[Plays "Akira's EÉjhanaika"]

Rodney Gibbs: All right, that's Brave Combo, off their new album [EÉjhanaika], a Japanese import -- is it available in the States yet?

Carl Finch: It'll be available from us, in the States. [Never released in the U.S.]

Bubba Hernandez: Go to the store in Austin, man.

Carl: Yeah, but they're ordering it from us, too.

Bubba: Ah.

Carl: They're about to probably license it to a label called Denon...

Rodney: Umm-hmm.

Carl: ...which is, I think, primarily a classical label in the United States.

Rodney: Classical?

Carl: Columbia owns the rights to three of the songs, and they're being really picky about who's going to release it here, so they want to release it probably to a label that they also own, which is Denon.

Rodney: Mmm-hmmm.

Bubba: Which is also a cassette tape manufacturer.

Carl: Right, it's like the biggest in Japan, or something.

Rodney: Wow. So, pretty soon, you think?

Carl: Pretty soon, I think, yeah. Hopefully before Christmas.

Rodney: Hopefully! I should introduce you -- Brave Combo's here, three-fourths of them, Mitch, Bubba, and Carl. They'll be playing tonight at Fitzgerald's with Zuzu's Petals and Little Jack Melody, so, uh, you kind of have an incestuous relationship with Little Jack, somewhat.

Carl: Well, he lives near Jeffrey.

Rodney: Uh-huh.

[laughter]

Bubba: Well, not only that, but Jeffrey's not here 'cause he's gonna sit in with him.

Carl: Yeah, so we're sharing a horn player tonight.

Bubba: But we can talk about him.

Carl: Yeah, we can say whatever we want about Jeffrey.

Bubba: "Anyway, so Jeff was...." [giggles]

Carl: If anybody wants to call and ask us about Jeff Barnes, Brave Combo's horn player, please call.

Rodney: Dark secrets there.... So, you produce Little Jack Melody?

Carl: That's correct. Sort of.

Rodney: How'd that go?

Carl: It went great.

Rodney: Wow.

Carl: It's very unusual music, though. People should come out and check it out. Harmonium and tuba.

Mitch Marine: Very soon they should come out. He starts in about five minutes.

Rodney: Yeah, so if you're next door to Fitzgerald's....

Carl: Hurry over!

Bubba: NOW!

Rodney: You're in luck -- run -- turn off your radio! And you also did this, uh, we just got this that you sent, the Sement Mixers...

Carl: Yeah!

Rodney: ... it's another Japanese band.

Carl: They're a Japanese band from Tokyo, Osakaga, actually? Okasaga?

Bubba: I don't know.

[Rodney laughs]

Carl: Osakaga City, yeah.

Bubba: Very famous!

Carl: It's right outside Tokyo. They're kind of a, kind of a funk/pop band that are really influenced a lot by the Okinawan sounds and intervals, and Texas rhythm and blues, and Louisiana rhythm and blues, and funk.

Mitch: Tex-Mex --

Carl: And Tex-Mex.

Bubba: Yeah, they all went out and...

Mitch: And African, there's an African feel, too.

Carl: Yeah, that's true, too.

Bubba: ...they all went and had some accordions last time we were there.

Carl: Yep.

Rodney: Sement Mixers...international beyond belief!

Carl: Beyond belief!

Rodney: So, you brought them in to Denton, for the recording?

Carl: Right, yeah, came to Denton for about a month and recorded.

Rodney: Culture shock!

Carl: It was the first time all of, almost all of...I think maybe Kenji had been out of the country once, but most of them had never even left Japan.

Rodney: Hmmm. [looking at album] I see one of them's got the hardhat, kind of the Village People motif.

Carl: Uh-huh, yeah.

[Mitch and Bubba laugh]

Carl: That's right, oh yeah, Village People, too, we forgot to mention their influence.

Rodney: All right, so you have a Christmas album coming out, you said.

Carl: Yeah, the same label that this EÉjhanaika CD is on, we're recording a Christmas album for them to be released in Japan.

Rodney: So you're going to move over soon, or what?

Carl: Uh, hmmm, you never know.

[Mitch laughs]

Bubba: I almost got stuck there 'cause I lost my ticket!

Carl: Yeah.

Bubba: It was almost, "Well, maybe this is the thing to do," you know.

Carl: It was fate! Bubba's fate.

[Bubba laughs]

Carl: Supposed to stay here!

Rodney: So, let's see the Christmas album [It's Christmas, Man!], is it Japanese Christmas songs or American?

Carl: There aren't any Japanese Christmas songs.

Rodney: That doesn't make sense, yeah.

Bubba: Western Christmas songs.

Carl: No, they're just the regular songs that you've heard, some of 'em are....

Mitch: Plus originals!

Carl: Yes, plus some originals and some obscure ones that maybe you haven't heard. But we're doing bizarre arrangements to most of them.

Rodney: Sung in English?

Carl: Oh yeah, yeah, this time... .

Mitch: Except for Bubba's -- has one in Spanish.

Bubba: Yehhhhhhhhhh.

[Rodney chuckles]

Rodney: Do any of you speak Japanese?

Bubba: I know a few phrases.

Carl: Hai!

Bubba: Hai!

Mitch: Hai!

Bubba: Hai! means "yes."

Mitch: Konnichiwa. [Good day, good afternoon]

Bubba: Iie means "no." Don't ever say "no"...unless you're a girl.

Mitch: Doi tashimashite. [You're welcome]

Bubba: Doi tashimashite.

Carl: Doi tashimashite.

Bubba: I know, I know I can say...

Carl: Domo arigato. [Thank you]

Mitch: [ashiyevasu?]

Bubba: ...I know I can say, Houston o-kyaku san wa suku desu. That means, like, "Houston's audience is killer!"

Mitch: Saiko!

Carl: Saiko is "killer."

Rodney: Saiko is "killer"?

Bubba: Yeah. SAIKO!

Mitch: So they would say, "saiko!" and we'd go, "killer!"

[Rodney laughs]

Bubba: Let's see, anata o kyuu-to, "you're cute." Oicho [nimini?] inamasuka, "Would you like to have a date?"

[big laugh from Rodney]

Carl: Konnichiwa is hello in the afternoon, Ohayo is hello in the morning.

Bubba: Ohayo.

Carl: You can say Konnichiwa almost all the time. Oh, but I did find out, we must say Aoi Sanmyaku [Blue Mountain] every time, otherwise, Aoi Sanmyak means, "there's a frustrated man running around the mountain."

[burst of laughter]

Bubba: How the heck did we get that one, man?!

Carl: I don't know! So, one of our songs is called "Aoi Sanmyaku," and sometimes you can drop a "u" so we were trying to find a place to breathe when we're singing this "Aoi Sanmyaku, Aoi Sanmyaku, Aoi Sanmyaku" [Bubba echoes the words at the same time]...

Bubba: Because, yeah, a lot of times...

Carl: ...and we thought we could drop the "u" because you can drop the "u" in a lot of instances.

Bubba: ...the "u" in a lot of instances... .

Carl: ...but, we can't do it.

Bubba: Nooooo!

Carl: Nope.

Rodney: It's like most of the phrases you know, Bubba, are like, picking up women....

[big laugh from Mitch]

Rodney: Aren't you married?

Bubba: Uhhhh....

[Mitch and Carl laugh]

Carl: Aw, yeah!

Mitch: Yeah!

Bubba: Weeeeell, you know....

Mitch: Is this being recorded? If this is being recorded....

Rodney: I'm making a tape.

Mitch: Really? Good!

Bubba: [laughs] Well, Phyllis, you know, she's a good ol' girl.

Carl: Rodney's in-depth questions here, are getting to the root, man!

[laughter]

Bubba: Yehhhhhh!

Mitch: Yeah!

Carl: [to Rodney] What is your major here?

Bubba: [laughing] What is your bag, man?

Rodney: Well....

Carl: Well, you heard about our aura, someone reading our auras one night, I guess. You heard about that?

Rodney: No, I didn't hear about that.

Carl: Well, we had....

Mitch: Bubba's is red.

Bubba: Mitch is orange, Carl's is blue, and Jeffrey's is yellow.

Rodney: What does that mean?

Bubba: Well, that means, yellow for Jeffrey is like a shaman, magical witch-healer kind of a guy...

Carl: Yeah.

Bubba: ...and uh, Mitch's is orange for ego, and control, you know, got the band under control, you know what I'm sayin'? And uh, uh, mine was....

Carl: Red.

Bubba: Red.

Mitch: Uh, you forgot Bubba?

Rodney: What is red?

Bubba: Means nothing! And, uh....

Carl: It means sex!

Mitch: Sex!

Rodney: Ahhh, what a surprise.

Bubba: And Carl's is blue, for cohesiveness, or something to that effect...

Rodney: Wow. Is this a big thing in Japan, having your aura read?

Bubba: ...being an all-together kind of guy.

Carl: That was at Texas Tavern in Austin.

Rodney: Oh! Close enough! Wow.

Carl: Yeah.

Rodney: Let's see, I had something else, I don't remember....

Carl: Well, we're doing these Christmas songs in July, which is kind of a strange thing to do.

Rodney: Mmm-hmmm.

Carl: And we decided to do it, like, last week.

Rodney: Right.

[laughter]

Carl: And we have to finish this very soon.

Bubba: [laughing] And let's do it now! When do we gotta have it done? NOW!

Carl: So, it's kind of a strange thing to do. So, we'll probably be playing some Christmas songs tonight. Oh! We're at Fitzgerald's tonight.

Bubba: Fitzgerald's, oye, esta noche!

Carl: Playing Christmas music

Rodney: Right, have you ever played with Zuzu's Petals before?

Carl: No, but I've been hearing good things about them.

Rodney: Yeah, good things.

Mitch: You like 'em okay?

Rodney: I've never heard 'em.

Mitch: Oh, okay.

Rodney: I've read about 'em. Spy magazine wrote about 'em in New York, actually.

Carl: They did? Well.

Rodney: Talking about how they stole their name from a movie, from It's a Wonderful Life. Zuzu's the daughter, and her petals....

Bubba: Hmmmm.

Carl: I wondered where that came from.

Rodney: Okay, who was last time you were in town for the Art Car Ball, I met Koji?

Carl: Yeah.

Bubba: Oh, Koji san, yeah!

Rodney: What about him, what's the deal?

Bubba: He came out to all our shows the first time!

Carl: First time we went to Japan.

Mitch: In Tokyo....

Bubba: They're, like, about forty bucks a pop, plus he had to ride a train from Yokahama....

Carl: Something like that. And so he just stayed, he just spent the night at his office for a week so he could see all of our shows.

Bubba: Yeah, 'cause he missed the midnight train.

Carl: He's a businessman there, he works, sits at a computer. And he loves to come to the United States to go to festivals. He goes to the Jazz and Heritage Fair almost every year. I guess every year he comes over for this. And I think he's gonna be coming to the conjunto festival in San Antonio, now, and this is his big pay-back for the year is to come to the United States and go hear music and...

Rodney: Right.

Carl: ...any concerts that come over, man, he's there front-and-center.

Mitch: And he calls us and says he's coming over and he gets to hang out. I mean, we just say, hey, if you come up near us....

Carl: He comes up to Denton.

Bubba: Spends the night at Jeff's house.

Carl: Yep. Hangs out at Jeff's.

Mitch: He's way into karaoke.

Bubba: Karaoke.

Mitch: Way into it.

Carl: He really likes that a lot. Which is, you know, that's where you sing along with pre-recorded music.

Rodney: In all the bars?

Carl: Yeah.

Bubba: They threw a party for us in a karaoke bar over in Tokyo, but the drag thing was - it was fun you know, we were jamming, everybody was kind of jamming, the Sement Mixers and a lot of people in and out - but I wish we coulda just had that karaoke machine, you know, with the background music, you know?

Carl: Yeah, really sophisticated karaoke machines, with the computer readouts....

Bubba: Computer readouts.

Carl: ...and stereo, gigantic selection of songs.

Bubba: Yeah.

Carl: So Koji likes to, after work, man, likes to go to the karaoke bar and sing along with....

Mitch: Get on stage and sing with...

Carl: We haven't seen him do this but he really lights up.

Bubba: He's usually lit up.

Carl: But most of the people we know there hate it. To them it's kind of like how people felt about disco in the early eighties, you know, it's...

Rodney: Most people in Japan hate it?

Carl: Well, most of the people that we hang out with there...

Rodney: Right.

Carl: ...look at it as an anti-music thing. You know, it's just...for idiots to go....

Mitch: And if you've heard very many of them, you could -- there's a strong argument for that.

Bubba: Well, we were in Las Vegas, right, at the Sands, and they had, boy! Man, if I'd known about that contest....

Carl: Karaoke contest at 2 a.m.!

Bubba: 'Cept it was time to go to sleep!

[laughter]

Mitch: It's funny, it's entertaining!

Bubba: And I was on a roll, too, at the one-armed bandit, roll losing my money!

[somebody cackles]

Carl: Yeah, we had a day off between San Diego and Salt Lake City, and Las Vegas is right there, so we had to drive through Vegas and there we were and we stopped and spent the night.

Bubba: Yeeeeeh, Brave Combo's been through Vegas!

Carl: Yeah.

Rodney: Seen the world.

Carl: We've seen it now!

Rodney: Well. What's left after Denton? I dunno. You've got it all.

Carl: We do. You've been there!?!

Rodney: Uh, close, Dallas. You're neighbors, right?

Carl: Well, it's just like a little Dallas.

Rodney: Yeah?

Carl: In every way.

Rodney: I saw the pictures on the Sement Mixers album.

Carl: I think that some of those, most of those were taken in Fort Worth, though.

Rodney: Oh really?

Carl: I think so.

Rodney: One says "Denton," though.

Carl: Yeah, there are some, some Denton, but like the cement mixer there on the cover they found in Fort Worth.

Rodney: Umm-hmm. Okay. Well, the show's tonight at Fitzgerald's.

Carl: It's tonight.

Rodney: I guess you're coming on last?

Carl: Yes.

Rodney: Little Jack Melody is probably crooning right now.

Carl: He probably has just begun and has everybody out on the floor by now. That really is an interesting band to see -- harmonium and tuba -- and it's kind of like neo-cabaret music.

Bubba: He writes great stuff.

Mitch: It's beautiful, beautiful music.

Bubba: Absolutely great stuff.

Rodney: This is his first Houston show, isn't it?

Carl: Tonight is it.

Rodney: Wow.

Bubba: But just in case you can't make it to it, what time to do we start, Mitchell?

Mitch: We start at midnight and, uh, Zuzu's Petals...

Rodney: Umm-hmm?

Mitch: ...they start at around 11:30.

Carl: At around 11, 11:45 [laughs].

Mitch: Yeah, they start at around 11:45 and we start around -- no! They start around 10:30!

Rodney: All right.

Bubba: Ohhhh! Thank you.

Rodney: Okay, sounds good. It's Brave Combo and their new album maybe will be available...

Carl: It will be, soon.

Rodney: ...sooner or later...uh, it's good stuff. We're gonna now...

Carl: Thanks, Rodney!

Mitch: Thanks, Rodney!

Bubba: Thanks, Rodney!

Rodney: No problem.

Mitch: See you there tonight, right?

Rodney: All right, yes.

Mitch: Great.

Carl: Adios!

Rodney: We're going to have a song from World Dance Music right now, it's "Skokiaan." Thanks a lot for coming out.

Mitch: Sure.

Bubba: So long!

Carl: All right, 'bye.

[Plays "Skokiaan"]