A LITTLE ABOUT HAITI. Of course, we are all aware of the recent earthquake and ongoing horror this sad situation has created, and I hope you have or will give whatever you can to help. Many people don’t know that the Haitian people speak creole, which is like a French dialect. And a form of music that is unique to this amazing country is called “kompa.” My first exposure to kompa came from a cassette that Tim Walsh, our first woodwind player, found in a flea market in downtown Tulsa around 1981 or 82, while we were in the town playing a couple of nights at the punk club, The Blue Grotto. We’d never heard anything like it. How it sounds is hard to explain in writing, but it’s similar to a latin style called guaguanco. The band name, scribbled in pencil on the white generic cassette, was Les Gypsies de Petion-ville. We listened to it over and over and over for years. The next time I came across kompa was, again, unusual. We were on tour in Japan and our Japanese record company invited us to the office one day and invited us to go through their CD inventory and take whatever we wanted. The label, Blues Interactions/P-Vine, specialized in roots and traditional sounds from all over the world. A couple of CDs I picked up were by a Haitian band called Tabou Combo and there was that music again; the same stuff I first heard almost ten years earlier in Tulsa. I loved it. Then, about ten years after that we played The Lowlands Festival in the Netherlands and were performing on the bill just before Tabou Combo. My point to all of this is to see if you might be interested in hearing some kompa, since so much attention is on this desperate country right now. I still really love it and, coincidentally, was about to bring in a song by Tabou Combo for the band to learn when the earthquake happened. Now I have more incentive to add it to Brave Combo’s set list. Whatever, you should go to YouTube and enter “les gypsies de petion-ville” or “tabou combo” and troll that area for a while. Here’s a video of a recent Haitian relief benefit we played in Dallas.

You know what? I’m out of touch with so many things that appear to occupy the time of others. I’m always up very late and try to sleep as long as our pack of animals will allow. I spend way less time in the company of my cell phone than I used to. I don’t twitter or party on Facebook. I hear a fair amount of what might be called pop/rock, both indy and mainstream and even enjoy some good old-school death metal, but rock is always just rock, no matter how it’s played. Same intentions, same attitude. Certainly, throughout my life, rock music has been a dominant part of my music mix. But it can only be rock. A lot of recording artists claim to be “all over the map” when asked about their influences. But generally the responses only include stuff that’s comfortably under the rock or pop umbrella. And there’s so much more out there, for instance, the above-mentioned kompa, from Haiti. And on the other side of that same island, the meringue provides the soundtrack for The Dominican Republic. I grew up digging the entire spectrum of all musical sounds available to me in Texarkana in the early 60s on AM radio, but most of it was commercial pop/rock. Anyway after years of my listening being 90% typical progressive rock and 10% everything else, my ratio completely flip-flopped to 10% pop/rock and 90% not pop/rock. I didn’t want to become some kind of elitist musicologist, I just wanted to hear a whole lot of something different. And, you know, like everyone else, I went through my spoken-word industrial demonstration record phase, which, of course, led to a brief obsession with those colorful floppy plastic records we used to find inside magazines. They were called Evatone sound sheets. I ordered an Evatone start-up kit once, just to see how much it would cost to put a record in a magazine rather than pressing one the normal way. It was pretty expensive, but the samples they sent were fantastic. Super cool, actually. Anyway, all this mish-mash of floppy plastic records and music from around the world and spoken word industrial demonstration records collided with my growing interest in the concept of Muzak and then there I was, in a strange place and forming Brave Combo was the only logical next step. And, obviously polka had to be the cornerstone of it all. So, it’s hard to get worked up over even the best rock and roll that can be created. It’s only rock and roll and I like it, but I like other stuff too. Really, this is all about why music is created and why people listen to it. It’s cool to relate, but it’s also cool to be challenged to relate. My current sounds of choice include lots of Haitian kompa, Serbian brass band, pre-Reggae Hawaiian and Schubert’s UNFINISHED SYMPHONY. But that’s just me and I’m also constantly at risk of becoming my own cliché. Hey, I’m just doing my thing and digging it. You do your thing and dig it, too. On a domestic level, I get the most worked up these days, to the point of being not interesting, talking about our dogs and cats. Jane and I both spend an insane amount of time, by sane standards, dealing with animals. But it’s what we must enjoy doing. All I know is, I walk the neighborhood, often after midnight, in 20-degree weather, calling “kitty, kitty,” trying to wrangle home a stray we’ve been taking care of, and trap him on our back porch. We’ve had him neutered and properly immunized, his blood has been checked and his ears cleaned, but he’s still a stray, technically, and the whole neighborhood is his home. So, I’ll continue to walk the lonely streets in the wee hours, looking for a cat to pick up and carry home, especially if it’s cold and rainy. And, one more thing, while we’re on the subject, I’ve subscribed to ROLLING STONE magazine forever and will continue to do so for no good reason, but I definitely don’t like seeing pictures of old rock stars in their bathing suits, tanning on a beach, in the Random Notes section. Where’s the mystery, where’s the mystique, where’s the magic? I think I was always more comfortable with the idea that stars actually are not just like you and me. They really should live in a special place and make wonderful things that enhance our lives, such as movies, television shows and musical recordings. Otherwise, no one can justify charging more than $50 for any ticket to see anything anywhere ever. If that’s going to just be a bunch of everymen and everywomen on the stage, showing us that anybody can do it, I’m not paying over $50. But if I can feel, the way I did the first time I went to Dallas to see Led Zeppelin (the same as seeing aliens from outer space) I’ll pay whatever. When there are so many heroes, it diminishes the impact of the real heroes. But I’m just talking about music here now, to be clear.

Speaking of animals in need, one day Jane and I were leaving a favorite restaurant near our house and saw a pigeon hunkered down on the sidewalk right in front. We walked right up to it and it didn’t try to fly away. Something was wrong and we were concerned that a brat might think it would be fun to use it as a football, so I moved it out of view but could see that one of its legs was mangled. This was going to screw up our afternoon plans, for sure. Anyway, we took it home and put it in one of our bathrooms, careful to keep several curious cats on the other side of the door. It could stand up on one foot, but that’s all. But it also didn’t seem to mind us trying to help and eventually we were able to get it to eat and drink water. We located several wild bird rehab places in the area and found someone about ten miles away willing to take in the bird. After two days, we drove the pigeon to a woman’s house in a nice sub-division outside Denton and she checked it out and confirmed that its leg was broken, but she thought she could splint it and would let us know if there was a problem. We never herd from her again and assume the best.

On another occasion David Byrne and Karen Murphy (producer of SPINAL TAP) came over to look at videos of local yodelers and auctioneers and our house was a mess and the lighting was all wrong. I remember secretly calling Mitch Marine, our drummer at the time, and whispering to him to think of a reason to come over, cause David Byrne was in my house. He thought of something and came right over.

So, to recap, long Live Rock and Roll! And viva diversity! It’s a big ol’ little planet that is still full of wonder and excitement, if we choose to see or hear it. That’s all I’m telling you. Brave Combo is busy learning new songs and planning to do some more live-streaming nonsense soon. We’ll let you know. Otherwise keep our web site nearby and check our itinerary twice daily. You never know. We might be playing right next door to you and we might be so loud you’ll have to call the cops. Now, continue with your regular life.

I have an idea, but don’t tell anybody. It involves a dancing donut, and, possibly, a dancing onion ring. Sound good, so far? Imagine the possibilities. I was thinking there should be a way to have a fanciful (or is it “danciful?”) video of the dancing donut (and friend, the dancing onion ring) appear suddenly on one’s TV, like a pop-up ad on a computer, whenever bad news is about to be reported. Or, when a string of commercials is about to take over a show one is watching, the dancing donut gets down instead, probably with the onion ring, and entertains the viewer. Is this making any sense? Obviously I envision cool music going on as well. Wait a minute! What if they were puppets? No, scratch that terrible idea. The video must look similar to the old movie intermission films. When I was in high school, my best friend’s father was a projectionist at the Joy Drive-in Theater in Texarkana, so I got to see a lot of intermission films and usually the snack food danced. I know everyone would enjoy seeing a donut dancing with an onion ring. Both items are round. One is salty, one is sweet, just like real life. Okay, I’m going to get busy. Forget you read my idea. Do not scoop me on this! You know what? I’m reconsidering the puppet angle, but, again, keep it to yourself!

Believe it or not, adults make me uncomfortable, especially when they’re looking all adult and acting adult-like. Most adults I encounter are younger than I am. Don’t envy me. This isn’t necessarily a good thing. And I do know that some people, very, very young people, see me as an adult, with adult wisdom. I do have some wisdom from experience, but if you’re with me and the car stops working, we’re both completely out of luck. I would probably really not feel like an adult around those pilots spraying chemtrails out of their jets. Are you aware of chemtrails? If it’s not a “contrail,” it’s a “chemtrail.” Look up and see if long criss-crossing trails of smoke are in your sky. Whatever, just Google “chemtrails” or you can look at lots of video on Youtube. I’m really not a conspiracy theory dude or anything, but I’ve been seeing this man-made phenomenon, myself, all over the country. Apparently, it’s impossible to get the official story on what they are or why they exist. It’s just another kooky, creepy totally wiggy thing that no one knows anything about. Chemtrails appear to expand and become cloud-like. I noticed on a few occasions that none of the clouds in the sky were real clouds at all. They were expanding chemtrails. Head for the hills. No, wait, that’s closer to the chemtrails. Here comes the future, ready or not!

Speaking of looking forward, 2009 is coming to a close. Another year, another bunch of gigs. Another club, another convenience store. Another cell phone, another pencil. Another song, another parking lot. Another pewter dragon, another crystal monkey. Another planet, another solar system. Stuff came and went, didn’t it? All kinds of the same old stuff came and went. I mean, there was some new stuff, but not much, really. It was Obama’s first year as President of the United States of America. That was something new and different and, in my opinion, a refreshing change of pace. But, generally, it’s all been about the same. A day is a day, a year is a year and a movie is a movie. However, 2009, as a whole, was a special year for Brave Combo because it marked our 30th anniversary of music-making. I’ve been trying to find time since April, when the 30th year officially began, to organize the entire 30 years into a logical time-line of significant events. And, now I’m actually doing it. Following is just the beginning, but it is my goal to have the whole thing finished within a month of writing this. I thought you might enjoy seeing the first few entries, which cover a little over a year and a half. During this time period I figured we played about 150 shows. Not bad for four pretty clueless guys.

1979
April 27 – First gig at North Texas State University in a dance department classroom. We were supposed to play outside, but it rained. Then Lyle (bass) and Dave (drummer) bailed. Tim and I tackled it alone.
July 23 – August 3 – Tour of Texas Mental Institutions (State Schools and Mental Hospitals). Made no money. Almost made no sense. Our friend, Bob Lukeman, videotaped the whole thing in stark, graphic b & w. We have about 20 hours of footage.
August 20-22 – Recorded first release, a double 7-inch vinyl EP, POLKAMANIA, at Bruce Ballentine’s home studio in Denton.
September 2 – First appeared at Westfest, a real live Czech polka festival. Tim talked them into letting us set up in the corner of a small beer tent on some plywood. We passed the hat and made $160 and lot of people bought us beer.
December 8 – Ft. Worth blues legends, The Juke Jumpers, checked out our set at Dallas bar, The Stoneleigh P. Sax player, Johnny Reno, picked up a copy of POLKAMANIA and gave it to his brother-in-law, Joe Nick Patoski, who wrote music articles for TEXAS MONTHLY magazine. Joe Nick liked the EP, liked polkas to begin with, and gave it a favorable review.
1980
June/July – Due to Joe Nick’s positive words about POLKAMANIA, Kurt Loder at Rolling Stone gave Brave Combo two mentions, one with a photo, in the Random Notes section of the magazine. Stevie Nicks was on the cover of one issue and Bruce Springsteen was on the cover of the other, I believe. This exposure convinced us to go to New York City and see what would happen.
July 19 – We opened for Joe King Carrasco at the club, The 80s, in Manhattan. Rock music critic, Lester Bangs, was in the audience and dug the show. Also, Kurt Loder invited us to the Rolling Stone office, just to be nice, I guess. We gave him a sombrero. The entire East Coast trip took 14 days. We played only four gigs (one in Raleigh, NC and three in New York City) and came home, having earned less than $500 total for the entire 14 days. Plus our new used van broke down five times, costing us well more than we made.
November 1 – 17 – Return trip to the East Coast. Our first show of the tour, in New York City, was at a club called Irving Plaza. During load-in, our van was quickly and efficiently burglarized and we lost a lot of stuff like clothes and cassette players, but no instruments. We were in shock as we played our set. Years later, at a festival in Massachusetts, a couple of musicians on the same bill, John Flansburg and John Linnell, confessed to me that they were at that Irving Plaza show and we inspired them in the creation of their own band, They Might Be Giants. Heavy, huh? Sometime during the trip, the above-mentioned Lester Bangs invited us to his apartment to hang out and listen to music. Our drummer, Dave Cameron, and I went. And our new buddy, Kurt Loder, was, again, a gracious host and invited us to attend the record release party for The Lounge Lizards’ first album at a club called Hurrah. At the wingding I introduced myself to Brian Eno, who claimed to have heard our music, but didn’t say that he liked it. I assumed he loved it.
December 18 – We started work on our first LP, MUSIC FOR SQUARES. In two weeks we were finished. It was recorded in Dallas, at Bob Singleton’s studio, Edenwood. The cover graphic was a photo of the feet of an obsessed fan, after dancing to our music all night. Those feet belonged to Gina Smith, who, years later, married Jeffrey Barnes.

Okay, that’s all for now. I have mucho territory to cover before we meet again. It’s weird how clearly I remember some of this stuff. Very weird. But, don’t forget that now is now and Brave Combo continues, somehow. Look at our itinerary often. Just cause the holidays are winding down doesn’t mean we’re winding down. If we’re not performing at shows, we’re probably in the studio or vacuuming the rehearsal space or simply writing our next monster hit. Also, this live-streaming deal is showing more and more potential, so even if we’re not touring near you at the moment, you can still catch one of our shows as it happens. Peace, groovy kids.