Volume 4 – #4 – April 2001

Hello everyone. Welcome to the April 2001 MACHINE’S PUMP. As we barge head on into the middle of what will probably be a very short year, time has become almost meaningless. I sleep in a bed usually. I wake up. I eat food. I do lots of things. I keep bringing more into the house than I take out. I rehearse. I travel to gigs. I play gigs. One day blends into the next in a poetic way sometimes. I need people and people need me. This is hilarious stuff.

Speaking of travel, I’m riding in the Donut (our van/bus thing), listening to CDs. We just finished a gig in Houston and are rolling home. Right at this moment I hear a generic version of “Tea For Two” by a generic latin ballroom band. It’s from a cha cha demonstration disc. This song in particular has all of the essential “Tea For Two” elements. I’m diggin’ it. Earlier, I was checking out a song by Brenda Lee, which I found recently, after hearing it on an AM station out of Sulfur Springs, Texas. I was never a big Brenda Lee fan, but this song knocks me out. It’s called “Losing You” and I guess it was a hit. It’s simple and sad and her voice is just perfect. The liner notes talk about how she had her biggest hits before she was 20 and then the British invaded and she retreated. Somehow, the Beatles, etc. made people like Brenda Lee, Neil Sedaka, Bobby Vee, Connie Francis, etc. look suddenly uncool and uninformed. As I look back now, everyone was pretty uncool. This is both reassuring and scary. Reassuring because we can see that, when you boil it all down, no one is really cooler than anyone else, and scary because that means there are ultimately no reliable guides in life and really no one’s in charge. There are lucky people with good ideas that figure out how to manipulate consumers periodically, but that doesn’t constitute being in charge. The balance between order and chaos may be more precarious than we thought. the top story in the news every night should be “Highways Dangerously Clogged Again.” We’re being subliminally forced (by the Cosmos, perhaps) into mind-numbing daily routines and we have no real blueprint on how to live, because no one ever lived in 2001 before. So, I guess we’re perpetual pioneers, groping our way through the wilderness, with the burden of knowledge that everything could fall apart at any second. I wonder if that would hurt.

WILD STORIES FROM THE ROAD. We used to stay at a certain motel in Coralville, IA (right outside Iowa City). It was a great mom and pop place away from Interstate on Highway 6, I believe. The couple that owned it were very friendly and seemed to enjoy chatting with us. Don Ameche used to stay here when he would visit his son in Iowa City. Anyway, one time we were checking out, about to leave, when the owners mentioned to us that Miss Nude Kansas had spent the night at the motel. Then they asked us if we would like to meet her. We said we would be honored. So they called her room and woke her up and asked her if we, Brave Combo, could meet her and get an autographed photo. I guess she said it was okay, because we went to her room then. We knocked on her door, she stepped out into the bright sunlight and gave us a photo. I remember that someone had written all over her legs with a green magic marker or something. She was nice, but seemed worn out. We probably gave her a tape and said goodbye and went to eat lunch. It was kinda sad, actually. Oh, yeah, she wasn’t nude at all.

WEIRD STAR-STUDDED EVENT. We find ourselves in odd places, playing odd roles at times. For instance, once we played a wrap party for a movie that was filmed near Ft. Worth. It was called SQUARE DANCE and starred Rob Lowe, Jane Alexander, Jason Robards and introduced Winona Ryder. It was produced by Michael Nesmith of Monkees and Liquid Paper fame and we were hired to play the party and perform a song with him and the young, shy Winona. It sounded fun, or at least interesting, even if we had to be at the western-themed party site all day long to be sure the special song was well-rehearsed. So, we arrived by early afternoon, set up the instruments and waited around a while. Michael was there with his teenage son, Christian, who wanted to hang out with “the band.” He was okay, though he seemed a little confused and self-conscious. Eventually, Winona, who was only 13 at the time, showed up and we started to work. Right off the bat Winona was having a hard time getting it and didn’t seem happy about it. I don’t remember the song very well, but it was about a truck running into a feed store. At one point Christian tried to help Winona get it, but his Dad yelled at him and he disappeared. Generally the gig itself is a blur to me now. I think the song went well enough, although you couldn’t really hear Winona. Still, all eyes were on her because there was an inside buzz that she was going to be a big star. People danced and Jane Alexander got wild and crazy and Jason Robards was cordial. One memorable moment was when Rob Lowe came up after our first set to talk music and hang with us. This was during his brat pack heyday and it just cracked me up that he thought we were cool. I’m sorry. I’m stereotyping everyone involved here. He was very nice and probably just liked music and knew that the hippest cats at any gathering are the musicians, unless, of course, they’re just hired help, stuck in a corner, feeling ignored.

April is festival month. Folklife Festivals in Austin and Alpine. Beerfest in Houston. Pecan Street Festival in Arlington. Main Street Festival in Ft. Worth. Arts and Jazz Festival in Denton. Germanfest in Muenster. This is a really good time to see Brave Combo outdoors if you’re in or near Texas. And if it rains, that’s too bad. You have to stand out there and listen anyway. Okay?

Bands contain people; in our case, five human beings with different desires, attitudes, life priorities, opinions, values, thought processes, conditioned emotional responses and addictions. Of course, I feel fortunate that my job is one of my passions and, specifically, that Brave Combo financially supports everyone in the band in relatively fine style. But we spend a lot of time together, doing our thing. And maintaining a balance can be tricky. It’s like cooking a meal or mixing a song. You bring up the volume of the bass drum and the sax goes down. Or you add too much salt and the reverb disappears. Or you pan the vocals one way and it tastes like a portabella mushroom imitating meat. You know, you bonk one little wooden soldier on the head and another one pops up. I think you get the idea. Anyway, sometimes working on mutual goals makes sense and sometimes it doesn’t. Often I’ve wondered what my worth is without Brave Combo. And, although it’s a scary thing to imagine, it’s exciting, too. The band is a compromise for all of the members. And, in general, only good enough for me, when everyone, including myself gets as close to perfection as possible. When you throw in individual ego needs, well, you’ve got something there. But, this is not unique to Brave Combo. All bands that make careers of their music experience this. We need to be kicked in the butt and simultaneously pampered all the time. Uh oh, I’ve probably said too much. Somebody run the cartoon now.

BIG NEWS FOR JOE LOVERS. Our friend, BC alumnus, Joe Cripps has been gigging with us some lately and will be performing with us at the Arts and Jazz Festival in Denton on April 28. Mike Dillon will also be there. It’s gonna rock. You really don’t want to miss this show.

THE STORY OF EASTER. Once upon a time Jesus Christ died on a cross for the sins of Christians. Over the years, this event has been celebrated in many ways. It makes sense that the candy company, Cadbury capitalizes on our sentimental nature by selling us clucking bunnies that lay chocolate eggs.

Okay, I’m going close with a joke that my friend Cliff said was his mother’s idea of a dirty joke. Actually it’s a riddle. What do you call a honeymoon salad? Lettuce alone.