Volume 12 – #12 – December 2009

I have an idea, but don’t tell anybody. It involves a dancing donut, and, possibly, a dancing onion ring. Sound good, so far? Imagine the possibilities. I was thinking there should be a way to have a fanciful (or is it “danciful?”) video of the dancing donut (and friend, the dancing onion ring) appear suddenly on one’s TV, like a pop-up ad on a computer, whenever bad news is about to be reported. Or, when a string of commercials is about to take over a show one is watching, the dancing donut gets down instead, probably with the onion ring, and entertains the viewer. Is this making any sense? Obviously I envision cool music going on as well. Wait a minute! What if they were puppets? No, scratch that terrible idea. The video must look similar to the old movie intermission films. When I was in high school, my best friend’s father was a projectionist at the Joy Drive-in Theater in Texarkana, so I got to see a lot of intermission films and usually the snack food danced. I know everyone would enjoy seeing a donut dancing with an onion ring. Both items are round. One is salty, one is sweet, just like real life. Okay, I’m going to get busy. Forget you read my idea. Do not scoop me on this! You know what? I’m reconsidering the puppet angle, but, again, keep it to yourself!

Believe it or not, adults make me uncomfortable, especially when they’re looking all adult and acting adult-like. Most adults I encounter are younger than I am. Don’t envy me. This isn’t necessarily a good thing. And I do know that some people, very, very young people, see me as an adult, with adult wisdom. I do have some wisdom from experience, but if you’re with me and the car stops working, we’re both completely out of luck. I would probably really not feel like an adult around those pilots spraying chemtrails out of their jets. Are you aware of chemtrails? If it’s not a “contrail,” it’s a “chemtrail.” Look up and see if long criss-crossing trails of smoke are in your sky. Whatever, just Google “chemtrails” or you can look at lots of video on Youtube. I’m really not a conspiracy theory dude or anything, but I’ve been seeing this man-made phenomenon, myself, all over the country. Apparently, it’s impossible to get the official story on what they are or why they exist. It’s just another kooky, creepy totally wiggy thing that no one knows anything about. Chemtrails appear to expand and become cloud-like. I noticed on a few occasions that none of the clouds in the sky were real clouds at all. They were expanding chemtrails. Head for the hills. No, wait, that’s closer to the chemtrails. Here comes the future, ready or not!

Speaking of looking forward, 2009 is coming to a close. Another year, another bunch of gigs. Another club, another convenience store. Another cell phone, another pencil. Another song, another parking lot. Another pewter dragon, another crystal monkey. Another planet, another solar system. Stuff came and went, didn’t it? All kinds of the same old stuff came and went. I mean, there was some new stuff, but not much, really. It was Obama’s first year as President of the United States of America. That was something new and different and, in my opinion, a refreshing change of pace. But, generally, it’s all been about the same. A day is a day, a year is a year and a movie is a movie. However, 2009, as a whole, was a special year for Brave Combo because it marked our 30th anniversary of music-making. I’ve been trying to find time since April, when the 30th year officially began, to organize the entire 30 years into a logical time-line of significant events. And, now I’m actually doing it. Following is just the beginning, but it is my goal to have the whole thing finished within a month of writing this. I thought you might enjoy seeing the first few entries, which cover a little over a year and a half. During this time period I figured we played about 150 shows. Not bad for four pretty clueless guys.

1979
April 27 – First gig at North Texas State University in a dance department classroom. We were supposed to play outside, but it rained. Then Lyle (bass) and Dave (drummer) bailed. Tim and I tackled it alone.
July 23 – August 3 – Tour of Texas Mental Institutions (State Schools and Mental Hospitals). Made no money. Almost made no sense. Our friend, Bob Lukeman, videotaped the whole thing in stark, graphic b & w. We have about 20 hours of footage.
August 20-22 – Recorded first release, a double 7-inch vinyl EP, POLKAMANIA, at Bruce Ballentine’s home studio in Denton.
September 2 – First appeared at Westfest, a real live Czech polka festival. Tim talked them into letting us set up in the corner of a small beer tent on some plywood. We passed the hat and made $160 and lot of people bought us beer.
December 8 – Ft. Worth blues legends, The Juke Jumpers, checked out our set at Dallas bar, The Stoneleigh P. Sax player, Johnny Reno, picked up a copy of POLKAMANIA and gave it to his brother-in-law, Joe Nick Patoski, who wrote music articles for TEXAS MONTHLY magazine. Joe Nick liked the EP, liked polkas to begin with, and gave it a favorable review.
1980
June/July – Due to Joe Nick’s positive words about POLKAMANIA, Kurt Loder at Rolling Stone gave Brave Combo two mentions, one with a photo, in the Random Notes section of the magazine. Stevie Nicks was on the cover of one issue and Bruce Springsteen was on the cover of the other, I believe. This exposure convinced us to go to New York City and see what would happen.
July 19 – We opened for Joe King Carrasco at the club, The 80s, in Manhattan. Rock music critic, Lester Bangs, was in the audience and dug the show. Also, Kurt Loder invited us to the Rolling Stone office, just to be nice, I guess. We gave him a sombrero. The entire East Coast trip took 14 days. We played only four gigs (one in Raleigh, NC and three in New York City) and came home, having earned less than $500 total for the entire 14 days. Plus our new used van broke down five times, costing us well more than we made.
November 1 – 17 – Return trip to the East Coast. Our first show of the tour, in New York City, was at a club called Irving Plaza. During load-in, our van was quickly and efficiently burglarized and we lost a lot of stuff like clothes and cassette players, but no instruments. We were in shock as we played our set. Years later, at a festival in Massachusetts, a couple of musicians on the same bill, John Flansburg and John Linnell, confessed to me that they were at that Irving Plaza show and we inspired them in the creation of their own band, They Might Be Giants. Heavy, huh? Sometime during the trip, the above-mentioned Lester Bangs invited us to his apartment to hang out and listen to music. Our drummer, Dave Cameron, and I went. And our new buddy, Kurt Loder, was, again, a gracious host and invited us to attend the record release party for The Lounge Lizards’ first album at a club called Hurrah. At the wingding I introduced myself to Brian Eno, who claimed to have heard our music, but didn’t say that he liked it. I assumed he loved it.
December 18 – We started work on our first LP, MUSIC FOR SQUARES. In two weeks we were finished. It was recorded in Dallas, at Bob Singleton’s studio, Edenwood. The cover graphic was a photo of the feet of an obsessed fan, after dancing to our music all night. Those feet belonged to Gina Smith, who, years later, married Jeffrey Barnes.

Okay, that’s all for now. I have mucho territory to cover before we meet again. It’s weird how clearly I remember some of this stuff. Very weird. But, don’t forget that now is now and Brave Combo continues, somehow. Look at our itinerary often. Just cause the holidays are winding down doesn’t mean we’re winding down. If we’re not performing at shows, we’re probably in the studio or vacuuming the rehearsal space or simply writing our next monster hit. Also, this live-streaming deal is showing more and more potential, so even if we’re not touring near you at the moment, you can still catch one of our shows as it happens. Peace, groovy kids.