Volume 13 – #12 – December 2010

Frosty’s all deflated and packed away for another year. Christmas 2010 is behind us and now it’s time to focus on nothing, cause January 2011 will come on strong. I will, once and for all, finish the decade-long (not quite, but close) album project with super-duper percussionist/workaholic, Mike Dillon. Also, I’ve been hired to compose music for the pilot of a new national children’s television show (about a dog, BTW) and that kicks off in January. As well, my good buddy from the frozen north, Danny Jerabek, will be entering the Denton Zone for about a week. He and I will continue to knock out a few more fab tunes for our not-so-new polka-based album project. And if there’s time, I plan to compose and record some fresh trippy psychedelic muzak for a Dallas production house. That’s always fun. Recording studios are sealed-up, climate-controlled, quiet places. It’s really easy to hear mistakes and bad singing. They’re generally not wild, free-for-all party houses. However, conceptually, they better be or what’s the point of the dream? One of the great lures of this business is the opportunity to spend hours crafting that perfect little piece of self-expression. One minute nothing is there and before long sound starts popping up everywhere and you have to organize it into something interesting. It’s important to concentrate while you’re partying in the studio, especially when two or three producers are in the control room watching you party all of over the song they’ve hired you to make.

Modern accordion superstar and Brave Combo cosmic soul mate, Guy Klucevsek, has asked the likes of us to appear prominently on four or five new songs for his upcoming album. This is a big thrill and honor. Guy is scary good and if he digs the Brave Combo sound, then let’s speed rock in 9/8 and try to keep up. That’s all I have to say about that. This is exciting stuff in BC land.

My brother was a DJ at a college radio station in Lubbock, Texas. I was in high school. He got lots and lots of free promotional LPs, most of them in duplicate. Many of the spare ones would make it home to me, especially the weird ones that would never be played on any station, at least in Lubbock. One of those LPs was by a club band called the Hassles. They had an organist in the band. Later on I came across an album by a band, a duo, actually, called, Attila. Hmmm. Two guys, standing in a meat locker, dressed like Huns, or cavemen, one plays drums, the other plays organ. That’s right. They’re the organist and drummer from The Hassles. Those are the only two Billy Joel albums I ever owned. I enjoy digging back through my big ol’ vinyl albums. Most of them stuff is as good as I remember. In fact, every note is just about in exactly the same place I remembered it being. It’s amazing how acutely I still hear the smallest details of all that rock music I grew up swimming in. Like Todd Rundgren’s guitar line in the second verse of the fourth track on side B of Nazz III. Still a little bit tinny. And what about that first song on the Spooky Tooth album where they’re all standing around on the cover. Where were they when that photo was taken? From Texarkana it might as well have been the moon. Pretty exciting stuff. Making records and all that goes with it. Like I said, the studio is cool, like an old, run-down, hotel lobby late at night or a wind-whipped rest area in the middle of New Mexico. A good place to hang out and think. Unfortunately, every minute you’re thinking is costing money. At one point the clock starts ticking and each minute that ticks by makes you a little poorer. For some reason time moves twice as fast when you’re paying for it. Sometimes you don’t care and you spend precious moments tuning over and over and telling jokes and eating and listening to tracks of some other band the engineer is working with, but usually the pressure is on. Oops, there went another $200. Damn, there went another. Anyway, back to my original point. Billy Joel was in a popular local bar band somewhere, graduated to a duo in a meat locker and kept going. What I got from it all, as a kid, was the realization that it’s possible to have weird music on vinyl, too. If a sound turns me on and I don’t mind wasting a lot of time and money going from idea, to the studio, to the mastering lab, to the manufacturer, to the distributor (good luck with this one) I can make something tangible and get that sound out there. The first Brave Combo release was a double 7-inch 45 rpm vinyl EP. We recorded it in a house on Hickory street in Denton and had copies pressed and then we set up makeshift counter-top displays for a few stores around town and filled them with our groovy discs. The release was called POLKAMANIA. To our surprise we had to restock, over and over, at each location. How did that happen? Still don’t know.

FOREIGN MOVIE BUZZ. A Russian film company, named PROFIT, has licensed the title song from Brave Combo’s 1992 release, KISS OF FIRE, which features the sultry vocals of lovely chanteuse, Lauren Agnelli. The name of the movie is NUMBER 13 and that’s about all we know. The paperwork has been a bitch, but having a song on a TV show or in a movie is one of the reasons this still makes sense.

Speaking of still making sense, 2011 will bring about big changes in BC Land. Longtime trumpeter, Danny O’Brien, has announced his retirement from the band, although he will continue to perform with us at high-profile shows throughout the year. His sound has been an integral part of our vibe for many years and he’ll certainly be missed. So, if you’re a Danny fan, you must come out and say adios. Keep an eye on our itinerary. This development impacts the band tremendously and is one more blow to the “old-style” way of doing music. Plus, we’re all pretty burned out on certain aspects of what we do, specifically, getting from point A to point B. So, watch our site closely in the coming months. Live-streaming events will be more frequent and an onslaught of recorded music is guaranteed. As well, special guests will be appearing often with Brave Combo as Danny’s tenure winds down. In fact, the above mentioned Danny Jerabek will be joining Brave Combo for our annual January performance at the Dallas Museum of Art. Tim Walsh, our original woodwind master has also signed on for some dates here and there. And a small buzz is brewing about the original Brave Combo reuniting for some touring dates this summer. You really should keep look at our site weekly, if not daily. The Brave Combo sound is for you, Baby! Anyway, let’s make 2011 sensible. Anybody want to second that?