Volume 8 – #4 – April 2005
Wow! Brave Combo Land has never been such a roller coaster. What will happen next? Who knows? But listen up, everybody! Believe no other source! The official word is this. Brave Combo is in the process of finding a long-term substitute (or two) for Bubba. We’ve auditioned a couple of people and are happy with what we’ve heard so far. Only two scenarios will derail this plan. 1. If Bubba’s new band gets so busy that a future with Brave Combo just isn’t likely. 2. If our new substitute decides it’s all or nothing. I can tell you this fact. Although Bubba hasn’t been around, we’ve been rehearsing more than ever, learning new songs and having a blast. A wave of renewed commitment is flowing over Brave Combo right now and it’s great. We’re on a happy float in the Twilight Zone. I don’t know if this existence is stranger than what most people experience, but our extreme non-attachment to predictability and conventional security can be either scary as hell or exciting and full of wonder. The music world is a very unstable place. There is no safety net unless you go to a lot of trouble to provide your own. The money that supports what we do comes from our fans and is almost always “luxury” money, as opposed to “necessity” money. If someone has enough extra dough this week to either fix the toilet or dance to Brave Combo, guess who doesn’t show up for our 11 PM show in a bad part of town? We try to not take anything for granted. We’re a lucky band and we know it. But we’re cautious and always keep our expectations low, or at least conservatively realistic. But, you know what? The struggle can be exhilarating if you take it a day at a time and ignore how crappy you feel because you aren’t getting enough sleep. We are stepping again into the unknown. It’s not a totally foreign place. And though the pathway is rocky, precarious is my middle name.
ON THE LIGHT SIDE. The new ESPN sports show, BOWLING NIGHT, for which we recorded a smashing little theme, has done well enough that there is talk of a dodge ball show as well. I don’t know much about sports stuff. It’s all way too colorful and there are words and logos and emblems and insignias all over the place. I get distracted. When I was in grade school I wanted to play football and even had a complete football uniform with pads and cleated shoes and a helmet with a face guard and everything. But I wasn’t very good at it and was even worse at baseball. And I wasn’t very confident that I would get better at either. It bummed me out. Then the Beatles came along and everything changed. From that point on it was all about hair.
HOLIDAYS, our musical salute to the annual time markers that most Americans recognize, or at least notice, is turtling along, approaching the finish line. Photos have been taken, final song mastering has been scheduled, liner notes are almost finished, contracts are almost signed. It looks imminent. We hope to have the CD in our hands by mid-summer and Rounder should be distributing it nationally by September. This will be our only “official” release in 2005 and we won’t be submitting it for Grammy consideration, unless we change our minds.
Speaking of CDs, word on the street is that CDs are on their way out. And downloading songs, not complete albums, is the happening thing and the unavoidable wave of the future. This is interesting because the change in the market isn’t just about format this time. Emphasis, it seems, is also no longer on the artist and his/her brilliant new collection of hot tracks, accompanied by a beautifully designed, rambling 10-page booklet, irritatingly shrink-wrapped. It’s just about songs; one by this band, one by this singer, one by this other singer, etc. This lets me know that we musicians are really good for only one thing; to make music for people to consume as they wish. Songs equal Doritos and we musicians are the workers at the chip factory. That’s cool with me. I have a cat at my factory. And now it’s time to feed her, turn off the lights, lock the door and go home. I hope all the dogs and cats in Denton get a good night’s sleep. Humans, too, I guess.