|
Home | Tour/Gig Schedules | Merchandise | Tour Tales | What I Say OK,
here's where I get to toot my own horn... I've never really had a philosophy about music, production or
engineering. I was always too busy down in the trenches actually doing
the work; no time to think about it when you're under fire. It wasn't
until the work was done—put to bed, so to speak—that I felt
any need or desire to talk about it. This is the way it's always been.
Y'know, talk is cheap enough that the "Music Conference Industry"
has been able to flourish and become one of the most perfect examples
of buying low and selling high. I mean, come on! It's an entire industry
based upon people getting together to talk about what they
want to talk about! No thanks. Like super-fuckin no thanks. First, to get the messy stuff outta the way... Ever since a lame alterno-band from Dallas ripped off my name a few years back I've had to be a bit more aggressive about making sure people know who I am and that they should not accept substitutes. Yeah, right at the exact time I was releasing a new CD these Dallas clowns seemingly were hitting the big time. Using my name which, needless to say, had appeared on at least 100 LPs, CDs, singles, etc, they had some regional success complete with commercial airplay and a video on MTV. Yep, that's right. And ya shoulda been there the night I had a show at Flipnotics, a local Austin coffeehouse, and had to face an audience that unwittingly had paid to see the alterna-boyz. It threatened to turn ugly when I refused to sign copies of the "other" band's album for the bewildered little kids whose parents had brought them to see their new MTV-heros. Bravely, my band and I played. After 2 songs the confused parents left en masse, their disappointed charges trailing behind. No one got their money back. Hooray! That was what I called a victory... the SPOT shit had hit the fan! Ingloriously,
the Dallas dudes faded away. They shot their wad and failed to get that
"major label deal" which was the same dream every other lame
alterno-band was aspiring to in the then-dying light of the
post-Nirvana
signing scramble. The only thing that survives the big
scramble is eggs.
Many folks urged me to "take legal action" against
the imposters
but, instead, I quietly trademarked my name—something I
never imagined
I'd have to do—and waited. Such bands in the mid-90s had a 2-year
shelf life at best. Such was the case here. So, on with the horn tooting... For
those who are unaware, many years ago I produced and engineered a whole
slew of recordings that kinda became noteworthy for one
reason or another.
Rather than list any of them here, I suggest looking up my
bio and discography
in the "Billboard Encyclopedia
of Record Producers."
In typical fashion, folks constantly ask me, "Are you still producing?" Ha! It makes me laugh but the simple answer is kinda like, "No." When pressed on the issue I wonder what part of NO is so hard to understand. Some years ago I realized that begory-ed and beglory-ed part of my life was over, it was time to move on and that's that. I've done my time, y'all! And after doing that time I've found that I don't think about it that much at all and I really don't enjoy talking about it. Heck, don't ask me why, that's just the way it is. It's done! You bought the records, dammit! There! Get over it! So aside from the very rare exception, I'm not producing anyone other than myself these days. The long hiatus from the studio continues because it keeps getting in the way of what I enjoy the most—PLAYING MUSIC <big fanfare here>! I ended up becoming one of those damned multi-instrumentalist/composer/writer/solo performer/sidemen type o' guys who did a lot of stuff with a whole lot of people, most of which nobody's heard of (and probably never will hear of) because it was all too spontaneous and too close to ground level for most folks to notice. But that's what I always wanted to do anyway. Quarter reels; full jigs; hornpipes on the halfshell... In
about 1987 my musical focus turned toward traditional Irish music. But why Irish music? Because I've always liked it! A lot! There was a monday night Irish tune session at the Colorado St. Cafe, a bar/restaurant very near where I first lived in Austin, and damned if I didn't get the bug after that first night when I worked up the courage to sit in. I couldn't get enough at that point! There was another session at Señor O'Brien's on saturday nights and, due to my presence at these get-togethers, I ended up earning my "wings." Yippee! And in other tune sessions in Texas, New York, Chicago, Milwaukee, Los Angeles and Seattle I managed to sit in with bunches of accomplished players. Folks like Liz Carroll (Trian), Rich Brotherton (Robert Earl Keen, Ed Miller), Beth Patterson & Justin Murphy (Legacy, Poor Clares), Linda Relph (Killdares), Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh (Altan), Michael Dugger (Scartaglen), Chris Grotewohl (Sunrush), Mark Stone (Wheels of the World), Roger Landes (Connie Dover), Valerie Plested (Legacy), Albert Alfonso (geeezz—whoever will have him!), Jen Hamel & E.J. Jones (Clandestine) and lotsa others. On the local Austin front, I was a member of Celtic bands Radio Ulysses, Crazy Jane & the Bishop and Poor Man's Fortune. The curse of Frankie Gavin, and a Spot removed... Understand, however, that I never gave up the non-traditional forms. In 1991, I formed an electric trio to which I assigned the identity of Spot Removal. It consisted of myself (guitars, mandolin, fiddola, vocals); Julia Austin (bass, clarinet, vocals); and Dave Cameron (drums, percussion). The band started from a somewhat acoustic/electric origin that always baffled the altie-country-pie folks who expected us to sound uh... more altie-country-pie-ish? Naaahh, not us! We was drawing our water from them Irish wells, close to where the Weaver's grave lies. In the quest of the perfect musical jig-saw, we gradually got louder and more electric and recorded a full studio album. Unfortunately, Julia had to leave the band which meant the recording was then unreleasable—she had contributed so much to the sound and musical persona that it was impossible to find a properly capable replacement for her, and there was no good sense in releasing an album by a band that no longer existed. Rats! I had to shelve the project but I did release some of the outtakes of the band under my own name (and cleverly titled it, removals..., other isms) as a 10" vinyl/CD EP in mid-1996. There were a few bass players who stepped in to fill the void left by Julia's leaving, but at this point the band really wasn't what it had started out to be and, ultimately, it did not survive the changes of musical focus that ensued. It was hard enough to even find musicians who were willing to "take a chance" on playing these hard to grasp, traditionally-bassless-in-origin Irish tunes, let alone doing it with the electrically, distorted, free-associated context I was imposing upon it. It's unfortunate that one of these incarnations—with powerhouse, slap-upright bassist Kevin Smith (player for High Noon and the legendary Ronnie Dawson)—never had a chance to record; we had definitely taken on a two-fisted "some-kinda-billy" sound that, frankly, ROCKED! Grabbing a stainless steel wrench... Eventually Mr. Cameron and I joined forces again in the late 90's; this time with bassist Tom Topkoff. Tom was the guy I always used to see at Flipnotics sitting in the corner reading a book and suckin' down the joe. One night at a solo gig he walked up and said he wanted to try pickin' with me sometime and my reaction was, "ok! you're on! next week! my house!" Tom, it turned out, was a full-on Nascar enthusiast. I wasn't, but I still play with cars and had started putting together my junkyard. Quite honestly, none of this has anything to do with why I named the band DeLorean Mechanics; it was a name I'd had in my head for a few years and here was a chance to use it—kinda like finding an old aluminum-block/Webered Indy V-8 to drop into that chassis out back. All in all, we imagined that if Big Daddy Roth built monster rods in Ireland and had a ceili in his garage on saturdays, we'd be the boneheads playin' the tunes. A trio with the traditional electric guitar/tenor banjo/bouzouki, bass, drums... "Celtic Serf Muzic" anyone? Once again, however, the bass player had to leave the band. Damn, what's with this trend? Tom had to move to North Carolina in June of '01 for both family and work reasons. Oh well, at least he's a lot closer to the good Nascar tracks. We did record a full album which will be released under my name and titled (what else?) "DeLorean Mechanics." During the heyday we managed to alternately confuse and elate audiences at Celtic festivals and Irish bars as well as at yer standard rock gig. Our last show was at Garage Shock 2001. Damn! What a great way to go out! And damn! did I ever get trashed that night..... ooouch!! But wait! There's more! In late 1998 I joined up with some goofy folks from Pensacola, FL, This Bike is a Pipebomb, for a U.S. tour playing fiddola in the band. One of the funnest times I've ever had on tour. In the summer of '99 we recorded the album "Dance Party With..." in Athens, Georgia. In July of the same year, I had the chance to open a show for Sonic Youth playing an unaccompanied set of traditional and original tunes to a packed house. Not bad. Since then I've performed solo at CelticFest in Jackson, Mississippi; toured the upper midwest on bills with folks like The Woggles, Guitar Wolf and Mike Watt; and performed with dem old scumballs DeLorean Mechanics at the Austin Celtic Festival. And, uh... ahem!... in a rare moment of giddy weakness (or was it blackmail?) I kinda let these two Austin bands—The Shindigs (Rock-Haüs) and Meat Purveyors (Bloodshot)—talk me into a couple of album mixing jobs. OK, OK, they were friends who sweet-talked me, all right? Now leave me alone, willya! Hmmm, Seems I forgot some things... There
was some film and soundtrack work I did over the years.
Home
|