Volume 12 – #5 – May 2009

Brave Combo has officially existed 30 years. I don’t know how to feel about that, exactly. I know I’m losing touch with a certain pop music mindset, yet not caring as much as I though I would. In some ways, even if Brave Combo has been mostly under the radar commercially, we’ve pursued stardom via pretty conventional means; making recordings, touring, doing interviews, going after radio airplay by going to radio stations and performing and/or talking, building massive mailing lists, working with record companies, getting music in movies and on TV and, of course, setting up a website and all that involves. A lot of socializing goes along with playing in a touring band, even when you don’t want it. But I know it’s important. All aspects of this business are important, down to putting posters up on poles and storefront windows. It can get complicated fast when a band decides to put on a show. And, you know, that’s what we are. We’re show people. We sleep late. We stay up late. We see bright lights in our eyes when we’re on stage and funky back alleys when we’re not. Someone might think that our working conditions are brutal at times and, I will say, it’s easier if you have a sense of humor as often as possible. We stopped at a new giant truck stop recently around 3:00 AM, which is typical, and it had an old west theme that included a giant beaver statue in the middle of the enormous, extremely well-lit store. There were also Cowboy and Indian statues sprinkled throughout. I like to check out how happy the store clerks are in places like this and usually they’re very cheerful and chatty. Other than being out of sync with 90% of the normal world, working late is the way to go. All night stalkers know that we live our life in a less crowded world than everyone else. Daytime is all about hustle and bustle. Everything is jam-packed. The highways are clogged. But at night, almost no one is out driving around but truckers and bands, and all the bands are listening to Art Bell’s COAST TO COAST AM radio show. After every gig our first stop is usually a convenience store, truck stop or toll road service plaza. This can be a peak experience for me. One time I walked around the outside of a store with an armadillo by my side. He just wandered up and we got to hang out for a few minutes. And inside, the snack food wrappings are colorful and you never know what condition the restrooms will be in. That’s an added surprise and almost never disappointing, unless the management has decided to put an “out of order” sign on the door to discourage street gangs from congregating. And when I say that the restrooms are almost never disappointing, I don’t mean they’re always clean. They’re generally not clean, in fact, may be horrific, but they can totally crack me up, too. I have been enjoying filthy restrooms for 30 years. Sometimes the restroom may be separate from the store and you might need a key, which might be attached to a baseball bat, so you don’t misplace it. After discovering the door unlocked, you enter cautiously and immediately notice the weird bluish fluorescent bulb buzzing and flickering and myriad varieties of bugs all over, taking occasional dips in the clogged toilet or broken urinal. To me this says, “Let’s have a party!” I will admit that it’s a bit of a downer to think about the futility and desperation these bugs experience once they’re trapped in this hell hole, but maybe their eyesight and sense of smell calculates it differently than we humans do. Anyway, that’s a way to look at the first 30 years of Brave Combo; laughing at ridiculous stuff. Of course, there are other fun things, like performing around the USA and occasionally in foreign lands, accepting the favors of nice fans, meeting interesting people that we admire, and deciding what to do with Grammy Awards.

30th Anniversary gossip. Lyle, BC’s first bass player, really wanted to be able to polka dance with an audience member while playing his bass, which was, of course, connected to an amp by a long guitar cable. He actually took lessons and tried it a few times. Our first drummer, Tito, never wore socks that matched , unless it was by mistake. More as the year goes on.

A growing number of paranoid people are convinced that the world, as we know it, will either end or go through some giant change in 2012. That’s three years from now. This is based primarily on some Mayan prediction, peppered by the sense that literally every aspect of modern life is falling apart. I’ll admit that there is plenty to worry about and, indeed, the future looks more bleak with each scary new day, but don’t you think it’s also a little arrogant of us to think that this very period of time, while we currently preside on Earth, would belong to us? I mean, if that’s the case, then I guess I’m flattered. And, unless you can convince me that there’s a really good reason for humans to be around much longer, this does seem to be a pretty good time to call it quits. When Brave Combo started I used to think about something I called THE GREAT HUMBLING; a big inevitable event I figured was bound to knock some sense into everyone and bring all of the survivors back to the real reality, whatever that’s supposed to be. Well, it’s 30 years later. To my knowledge, THE GREAT HUMBLING hasn’t happened yet and things are, in many ways, considerably worse than they were then. There are a whole lot more people now. That’s for sure. And that can’t be good for the society as a whole, though I know it fulfills core desires for most people and gives them a good reason to keep on living, like drugs, shopping and television do. So, where does that leave us? I only have control over one person and that’s me. I can’t recommend to anyone else how they should live or think. I can only hope everyone that chooses to have kids will know that it is their responsibility to be sure that what they decide to pop into this world doesn’t screw things up more. This means spending at least as much time with your kids as I do with my animals. But, again, what do I know about anyone other than myself. Besides that, some people think I’m crazy, especially when it comes to animals. But I do wonder what’s going to happen in 2012. I think almost everyone expects some horrible nuclear attack sometime soon. Who would that surprise? And once that happens, well, everything will change. Maybe that’s it, although that’s not very creative and certainly won’t be unexpected. A meteor or comet could hit the Earth. That would probably cause some big time trouble for all of us, and certainly more cosmic and an act you’d expect from an angry God. For now, the swine flu scare seems as far away as the first moon walk, so pandemic pandemonium is too much yesterdays buzz. Maybe the creepiest global-upheaval possibility is world-wide economic collapse. That might cause us all to see the worst side of everyone; desperate humans in a kill or be killed mindset, clawing open cans of beans with their bare hands, learning to swing from vines growing on empty office buildings. Perhaps if all of us, including yours truly, could learn to be less self-centered and more concerned about others, there would be no problems at all. As I understand it, if one can find the greatest joy in life in service to others, nothing bad can happen, because the greater the catastrophe, the more fun for the person that gets off on helping others. Certainly, the worst situations that require the most caring for each other usually turn out to be the defining things in a person’s life. If everything is easy, nothing is worth much.

I did my civic responsibility. I was called for jury duty, showed up on time (8:20 AM on a Tuesday), which is a pretty big deal in itself, was picked for the first round, was interviewed with about 15 other people, was recognized by the bailiff and both attorneys, one representing the man driving a car that hit a truck and one representing the man driving the truck). But, ultimately, I wasn’t picked. Jury duty is a funny thing. When you first show up, with about 200 other people, everyone in charge is upbeat and smiling. First a judge comes out and explains how important the right to a trial by jury is and thanks us all for showing up. He jokes a little. Then someone tells us all how to act and how to get out of being chosen. Apparently the key is to speak up; to have an opinion. Then they call names and we split into smaller groups. Our group goes to a courtroom right across the hall where another judge, and the two lawyers I just mentioned, tell us again about the privilege of serving on a jury and how to get out of it. Again, by speaking up and showing that you have an opinion. I figured once the first lawyer told me and everyone else in the room that his wife loves Brave Combo and then the other lawyer asked if I was ever so injured that I couldn’t play the accordion, I was going home soon. And that’s just what happened. On the way out I told the bailiff to come out to a show sometime. We shook hands and then I went home, picked up Eddy (our 18-pound cat) and went to the office to make up for the time I lost doing my civic duty. Other than being extremely inconvenienced at 8:20 AM, I had a good time. It was a refreshing change of pace and it probably won’t come around again until 2012 and, well, things will be all different then. So, I am so off the hook!

Speaking of music, don’t forget about it. Brave Combo plays a certain style of organized sound that we call Brave Combo style, and you can only get it from us. We will be displaying it all over the country this summer and hope you’ll show up. Check out our itinerary. It’s growing like a beautiful weed. Of course, you can always expect some exciting new vibrations and a twisted view point that just might make you rethink your current value structure. At least that’s our goal. So, submit. Okay? Please. And if you don’t, I’ll see you in 2012, sucker!