The Machine’s Pump Volume 28 – #6 – June 2025

DOOM AND GLOOM CARTOON
Welcome to full-blown summer, 2025. It’s the end of June and here, in North Texas, the rain has probably stopped for a couple of months, until the increasingly ominous thunderstorms return in September. So, it’s just hot, for a while, with brief periods of warm. Nothing much to say here, meteorologically. The weather report is covered. Let’s see, what other non-news is happening. Brave Combo is taking a break from live shows for the month of July to catch up on lots of dull things and a handful of exciting ones, just to feel a little better about life, in general. Can’t wait to fix a door latch between the two bedrooms and the toaster power plug and the tall wobbly cat tower in the living room. Plus, there are some accordions inside the BC rehearsal cave which need some attention. You know how it is with accordions. Lots of moving parts! Whatever, it sounds like fun to get lost in various practical repairs because we’re grabbing at straws, too, in the twilight zone of the new USA, trying to make sense of the nonsense engulfing us, with unbelievably idiotic and cruel specimens of society gleefully embracing the darkness, right in front of our eyes.

On the plus side, from a creative point of view, experiencing the destruction of the soul of the United States can be very inspiring and motivating and I’m encouraging all my musician and artist friends to seize the energy of the moment and center their work around protest for now. The passion seems easy enough to generate, so we should all do something clever and biting with it. Make it overt or subtle. If you can write a song, this is a great way to focus, define and deflect your anxiety and, possibly, come up with something cool which speaks to other people, as well. You never know until you try, right? Plus, ignoring the obvious might not be a good career move, in the long run. Fans wanna feel like their idols are “with it,” dig?

Speaking of subtle, the old song (from the 1960s), “A Day in the Life of a Fool” is a great example of power in simplicity and subtlety. We used to play it a couple of decades ago. It may soon return to our repertoire. In the meantime, check out this version by Walter Navarro. He kicks Frank Sinatra’s ass, in my opinion. Not sure how I feel about that whole Rat Pack (Frat Pack?) thing, anyway. Although Brave Combo did appear on The Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon in Hollywood once and Jerry was very nice and enthusiastic when he introduced us and seemed to be paying attention as we rocked our twist version of “Hava Na Gila.” Ed McMahon was there, too.

San Marcos Summer in the Park – Photo Credit: Christopher Paul Cardoza

We played our annual Summer in the Park concert in beautiful San Marcus, Texas recently and were joined by the always-amazing Alex Meixner. Here we are with a bunch of our lucky fans!

Okay, we are still a band and we enjoy making our style of organized sound for the pleasure of willing listeners. Lend us your ears! As well, we challenge all who care to hear music to think for themselves. Have a hot summer!