Brave Combo is one of those genre-bending bands that breathes new
life into
the overused adjective "eclectic." Since 1979 when they first surfaced
in
Denton, Texas, (a college town near Dallas) as a "nuclear polka band,"
BC
has broken stylistic barriers like no one else. The ethnic sources of
Brave Combo's styles span the globe and include polkas, mambos,
two-steps,
salsa, merengue, ska, zydeco, the twist, acid rock, bubblegum, and even
Muzak. They were quite possibly the ultimate "world beat" band long
before
the term was coined.
Brave Combo's musical collaborations have been equally diverse and
include
contributing to the soundtrack of David Byrne's film True Stories,
writing music for the 1994 Olympic performance of U.S. ice dancers
Elizabeth Punsalan and Jerod Swallow and a 1996 release, Girl,
recorded with Tiny Tim. Their performing career has taken them to
venues
as diverse as rock clubs, state fairs, polka festivals, parades (including
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, marching underneath Woody
Woodpecker),
mental institutions (their first tour) and weddings (including David
Byrne's).
And can these guys polka hearty -- there's nothing quite like the sight of
a
venue like San Francisco's Great American Music Hall transformed into a
steaming polka mosh pit.
Their newest release, Group Dance Epidemic, is Brave Combo's
response to the terpsichorean plague of the macarena. Familiar group
dances normally associated with drunken wedding receptions and Club
Meds,
like "Chicken Dance," "Never on Sunday," "Bunny Hop," get a welcome
makeover. There's a particularly inspired reworking of "The Hustle"
which
includes quotations from Lou Reed's "Take a Walk on the Wild Side" and
a
scratchy rap bridge.
Val Cormier sat with Carl Finch [guitar, vocals, keyboards], Cenobio
Xavier
(Bubba) Hernandez [bass, tuba], Jeffrey Barnes [clarinet, saxophone,
harmonica, didgeridoo, etc.], Danny O'Brien [trumpet], Joe Cripps
[percussion] and Greg Beck [drums] before a recent San Francisco area
show.
Discorder: How would
you describe your
music to someone who's never heard it before?
Carl: Well, you're in a better
position
than I am.
Discorder: But how
would you
describe what you do?
Carl: That's really
hard, because you
can't sum it up in a sentence. Part of what we're about is dealing with
short attention spans, and we all have short attention spans. One of the
main reasons we jump around a lot is that we're a band in the '90s, and
there are certain aspects of that you have to accept. Even the slowest
people live a fast lifestyle in the '90s; you can't really go against that.
So, if we can jump around from a cha cha to a tango to a polka, that
really entertains us. But to describe what that is to somebody and then
have them even think they might be interested.... Some people would be
really fascinated with that. Some people would run the other way. A lot
of people wouldn't even hear the words.
Discorder: In terms of
musical
influences, what did you all listen to growing up? Let's do a quick
round.
Danny: A lot of older
rock 'n roll.
I got my sister's records, and then when I started playing trumpet I
listened to mainly jazz music. I didn't hear polkas until I got into Brave
Combo.
Bubba: Um, pretty
much everything.
I was very fortunate that my parents had very international ears. My
mom
would, you know, turn me on to a lot of musicals and a lot of international
music and Dad pretty much had the Mexican radio on all the time. My
older
sisters actually saw Elvis shows and my big brother was kind of on the
tail
end of acid hippiedom, so I got all the Cream and Jimi Hendrix. There's a
black barrio, so to speak, in the middle of the Mexican one [where I
lived], so I got a good dose of R&B.
Then we played a lot of what's fleshed out into Tejano music now, a lot
of
polkas through that. My grandfather wrote a bunch of polkas and
waltzes
and stuff, so a lot of the music that Brave Combo was playing was, you
know, being played in my living room. So when I went to my audition [in
1984] I was blown away by what Carl and Jeff and the guys were
doing.
Discorder: So you were
born in the
tradition, but you didn't think white guys were doing it?
Bubba: Well, I heard them
doing it at
one point, but I didn't realize, you know, that they were sincere, and that
they really had the heart. I just never thought about playing this kind of
music in front of people with the aesthetic that it's being played with,
and also for the audience that it plays for. I mean, I've played plenty of
rancheras and cumbias and polkas in front of Mexican folks, or in more
traditional settings, but never necessarily thought about playing in a rock
club. But the fortunate thing about the whole Mexican-American thing is
that it recycles real easy.
Jeffrey: Well, I was
raised in a little
town in Ohio fairly close to Toledo, but kinda isolated. We always had a
piano around and somebody to play it, and, you know, some members of
the
family were musical. My great-grandfather was a good fiddler; he lived
long enough that I knew him. He had a band called Charlie's Blue
Blazers,
and they played square dances and stuff. And my grandma played
piano with
him and my grandpa played saxophone. Of course, this was in the '20s,
long
before I was born, but they started me off in the fourth grade. They
forced the clarinet upon me -- now I'm glad they did, but at the time I was
not all that involved with it. My aunt went out and bought me my first
record, which had Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony on one side and
Brahms'
First on the other and I got into classical music and listened to a lot of
that.
When I got to be a young teenager I saw the Rolling Stones in the
Hollywood
Palace on their first American TV appearance, washed the grease out of
my
hair and let it hang, went out and bought myself a harmonica. I played
harmonica until my lips bled and got with some guys who wanted to play
music and they insisted I learn to play guitar, so I did. This was okay
cause we could play parties and meet girls and stuff. [laughs] And then
after that I got a saxophone when I was 21, a baritone saxophone,
practiced
for 4 months, and landed a gig with Jimmy Vaughan and the Storm,
which is
the band that eventually became the Fabulous Thunderbirds. And...I
don't
know, I just hung around and played and I went to the University of
Texas
and studied music there for a little while, and almost got swayed away
from
that by the anthropology department, because I got real interested in
world
music and ethnomusicology. And that just kinda led me here and there
and
finally to Brave Combo, where I've found a home for the last 14
years.
Greg: Well, I'm from
Indiana, isolated
in the corn hills, so I was definitely influenced by the radio. There was
a lot of ignorance going on around that time, so I'd come home and play
the
radio -- just turn it on, play to it. My dad was a band director so I had
some traditional training with snare drum and symphonic percussion. I'd
hear those kind of records that he had laying around, and try to play to
them, too, some percussion stuff he had. And about the only four tapes
that I had that I really liked at the time were Police, Van Halen, Rush,
and there was a Frank Zappa record that my sister had....
Discorder: I think you
grew up in my
small town!
Greg: [laughs] Right,
exactly. And
eventually, going into college, finally getting into jazz and some Latin
stuff. The only polka I experienced at the time was some German stuff
because of my Dad. Dad, when he got divorced, moved us to a small
German
town so there were some German festivals going on there, but I was
never
really influenced by polka like I am now.
Joe: I grew up in a
fairly
fundamentalist household in Arkansas, went to the Church of Christ.
Instrumental music didn't go along with that as far as worship and stuff,
and I didn't get to hear a lot of instrumental music real early on. But we
would go visit some relatives that lived out in the country, and they were
always playing bluegrass on Sunday afternoons. And so, that was the
first
live music that I remember hearing when I was four or five years
old.
Then as I got older and started getting into listening to records and such,
I listened to a lot of the rock records that my older brother was listening
to. I started getting influenced by different teachers I had that would
turn me on to different records that I probably would not have heard.
And
then I fell in with a group of people at school that was, in some ways,
doing a similar thing to Brave Combo in that we were kind of looking for
some forgotten music to play that wasn't really hip in our high school.
We
put a band together and played some of the same music that I play now
with
Brave Combo, but we didn't do any polkas or really any ethnic music.
We
did kinda the other ends of older American styles and stuff. At the same
time I had another secret life that I was leading, playing in an Afro-Cuban
percussion ensemble across town with a teacher of mine, so I got an
interest in that as well. And then, in between, just anything that
someone
said: "Hey, check this out, it's cool. You gotta listen to it." I would
give it a listen, at least, you know.
Discorder: So, Carl, this
group is
"your baby," so to speak....
Carl: My
babies....
Bubba: Daddy!
Daddy!!
Joe: Carl used to
play records
for us when he'd come home from work....
Carl: I was a
milkman....
[laughs]
Discorder: So,
whereabouts did you
grow up, and what were you listening to as a young tyke?
Carl: Well, I grew
up in Texarkana,
which is right on the Texas-Arkansas border, straddles it. And I listened
to a lot of hymns for a long time, I was in the church....
Discorder: Was that by
choice?
Carl: No, it was, you know,
you're
in Texarkana and you grow up in the '50s -- you don't question it as
much as
people do now, but a lot of it wasn't sinking in quite right. But the
music was great, the hymns were great, and I can see the influence that
the
well-structured hymns had on my listening preference. It's funny that
hymns
kinda led me to polkas. It's a weird thing; someday I might talk to some
preachers about that. So, I listened to that as long as I was in church,
which was up to about the tenth grade.
Starting in around the fourth grade, that's when I remember buying my
first
real record. I started buying pop music, the stuff that was popular then.
I started buying a lot of it, and built my 45 collection up a lot. The
early stuff was, like, Neil Sedaka and Bobby Vee. I love that stuff.
Discorder: Was it tough
to get that
stuff where you grew up, or were you close enough to the big cities that
you had access to all that?
Carl: Oh yeah,
Texarkana had a couple
of really good record stores. In fact -- this is a little odd thing
about my life, but -- I used to go see Don Henley play in his band every
other Saturday in the record department of a department store. I
probably
saw him play 100 times over a 4-year period. His manager stuck him in
there
with his other bands, he was from that part of Texas.
But then I got into acid rock and British rock, and listened to that,
wherever that went. I liked Nazz a lot, Todd Rundgren's band. And I
liked
early Led Zeppelin a whole lot. That whole period, the Yardbirds,
all that had a profound impact on me. In college I started listening to
jazz a little bit, enough to realize there was a lot I didn't know and it
was exciting to find some new stuff. Then something happened and I
started
listening to polkas. That's another kind of story, but it was kind of a
transformation in me that made me do it.
Discorder: Was it a little
bit like
coming back to your roots in some ways when you started listening to
polkas?
Carl: Oh, why the
polkas?
Discorder: Yeah, the
polkas, because
you made the connection initially between polkas and hymns.
Carl: I think that just
the tonality of
that makes sense to me; the sense of where the chords will go and a
chord
progression, and the sense of how melody works in a most stable way
when
you don't mess with it a whole lot. You let it follow a very believable,
predictable flow. That I see a real connection in. But the reason I got
into polkas was the result of trying to, um, change myself and how I
viewed
things -- my perception of things. And realizing that to embrace polka
music was to take on the most maligned form of music and try to
find
if in fact there was something that was so beautiful about it, because it
was so deeply buried and under all this prejudice. And it just came back
at me like a flood. It was weird. When I got focused on that, things just
suddenly started happening -- so fast I couldn't stay on top of it.
Discorder: So, what kind
of stuff
are you guys listening to now while you're on the road in your "Urban
Assault Vehicle"? [band's nickname for reconverted motorhome, a.k.a.
The Doughnut]
Carl: You know, we
have a video player
in our vehicle, and we got a video on breastfeeding the other day at
Goodwill. That's what we were watching. The video was on and we
pulled up
at our motel and we didn't even get out of the van. Everybody stayed in
the van to watch this whole video. [loud guffaws from band]
Danny: Ten more
minutes....
Carl: Ten more
minutes we sat there.
Any other video, we would've been out!
Discorder: Well, thank you
for that
insight on life on the road.
Carl: Oh, you meant
music,
didn't you? We have ways to separate it all...headphones....
Bubba: We split it, you
know -- when
Joe's driving, you're bound to hear some Beach Boys, when I'm driving
we're
listening to salsa.
Discorder: OK, has
anyone picked up
anything really good recently that's just blown them away?
Jeffrey: Yes,
yes, yes. Frank Sinatra,
an album called In the Wee Small Hours. It's the one he made after
he broke up with Ava Gardner, and you can tell that, I mean, every single
note -- he means it. It's absolutely honest, it's rife with heartbreak and
honesty. It's really great.
Carl: I can't stop
listening to
Okinawan music. Rinkenband in particular is something that's hard for
me
to get away from.
Discorder: You guys
have a really
interesting fan discussion list which I've followed for awhile. It's my
understanding that Danny and Joe keep a close eye on the comings and
goings
there and keep the rest of the group informed. How about those of you
who
aren't "Internet enabled"? Any general impressions on this whole fan list
thing?
Jeffrey: It's very
interesting what
they're doing. I kinda enjoy reading it occasionally, it's like, you know,
my little noncybernetic way of lurking, I guess. Somebody gives it to me
and I read it, so I can't say anything back. But usually I don't want to,
anyway. [laughs] You know? But I'm going to get a computer sometime
and
then maybe I'll talk to somebody.
Discorder: What do you
think about the
community that's out there? Do you think they're pretty much like the
ones
you've met on the road, do you think they just have way too much time
on
their hands?
Carl: Well, in a way
this is just
another way for fans to get close to us, and we appreciate that a lot,
you
know. It's a cliché, but without the fan support, we wouldn't be
existing, at least the way we are. We wouldn't be a band that's able to
get out and play, you know. Uh, but we've dealt with odd, uh, [smiles]
fans, and odd collections of fans, and I mean that in an affectionate way.
'Cause there have been pretty amazing, surprising things over the years
that we've dealt with and have seen, and have experienced. This is
interesting more to me in the bigger picture, because it seems...I don t
know, you don't really want to get me talking too much.... But it seems
that the whole union of people, however it is -- and this is certainly the
most efficient way we've discovered yet to get a bunch of people
in
one place at one time -- is all part of the cosmos. I know it sounds
stupid, but the consciousness of the cosmos coming together. It's an
unstoppable fact of science now, and physically, tangibly, we're figuring
out how to do that. And we still may not see the amazing enlightenment
blasts that come from this in our lifetime, but eventually this will
obviously get everybody so focused at one moment, you know. I guess
that
in our own small way -- coming back to us -- that certainly is a positive
thing.
Discorder: It's been really
interesting
watching this community evolve online. I mean, you've got your people
that
like to take up a lot of airtime, you have the ones that are really shy,
you've got the ones that are real smartasses...
Jeffrey: Who?
[laughs]
Danny: It connects
people in parts
of the country that wouldn't normally connect, but it's just another way to
get fan mail, or to get people talking about the band, you know. As far as
bringing fans out, because of the nature of the Internet, it doesn't jump
out at people when they turn their computers on. The good thing about it
is if someone is vaguely interested and wants to type in the name, they
might find out where we're playing and come out. But just as if they
happened to see our name in the paper, you know. It's not changing
anything drastically, except connecting people who normally wouldn't
connect.
Joe: It's giving
people a reason to
travel to a show, some of these people that would normally not fly
across
the country just to go see Brave Combo. If they know that, well, I'm not
just gonna see Brave Combo, I'm also gonna see these friends of mine
who
are in that part of the country, and we're all gonna go see Brave Combo,
and do whatever else in the process.... I think we're seeing more of that
now.
Jeffrey: Yeah,
it's interesting...it does
set up this interesting little community. A lot of them are Unitarian
Universalists with computer jobs, I keep noticing. Not all, of
course....
Joe: We've got
some of the biggest
corporations in the country, really, using their resources to promote
Brave
Combo.
Danny: We got a
printout once of all
the people who've been lurking, people who hit the page without actually
writing in, and there's a pretty good portion of government workers.
Discorder: Your tax
dollars at
work!
Jeffrey: [coughs] Uh,
yeah, they're
watching us, yeah....[sinister laughter]
Discorder: Well, let's
move on to
the new album. So, it's called Group Dance Epidemic, and it's safe
to say it's all dance music all the time?
Carl: It is
definitely dance
music. This is for shy people who don't feel compelled to express
themselves in their own individual style. So it'll work at any party. We
wanted to call it "Exciting Educational Tool", but Rounder Records
wouldn't let us do that.
Discorder: Oooh, bad
Rounder!
Carl: Yeah, but they let us
put
"Fun...and Functional!" on the cover -- 'cause it really is almost more
functional than fun, in a way. It's gonna be for people who are gonna
throw a party, like if you're throwing a party this week or
something?
Discorder: Well, you've
got dance
steps, instructions, the whole bit.
Carl: The whole bit, so it
would
work real well. So that's what it's about: it's a bunch of group dance
songs that we've "Brave Comboized."
Discorder: Thanks a lot
for sitting with
me, guys, I appreciate it, and we'll see you outside shortly!
Carl: Maybe we'll
see you in Vancouver
some day.
Discorder: Please -- come
play for us
anytime!
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