album, the next twenty years had plenty of changes. The during that time, the band included the wonderfully named Winston Watson, part time Go-Gos member Paula Jean Brown, Green on Red's Chris Cacavas, Future Calexico members Joey Burns and John Convertino, Friends of Dean Martinez founder Bill Elm and Naked Prey drummer Tom Larkins.
The current Giant Sand line-up is a group of musicians from Denmark. Yes, Denmark.
My first encounter with the Giant Sandworms was back in 1980. I stayed up late to watch a show they had on KGUN called the Rock and Roll Picture Show, it was a locally produced program that showed music videos. I think I managed to catch J. Giles Band and Loverboy, it was a while ago, I can't remember. Anyway, between the big national bands was a video made by the Giant Sandworms. I thought, cool...Tucson guys. Of course, it didn't take much to get on a local show, but I was ten. Believe it or not, in those days, local media supported local music. KWFM (anyone remember them?) put locals in their rotation and even put out a couple of local music albums.
Giant Sand has an international reputation in alternative music circles, and has for a long time. We even had a woman in KAMP from Manchester, England that was a fan before she came out here. I remember a Poi Dog Pondering show where Giant Sand opened. The lead singer of Poi Dog Pondering noted that he was happy that he got to play in Tucson on the same stage as Howe Gelb.
Their 1988 song "Love Like a Train" off of the album The Love Songs (John Convertino is credited as "Drum Thug" on that one) is still my favorite. Howe forgot the lyrics and his distortion pedal picked up a local radio station. He left these in the recording. Now, Howe refuses to play the song in concert because he can't get the same effects.
Gila Bend: I think I saw one of Gila Bend's first shows. They were supposed to play the U of A mall and got cancelled because of an impromptu protest by Muslim students angry about the publication of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses. There was no band booked in the Student Union Cellar, so they were allowed to come down and play. They called their show the "We Don't Give A Damn Set." That line-up, if I remember right, included a woman. I never saw her play with them again
Gila Bend didn't come out of the same place as most of the other bands in town. Lead singer Loren Dircks was more into county and heavy metal rather than punk. I don't think that any of them ran with the same crowd that the other big local bands did. But Dircks's strong songwriting and manic guitar playing won quickly won fans. They were my favorite for a long time.
I used to talk to Loren about Johnny Horton and said that a more "thrashabilly" treatment of his song "Jim Bridger" would be excellent. Then, one day I get a call from Tim Anderson (an early member of The Fells and my boss at KAMP) to tell me that Loren was going to do a cover of "Jim Bridger" that night for my brother and I. "Bridger" became a crowd favorite, and Gila Bend ended up adding a bunch of other Horton songs to the set. Bassist Jim Blackhall prevented Dircks from doing a cover of "Whispering Pines" and "Comanche," however.
Drummers for Gila Bend included everyone's favorite, Marx Loeb, as well as There's Something About Mary "star" Tom Larkins. Loren Dircks still sits in with various bands in town, including Calexico and Al Perry. He also occasionally plays in the more country flavored band Dumplin' with Blackhall and former Gila Bend drummer Bart Blue.
Green On Red: Green On Red started as The Pedestrians, which then became The Serfers. The original line up included Van Christian. The band decided to pack up and find their fortune in San Francisco. Christian stayed behind and formed Naked Prey. The Serfers had a sort of psychadellic-garage sound, and Green on Red maintained this but then moved into a more folksy direction, much like the Dream Syndicate, who they worked with occasionally.
They acquired a guitarist, Chuck Prophet IV, who has one of the best rock names ever, and toured Europe. Green on Red ended up being a heck of a lot more popular in Europe than here, which is a Tucson musical tradition.
Greyhound Soul: I first saw Joey Peña play in a band called Johnny Law (along with guitarist Adrian Schumacher, brother of Gerard Schumacher of the Knockout Pills and Lonely Trojans.) Peña formed Greyhound Soul back in 1993, and it has been going strong ever since. They have been called the "greatest bar band in Tucson." That is pretty faint praise, and a bit unfair. These guys have toured Europe, for a note on their popularity there, see above. Peña's often raspy but powerful voice adds much to the strong songwriting.
Oh yes, Joey has a "reputation with the ladies." I didn't say a good one though.
Hasta la vista. Do zobaczenia.
Friends of Dean Martin(ez): The Friends of Dean Martin were founded by Bill Elm as a sort of side project from Giant Sand. At various points the band included Calexico's Joey Burns and John Convertino, as well as current Jonathan Richman sideman Tom Larkins. At some point, Dean Martin himself sobered up long enough to threaten a lawsuit, so the name was changed to the Friends of Dean Martinez. Since he's gone now, it looks like they will be playing as the Friends of Dean Martin. No word on whether Sen. Dean Martin (R-Phoenix) plans on any legal action.John Convertino and Joey Burns were fired from the band and Elm decided to move the whole outfit to Austin. This threw the two of them more into their own side project, then called Spoke.
Bill Elm went to St. Gregory High School with me, graduating the year after I did. He was the only guy at my high school to be into Charlie Sexton.
Giant Sand: This band was formed by Howe Gelb way way back in 1979 as the Giant Sandworms, which I think is a Dune reference. The original band consisted of Rainer Ptacek, Billy "Billy Sed" Sedylmayr and Dave Seeger, but was broken up and one syllable was dropped from the name.
The breakup was in part percipitated by Billy Sed's ongoing drug problems. Interestingly, Sed is the son of Pima Savings founder Floyd Sedylmayr and the nephew of former Tucson City Councilman Roger "Steeeeeeeeve Kerr" Sedylmayr.
Over the next few years, Giant Sand's sound was entirely determined by whatever Howe Gelb's interests were at the moment. This means that some albums were not that great, but they were never boring. Although line-ups were pretty stable from album to album, the next twenty years had plenty of changes. The during that time, the band included the wonderfully named Winston Watson, part time Go-Gos member Paula Jean Brown, Green on Red's Chris Cacavas, Future Calexico members Joey Burns and John Convertino, Friends of Dean Martinez founder Bill Elm and Naked Prey drummer Tom Larkins.
The current Giant Sand line-up is a group of musicians from Denmark. Yes, Denmark.
My first encounter with the Giant Sandworms was back in 1980. I stayed up late to watch a show they had on KGUN called the Rock and Roll Picture Show, it was a locally produced program that showed music videos. I think I managed to catch J. Giles Band and Loverboy, it was a while ago, I can't remember. Anyway, between the big national bands was a video made by the Giant Sandworms. I thought, cool...Tucson guys. Of course, it didn't take much to get on a local show, but I was ten. Believe it or not, in those days, local media supported local music. KWFM (anyone remember them?) put locals in their rotation and even put out a couple of local music albums.
Giant Sand has an international reputation in alternative music circles, and has for a long time. We even had a woman in KAMP from Manchester, England that was a fan before she came out here. I remember a Poi Dog Pondering show where Giant Sand opened. The lead singer of Poi Dog Pondering noted that he was happy that he got to play in Tucson on the same stage as Howe Gelb.
Their 1988 song "Love Like a Train" off of the album The Love Songs (John Convertino is credited as "Drum Thug" on that one) is still my favorite. Howe forgot the lyrics and his distortion pedal picked up a local radio station. He left these in the recording. Now, Howe refuses to play the song in concert because he can't get the same effects.
Gila Bend: I think I saw one of Gila Bend's first shows. They were supposed to play the U of A mall and got cancelled because of an impromptu protest by Muslim students angry about the publication of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses. There was no band booked in the Student Union Cellar, so they were allowed to come down and play. They called their show the "We Don't Give A Damn Set." That line-up, if I remember right, included a woman. I never saw her play with them againGila Bend didn't come out of the same place as most of the other bands in town. Lead singer Loren Dircks was more into county and heavy metal rather than punk. I don't think that any of them ran with the same crowd that the other big local bands did. But Dircks's strong songwriting and manic guitar playing won quickly won fans. They were my favorite for a long time.
I used to talk to Loren about Johnny Horton and said that a more "thrashabilly" treatment of his song "Jim Bridger" would be excellent. Then, one day I get a call from Tim Anderson (an early member of The Fells and my boss at KAMP) to tell me that Loren was going to do a cover of "Jim Bridger" that night for my brother and I. "Bridger" became a crowd favorite, and Gila Bend ended up adding a bunch of other Horton songs to the set. Bassist Jim Blackhall prevented Dircks from doing a cover of "Whispering Pines" and "Comanche," however.
Drummers for Gila Bend included everyone's favorite, Marx Loeb, as well as There's Something About Mary "star" Tom Larkins. Loren Dircks still sits in with various bands in town, including Calexico and Al Perry. He also occasionally plays in the more country flavored band Dumplin' with Blackhall and former Gila Bend drummer Bart Blue.
Green On Red: Green On Red started as The Pedestrians, which then became The Serfers. The original line up included Van Christian. The band decided to pack up and find their fortune in San Francisco. Christian stayed behind and formed Naked Prey. The Serfers had a sort of psychadellic-garage sound, and Green on Red maintained this but then moved into a more folksy direction, much like the Dream Syndicate, who they worked with occasionally.
They acquired a guitarist, Chuck Prophet IV, who has one of the best rock names ever, and toured Europe. Green on Red ended up being a heck of a lot more popular in Europe than here, which is a Tucson musical tradition.
Greyhound Soul: I first saw Joey Peña play in a band called Johnny Law (along with guitarist Adrian Schumacher, brother of Gerard Schumacher of the Knockout Pills and Lonely Trojans.) Peña formed Greyhound Soul back in 1993, and it has been going strong ever since. They have been called the "greatest bar band in Tucson." That is pretty faint praise, and a bit unfair. These guys have toured Europe, for a note on their popularity there, see above. Peña's often raspy but powerful voice adds much to the strong songwriting.Oh yes, Joey has a "reputation with the ladies." I didn't say a good one though.
Hasta la vista. Do zobaczenia.
