The Machine's Pump
Volume 11 - #4 - April 2008

Welcome to the Machine's Pump. The intent of this newsletter is to give fans a glimpse into the world of Brave Combo through the eyes of founder, Carl Finch. Here you will find thoughts, opinions, and tidbits for your information and entertainment. Welcome to the world of Brave Combo.  We are a band of individuals with a common goal – to organize sound in an interesting way.  There are many challenges, including just getting along and staying on the same page.  Another challenge is to figure out what works for both the audience and us.  We play primarily for ourselves, in that we only perform songs we like and in the order we want, but audience reaction is extremely critical as well.  Playing in a way that maximizes audience response is really what we’re about.  We hope you’ll dance, or think or just listen.  When the band first started, some people threw stuff at us on occasion, but in those days that could be a sign of love and acceptance.  At least they showed up and were sticking around long enough to try to hurt us.  We knew we weren’t going to sound normal to anyone anyway, so we figured we had it coming, to a degree.  Brave Combo grew up around bands that often used antagonism as a way of reaching fans and I think we definitely adopted an in-your-face, nervy attitude to fit the mood of the times.  If we listened to rock, we probably listened to more punk or punk-influenced stuff, like the British ska revival of the late 70s, than anything else and aggression was a vital part of the scene.  We couldn’t ever be tough looking, but we could play a polka and smile in the most inhospitable environments imaginable and know exactly what we were doing.  The early days of BC were like a daily trudge across an unpredictable, alien landscape (Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade one day, CBGB the next).  We were truly following a dream that made almost no sense.  Yet, something about it clicked to more and more people.  There were times it was out of our control.  The buzz became way bigger than the reality, but it didn’t matter.  We didn’t know how to capitalize on it and just took it a day at a time and enjoyed the reviews and articles that suddenly appeared everywhere.  Even the god of rock journalism, Lester Bangs, liked us and wrote nice things.  Many years later the band finally started to make sense from a financial point of view and became a career.  Our hopes for world domination increased, too, but we’ve had to adjust our expectations there a little.  Despite what you might think, we have never had a Top 40 hit and there’s a good chance we never will.  Before I had my first band (7th grade) I wanted to make a record and hear it on the radio.  The only thing I wanted more was to marry Hayley Mills, but there were myriad problems with that scenario.  I was still in grade school, so I couldn’t drive.  I didn’t know where she was anyway and figured she probably spent most of her time in England.  Plus, I knew everything about her and she didn’t even know I existed.  That really sucked and was way one-sided.  So, it seemed much easier to hear my record on the radio.  About 20 years later I put out a couple of singles (45 rpm vinyl discs with one song on each side, otherwise known as the most perfect thing man ever created) under the name Carl Finch and His Orchestra and finally heard one of my songs (“Media Music”) on the radio.  It was a Dallas-area rock station that played local recordings.  The DJ spun about two minutes worth, said something stupid and then played a more appropriate song.  But, I did get two minutes of my allotted fifteen and it felt great.  I wanted more.  At least more than two minutes every 20 years.  DIY was, apparently, the only way.  One time I was picking up a test pressing of an early Brave Combo album (I think it was WORLD DANCE MUSIC) and another band was at the pressing plant checking out their new test pressing, as well.  It was a colorful young metal hair band from Arlington, Texas (Pantego, actually) called Pantera.  A few years later they looked and sounded nothing like those guys did that day. THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE GOLDEN SEX.  For some time, many years actually, I’ve been hearing that mainstream music is controlled by the spending patterns of girls from the ages of 10 to 12.  It always seemed like some ol’grumpy non-fact that was only good as joke fodder; certainly not reality.  Well, guess what?  I think it was true and never truer than now.  It seems like most popular media is, basically, catering to that special group.  Which means that most of what flashes in front of us, minute after minute, is convincing us that we, as well, should cater to that group and be happy with the way it is.  Okay.  Now, everybody back up a little and take a good look at this and what this means.  The general media is encouraging, or rather demanding that, girls from the ages of 10-12 dress provocatively, if not sexually, if not slutty.  Okay, I know, I know.  Everybody’s doing it.  And indeed they are.  It’s totally fine these days for a 12-year-old girl to dress like GIRLS GONE WILD at Señor Frogs Spring Break Party.  Why not?  Her parents paid a lot for those clothes and they want to get their money’s worth.  Besides, what can a parent do?  Girls at that age are probably a little head strong and willful and are going to want to dress cool around their friends and look like the media whores they admire.  All of this makes the most powerful buyers in the world also the most vulnerable.  They’re a very easy target.  It’s not hard for big companies to figure out what to sell to a naturally wide-eyed demographic.  And 10 to 12-year-old girls are the most impressionable, gullible and, maybe, demanding group on the planet.  Is there any way out of this dilemma?  No, because it is, indeed, the first level of Hell, from which there is no escape.  So what hope do we have?  None.  The only solution is to stop the corporations that prey on the weak and ignorant, but this is a free society, based on the principles of free enterprise.  Consequently, the corporations appear to have no trouble convincing the parents to help with the evil deeds by supplying the money to make it all happen.  Maybe a lot of parents are scared of their little daughter’s 18-year-old boyfriend and his gun, so they do what they’re told.  No matter what, I guess I’m more out of the loop than I thought.  Unfortunately, I am in a business that needs a piece of the entertainment pie in order to survive.  And, just so you know, I’m not trying to climb up on some high horse here.  My concerns have very little to do with the trouble of rearing children, but more with reaching an audience for the kind of music we play.  A lot of pre-teenagers dig us.  We hear this all the time from their moms and dads.  But we are what we are and the general media is what it has become.  A growing number of people think it’s possible that there might be a down side to making children feel that they are so special and deserving and entitled all the time.  The word used to be “spoiled” and it was not an attractive trait.  Today television and movies have convinced us that foul-mouth, smart assed, jaded, know-it-all children are adorable.  And, it’s amazing to me that Disney, the company that supplies the world with most of today’s role models, touts itself as the ultimate of wholesome.   Meanwhile an army is growing that views them just the opposite; as one of the most destructive, corrupting elements in the world.  I know in the music biz, the Disney lawyers are among the most feared.  And considered by many to be bullies with an agenda. Okay enough complaining about things over which I have no control.  And, really, I’m not complaining, just observing and giving my slant, which, of course, is the correct one, but what do I know?   Well, let me tell you.  Brave Combo is cranking it up big time.  There are lots of live shows around the country in the coming months and a rare trip to Florida is happening right away.  Please check our itinerary often.  New dates are being added regularly and there’s a good chance one will be near you. AS THE WRENCH TURNS, the new PBS animated series based on the popular NPR program, CAR TALK (Click and Clack), is scheduled to debut on July 9.  Brave Combo has been scoring the show and we have only two more episodes to go.  Wow.  This is all happening pretty fast.  I didn’t even know any of these people a year ago and now the first season is almost finished.  The show is also using our version of “The William Tell Overture” as its main theme.  Needless to say, we dig all of this a lot and hope it’s a hit.  At this point anything is possible, so let’s pretend it will be a hit.  Then we get to start riding everywhere in long white Hummer limos. RECORDING PROJECTS.  I’m drowning in music.  In addition to CAR TALK, we’re working on the Brave Combo/Symphony CD and some new songs featuring our insanely talented buddy, Danny Jerabek.  Plus, I’m still chipping away on that long-overdue album with Mike Dillon and am now deep into another one with Sara Hickman.  Where all of this leads, no one knows, but we’ve all decided to go on and gear everything to 10 – 12 year old girls and see what happens.  Don’t give up.  Don’t fail the test.  No, no, no.  Not at the Polka Fest.  Get on the floor and do your thing, Baby.  We’ll be there, too.  Trying to inspire your every move.