Aly would eventually hook up with Leroy Shakespeare and Ship of Vibes for five years, till he burned out on reggae. In Austin, he's just "free-lancing" now, and kicking around the idea of starting a band with Fever in the Funkhouse alum Jim Holbrook. But the birth of Aly's daughter a month ago has kept him home, thinking only about his baby. And it has escaped no one that on the day of Jahdene's funeral, Libbey went into labor.
"I just want to think about us getting together and having fun, and when all is said and done, the rest of the band will be karma-free and I'll be able to say I can do it, which is important to me," Aly says. "But as caught up in my own selfishness about this as I may be, the main thing is we're going to raise some money for Jahliese. That's what got us to come together to do this. We probably would have gotten around to a reunion at one point, but this is important. It's a healing for Jahliese, and a way for us to send some love Jahliese's way."
The New Bohemians perform November 27 (with Cartwrights, Soul Hat, and Brave Combo) and November 28 (with Leroy Shakespeare and Dah-Veed) at Trees. Call 821-1656 for ticket information.
Staying on Course
"Has anyone here seen Anthony Headley?," Course of Empire singer Vaughn Stevenson asked during the band's November 12 show at Trees, and no one in the jam-packed crowd responded. "If you have, tell him I say hi." It seemed an odd comment: Headley is Course's long-deposed drummer, having been replaced by Mike Jerome (ex of pop poppins), but the sign outside the club may have offered a reasonable explanation. In front of the words Course of Empire, someone had written "Chad Lovell of Stabbing Westward and..." Course's other drummer (and a founding member) Lovell, it turns out, had been offered a job by Stabbing Westward and was set to leave at 7:30 a.m. November 13 to fill in for the next month during a tour with Killing Joke. His departure didn't sit well with his bandmates in Course, who are now home and writing songs for their third album, and even Lovell was having doubts. Almost immediately after the Trees show--just five hours before he was set to leave, plane ticket in hand--Lovell bailed out and, as the Course members (well, their roadies) were packing up gear, he pulled Stevenson aside and told him he was staying, despite the thousands of dollars and exposure the Stabbing Westward gig promised. "It would have been fun," Lovell says, "but I've got work to do here."
Scene, heard
(Former?) Rubberbullet vocalist Beth Clardy, Pervis frontwomen Rachel Strauss and Cristina Harrison, and other local musicians will help usher in the return of Paula Trauma, the woman behind the "Skin Cage" and "Sadistic Sunday" endeavors of a few years ago and the performance-art pieces "Manhandler" and "Damnation of a Universal Girl." Paula and Thoroughbred will debut "Prop Cheese," opening for tribal-industrial punks Crash Worship and Sofa Kingdom November 22 at Trees. Nudity and sweat are promised...
