Another summer begins in Texas, with record-breaking heat right out of the chute. All of the weather forecasters, and I mean all of them, are talking about how weird and violent and extreme the weather is becoming, compared to all previous years. But almost none ever mention climate change. The one cool thing about very hot days is that I can attach a power washer nozzle to one of my garden hoses and shoot a line of water straight up, into the air. It creates wind and the water drops fall like rain. That’s what I do for fun! Speaking of things falling like rain, a bizarre revolt just happened in Russia, as I’m sure you are aware. Pissed-off army men led by one thug scurried right up the road toward the insanely overrated Moscow, at lightning speed, to confront other thugs. And then the excitement abruptly ended, as you also recall, and we were returned to our regularly scheduled programming, which was definitely not going to be as good as the Motherland Comedy Hour. Damn it! Here’s a thought. When Putin is brought to trial and convicted for war crimes and Trump is sent to jail for any number of things, they could star in CELLMATES, the side-splitting new reality show about Don and Vlad sharing a tiny concrete cubicle with one exposed toilet. Let’s all imagine the scenario. Okay, someone needs to take that idea and run with it. There’s so much potential entertainment value there for a society addicted to increasingly sensational stuff with no substance. Perfect! Maybe the hot duo could work up some routines or even magic tricks. For sure, they should have access to Twitter. Okay, my imagination could easily go too far with this. Speaking of Putin absolutely losing his hip façade, look at this cheeseball PA he’s using for an important gig. This tells me a lot about how clueless dictators can be. They really can’t trust anyone. Uh-oh! I hope I didn’t just get his soundman killed, by pointing out how the PA made Putin look even weaker. There aren’t even any monitors on stage! His intonation had to suffer. Speaking of Putin, Trump sure likes that “YMCA” song, which is all about men having sex with each other at the Y. Does he even know who The Village People were? Maybe when he does his little move-only-your-arms, Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robot dance, he’s slyly celebrating LGBTQ people, without coming right out and saying it, to win favor in that community? I, personally, thought The Village People’s older song, “San Francisco,” was way better than “YMCA,” musically.
Speaking of music, you should hear some of our new songs. “Kolo #9” is rocking! Our new revved-up “Violins Play For Me” is super-rocking! We played “Baby Face” for the first time, I believe, at a party recently. Also, we are happy to report Jeffrey Barnes appears to be healing properly (back/neck surgery in March), although very, very slowly, and we’re confident he’ll be back with Brave Combo for an anticipated crush of shows, starting in September. In his absence, our buddy, Dave Monsch, has handled the woodwind duties beautifully and with a ton of soul. As I mentioned in an earlier newsletter, perhaps the classic Billy Vaughn sound will be re-examined. I can almost guarantee you it will. Here’s our song, “Making Out in the Bowling Alley,” an example of us messing with the BV sound from our album, SOUNDS OF THE HOLLOW.
On Monday, July 3rd, Brave Combo will perform for a 4th of July drone performance, right on the square, in our hometown, about a block from our office. I love convenient gigs! Denton will NOT be hosting a fireworks show this year; a big win for dogs and cats and other animals all over town.
I am going into the studio very soon to begin working on a new Tiny Tim/Brave Combo track; one we didn’t release 26 years ago, when we recorded the album, GIRL, with him. There remain three tracks we chose not to finish, at the time, for various reasons. And now, I think it’s time. They’re all three pretty good, actually, and were unveiled in their raw forms on the rerelease of GIRL in 2022, but those tracks will bear little resemblance to the masterpieces we hope to create. They will all include some very special and very interesting guest musicians. I’m pretty psyched about this!
And in August, my friends, Lisa Cameron, who started Brave Combo with me a lifetime ago, and legendary punk artist/musician, Jad Fair, are getting together with me to make something which we haven’t really thought about yet. In the studio and live!
And before the long, hot summer says farewell, Brave Combo will be recording some hard-to-define music for the Alfalfa Club (look ‘em up).
BC FUN! We often find ourselves in a van, after midnight, rolling down some road, somewhere. And that’s the perfect time to play Easy-Listening Name That Tune! Alan finds a certain station out of Killeen, Texas, online, which plays an endless stream of all kinds of songs turned into background music. Dave and Alan have taken the game to a new level, developing a rather complicated scoring system, but it’s working. Are you jealous? We’re the only ones with the game! We are so cool!!
New T-shirts, just for summer. Light, airy and cool and as simple as it gets. BC generic! That’s the point. Order yours today!
Question of the day. What will Brave Combo look and sound like after this summer? Hmmm, I wonder.
Leave a Reply