Volume 14 – #4 – April 2011

A documentary crew, led by Dallas filmmakers, Bart Weiss and Mark Birnbaum, has been following us around for about a year. They’ve also been doing separate interviews with me and other members, even part-timers. I’ve had to go through boxes and books, all kinds of promotional memorabilia and lots of VHS videos are being transferred to DVD. This has forced me to think about everything that has happened since the idea of a Brave Combo was hatched. And it has made me think about, more than I care to, what other people might think. The videographers have talked to famous music critics, like Joe Nick Patoski, have scurried to places like Los Angeles to interview Matt Groening and to New York to get David Byrne’s take on what we are. We played his wedding after supplying some music for his movie, TRUE STORIES. I can’t believe any of these guys would have the time or desire to be involved; to get fixed up for a video shoot. Apparently, I’ve met some really nice, supportive people, doing this BC thing. I wish Harvey Pekar was still around for the movie. And Tiny Tim. Or polka giant, and early BC influence, Larry Chesky. Those three guys always had something interesting to say. Perusing the first 30 years of gig calendars recently was a rush. Go back a few installments of THE MACHINE’S PUMP and you’ll find chronological lists of highlights. Since those postings I have thought of several people, facts and tidbits that should have been included, but the days just keep moving on, my memory’s always sucked and I have lots of dogs and cats to keep happy. You know, if they’re not asleep (the dogs and cats) they want to be tended to. We wake up pleasing them and go to bed as quietly as possible to keep the row of dominoes from falling (if one of them hears us feeding another, things can suddenly get active). Anyway, it appears some of this super exciting side of my life will be part of the documentary, too. Mark was at our house recently, asking questions about the band and a thunder storm blew through. A big clap of thunder happened at the perfect moment. I don’t know what I was saying or if it was any good, but I paused, the sky rumbled and it started raining. Then I started to imagine Ma Kettle running outside with a dog, fetching her bloomers off the clothesline before the gulley-washer hit. I didn’t much like those old Ma and Pa Kettle movies when I was a kid, but once, as an adult, I saw one and it was not quite as bad I’d remembered. Whatever, I like yard things that spin when the wind blows. I don’t have any, but can imagine a bunch of them in the Kettle’s front yard. I didn’t enjoy Blondie and Dagwood movies either. The comics were way cooler. They always say that the book is better than the movie, right? But not so for documentaries, and Bart and Mark, our friendly stalkers, seem to be serious about making something cohesive out of their hours and hours of work. From my point of view, it’s hard to imagine how this will be interesting to enough people to matter. We haven’t had hit records and the current Brave Combo buzz is pretty faint. We’re just not that famous. Although, we have, on occasion, walked out of a club, still playing, and lured the audience into a nearby laundromat or strip bar to finish the show. I always figured that if you give people something they’ve never seen or heard, or thought about, and tried to do it well, you’d be guaranteed 10-20 people at every show. Pulling in the other 250 on a Wednesday night in Boise can be extremely tough. But playing for those 10-20 people might be your best show, or at least, your most creative on the whole tour. You never know what might make one moment musically incredible and the next one a stinker. It’s good to care about it, but better, sometimes, to not care at all. No matter what, there are these two guys making a documentary about the band Brave Combo. We’ve been around over three decades, which is definitely something. And we’re still making money, playing gigs, selling music, staying in clean hotels (I hope). So, that’s worth a quick blurb on John Davidson’s wacky new reality show, THAT’S INCREDIBLE. Jeff can juggle. He and I both make unusual sounds with our mouths and throats. Little Jack’s other band, The Young Turks, would be at home in a side-show. Danny has chickens in his yard. Alan is related to Jayne Mansfield. Okay, maybe we have five minutes worth of solid, time-tested, crowd-pleasing material .But shouldn’t we be on the pulse of something currently happening? Or, conversely, maybe the intriguing side of the story could be about the distance a performer can feel from what’s going on. I can relate to that, even on a day-to-day basis. Sometimes it’s more rewarding to feel disconnected from the audience rather than trying to become one with it. Everything was so tangible in the beginning. Face value was the truth. But over time things change. In the year 2011, everyone is either revved-up or worn out and that’s the dilemma really on people’s minds. We just try to squeeze stuff into our days like it’s a sock drawer. Screw everything else, we gotta get stuff done. But this is also the predicted struggle. I remember this same theme on FATHER KNOWS BEST once. The kids were running up and down the stairs, yelling and cursing, and there was mass confusion. God was angry and Robert Young and Jane Wyatt made the situation better somehow. What I’m trying to say is that this is every generation’s struggle; the changing times. Everyone’s childhood seems simple. The beginning of any long-lasting business is remembered as uncomplicated; black and white. And it’s proper to have more optimism when the idea is fresh and gas is a dollar a gallon. But time also messes with perspective even if you don’t want it to. And, again, this is the reason it’s a good idea to make some damn time for a polka or two today. Join the crowd and play it loud. So loud you can’t think about chores. Then check our itinerary and come out to a big ol’ Brave Combo show.

Denton Record Chronicle readers again voted Brave Combo favorite Denton band in the newpaper’s annual “Best of Denton” contest. And, of this, we are truly thankful. At times I feel like Brave Combo is more akin to a respected local building, than a many-legged, living organism, but I do know we try hard to rock the house when we play in our hometown and give our most loyal (because they’re trapped here with us) fans the best damn time of their lives. How do we arrange to have a street named after us? Thank you friends and neighbors. And, thank you to all our friends who aren’t our neighbors, although we’re all neighbors now, aren’t we? And, because of that I wish you a life of party, on your terms, with the power to turn it off, if you want. See you on the dance floor.