Local Bands that came with your college experience
HarveyCanal
"a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
Austin, TX 1989-93:Bad Mutha Goose - integrated funk band featuring former Big Boys guitarist Tim Kerr Retarded Elf - whiteboy funk rap with a pretty damned good horn section Bouffant Jellyfish - more whiteboy funk and damned good tooSprawl - white boy funk from Houston, also damned goodBillygoat - white boy funk from Denton, not so damned good, a friend of mine once saw a show where the singer rammed a half-empty beer bottle up his butt, did a handstand to let the beer swish around, jumped back onto his feet, then pulled the bottle out of his ass and drank the rest of the beer Michael E. Johnson & the Killer Bees - elder statesmen of the local reggae scenethe Presidents - a Houston group that would come up and do tepid No Woman No Cry covers at the Student Union, later they were hired for my friend's wedding reception at the Salt Lick and showed up with all sorts of exotic worldly instruments and a new pretty incredible sound Twang Twang Shock-A-Boom - Violent Femmes-likeWater the Dog - REM-likeEd Hall - Butthole Surfers-likeSugar Shack - a Houston grunge-type group who had a great single called You're a Freak and You Don't Even Know It Skatenigs - Ministry-likeBaboon - a Denton punk-grunge band fronted by an old high school friend of mine from Houston who used to break out a trombone on stageBrutal Juice - a Denton grunge-noise band fronted by the dude who was our senior high school president down in Houston Ten Hands - some happy Dallas shitLast Rites - some not so happy Dallas shitCourse of Empire - decent Dallas rock band that would pass out dozens of plastic barrels and tons of drum sticks to their audience for some tribal shitJazz Pharaohs - an excuse to play sophisticated by going to the Elephant Room to catch Martin Banks on trumpetDJ Cassanova - Catfish Station on Saturday nights used to be on oneWhoever the dj's were that would spin in the Bassment of the Lizard LoungeWho am I missing Ross?
Comments
Wow--you are a true connoisseur of this whiteboy funk
thingthang.That stuff was HUGE down here during that time. Consider that the Big Boys, who were from Austin, were the first ones to really do the sub-genre any justice.
There's a really good compilation (on cd and cassette only) from back then called Texas Funk (on Rastaman Work Ethic Records out of Houston). Some might be surprised at how good some of the songs on it are as far as instrumentation and even legitimacy.
I'd throw in Cherubs (former member of Ed Hall) and Jack-o-Fire (another Tim Kerr project) for Austin and Bayou Pigs and Dead Horse for Houston, as far as bands go, and for DJs, I can't forget DJ Snoopy (so unbelievably talented) and Spinner T, who is still doing his thing.
That's funny you mentioned Sprawl--I was really into them when I was 18 or 19. Good dudes, too. I wonder what they're all up to these days?
I think it's funny that Bob Schneider used to sing for Joe Rockhead, one of the worst whiteboy funk bands, then went on to become a critical darling (not your darling, of course) singer-songwriter and date Sandra Bullock.
http://www.metroland.net/guides/2002_local_music/music_guide_profile.html
Mike Ladd
Elliott Smith
New Radiant Storm King
Heatmiser
Powerslave
Supreme Dicks (great name)
In the area:
Dinosaur Jr.
Gobblehoof
Sebadoh (I saw Lou scouting bass players at my college's talent night once)
Buffalo Tom
just missed the Pixies by a year
I am forgetting a million others but that was a lot of beer ago
That is a great list. I have some Sprawl CDs and the Texas Funk Compilation. Sprawl was definitely my favorite of the bunch. All of my Bouffant Jellyfish tapes were stolen in a box of tapes from my car along with my sound system. The thieves dropped one tape (Brand Nubian) and it happened to be one that I borrowed from a friend. If anyone wants the Texas Funk Comp. I can post it up.
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Railroad Jerk
Jonathan Fire*Eater
Blonde Redhead
Lynnfield Pioneers
Cibo Matto
oh - and the Wu-Tang Clan.
Local bands - REM, Pylon, Love Tractor, Method Actors, The Squalls, Little Tigers, Widespread Panic, White House China, Land Sharks, Kilkenny Cats, Dreams so Real, Barbecue Killers, The Side Effects, Mercyland, Normaltown Flyers, Oh OK, and many many more (memories are getting hazier).
Atlanta bands that used to roll through regularly: Guadalcanal Diary, the Nightporters, the (Georgia) Satellites, Tinsley Ellis (then with the Heartfixers), LMNOP, Kevin Dunn and the Regiment of Women, The Brains, The Swimming Pool Q's.
National bands that played Athens at least 3 times a year: Replacements, Husker Du, Dream Syndicate, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Butthole Surfers (lived in Athens for about a year), 10,000 Maniacs (also lived in town for a bit), Flat Duo Jets (ditto), Lets Active, Meat Puppets, Fleshtones, Jason and the Nashville Scorchers, Don Dixon.
Eventhough this was during the big hardcore movement and those bands rolled through town, Athens never really had a big hardcore scene. Atlanta was the tougher place.
Athens was all about dancing and being original. Didn't matter if you could play (see the B-52's) as long as you were doing something new. Not all of the bands were great but they sure were fun.
Once REM hit the big time things started to change with bands moving to Athens from all over the south hoping to make it. After a month in town they were advertising themselves as being from Athens. The record company guys started showing up at the 40 Watt and the Uptown as well. They were quite easy to spot with their $300 cowboy boots and satin tour jackets while the locals all sported thrift store duds from the Potters House.
damn, even legitimacy ?
HIGH SCHOOL (1984-1988)
Corrosion of Conformity (unfuckwithable)
Confessor (unfuckwithable)
Flat Duo Jets
Southern Culture on The Skids
Ugly Americans
and lots more bands that you never heard of.
COLLEGE (1988-1992)
Polvo (unfuckwithable)
Snake Nation
The Connells
Superchunk
Archers of Loaf
and lots more bands that you never heard of.
And I'll give an honorary shoutout to Richmond VA's Honor Role because NC liked them better than their home state, and because they pretty much kicked the ass of every other band I've ever seen.
bayou pigs were so fucking good. I still jam that first cherubs album.
Pain Teens had some decent shit for back then.. i remember the singer used to work at sound Exchange in Houston back when that record store was amazing.
You know, one of me and Terry Clubbup's close friends used to hang out with those dudes back when he was in high school in Charlotte.
This is still some of my favorite music!
Sound Exchange! Dude, you just took me way, way back. Ah, the days of driving an hour and a half to run through that whole store a half-hour before closing.
I was a little later than you, obviously, but I saw a lot of the same groups while I was in high school. Add to the list:
Hitting Birth
Hazel
New Bad Things
Satan's Pilgrims
Supersuckers
Gas Huffer
Drunk at Abi's
Everclear (only saw them once, and there was less than 10 people in the crowd)
Hog Wild
Frankie Machine and the Stiffs
Smegma
Jollymon
The Automatics
I'm pretty sure I saw this same group opening up for someone around '93-'94. They were terrible, and the singer performed some similar act, like sticking a finger up his ass and putting it in his mouth. What a stupid gimmick!
Columbia, SC 90-95
WORST BAND EVAR
yeah.. all that houston and austin (billygoat played in houston quite a bit) white boy fonk was unbearable to me at the time. Drug rugs and throwing cereal out on the audience .. never really my bag. But they were pretty large in the area back in the day.
colour me
I remember Sprawl being a little bit more hardcore.
Mike Gunn, Jesus Lizard and Pantera were pretty significant to my local rock experience back in the day.
Please do. I have the cassette, but it broke on me when I was relistening to it a few months back.
Don't forget Infinite down the street, or Record Rack for that matter.
best band in portland
three great bands - live and on record.
am forgetting the names of countless hardcore bands that would play 6 to a show
and
Rugburn
Starvin Hungry
Danko Jones
Knuckledusters
DoMakeSayThink
Deadly Snakes
Guh
Dirty Bird
One Blood
My local experience (Providence RI, 1987-91)
- Dolores (Sacha Frere-Jones Brown U dual bass funk band, I loved them)
- Salem 66 (Gloomy Alt-Rock still hanging on past their expiration date)
- Bop Harvey (Weak ska/world music poop)
- Emergency Broadcast Network (Industrial multi-media artsy stuff, they got on MTV and did stuff on one of U2's tours eventually)
- Throwing Muses (Girly-poppy songs, probably be the biggest band out of RI at the time, some of them became semi-famous)
- Coat Of Arms (Wannabee Husker Du types)
- Rash Of Stabbings (80's art school gloom ala Sisters Of Mercy)
- Voodoo Chillee (Go-Go band from Brown U, surprisingly not too bad)
And then loads of punk bands, some of whom made some noise outside of RI: DropDead, Verbal Assault, Six Finger Sattelite, Neutral Nation, Velvet Crush, The Wurst, Inflatable Children, and many more.
UMass Amherst?
Oh man I went to high school in this shithole from 88-90.
Husker Du
The Replacements
Soul Asylum
Jayhawks
27 Various (Ed Ackerson later went on to form supposed-to-be-huge Polara)
The Funseekers (best live local TC band of the era, bar none)
the Clams (I used to sing 'Sweet Emotion' and 'Sweet Child 'o Mine' with these ladies)
The Mighty Mofos (loudest live TC band of the era, bar none)
Trip Shakespeare (couple of these guys later became one hit wonder Semisonic)
The Draghounds
The Gear Daddies
Blue Hippos
Otto's Chemical Lounge
The Cows (Lord how I HATED the Cows back then)
Urban Guerillas (again, more High School)
Magnolias
Swingin' Teens
Mile One
almost forgot The Libido Boyz on the hardcore scene, hometown Mankato heroes and good pals from high school
I went to a Christian college that outlawed dances on campus, and the only non-capital-C-Christian band that was able to play there was my own garage band, the Wellington Tempests, this was in 1989 if memory serves. Everyone else on my list were local acts of varying popularity that I saw on nearby campuses (and eventually bars once I hit 21)in the Twin Cities.
I went to Hampshire College, just down the road. Pioneer Valley rules. Pixies were part of the UMass scene. I forgot to mention that Nate from the Mighty, Mighty Bosstones went to Hampshire when I was there.