A year and a half later, Ewing has managed what he never could in Dallas: getting a record out on a nationally distributed label, and exorcising the Westerberg comparisons even as he embraces them. Delta Flares, released last week under the auspices of the John Ewing Band, sounds like old times--Westerberg's, Ewing's, and everyone-in-between's. Apologists would defend the similarities as homage, naysayers would dismiss the John Ewing Band as a knockoff, and both would be right and never wrong: This is unpretentious rock and roll that doesn't fix what wasn't broken, and the term "knockoff" discounts passion and inspiration, which this has plenty of ("Swinging Doors," "Nashville Blues," "Wait, Stop, Go," to name a few). It could be a hell of a lot worse: The John Ewing Band could sound like the Grateful Dead.
Sixty-Six - 3 + 4
And then there was one. Sixty-Six has undergone a major overhaul since the band released its 1994 eponymous debut on Steve Records CD: Drummer Toby Sheets has joined REO Speedealer, bassist Gabby Ramirez now does his thing with Funland, and guitarist Nate Fowler recently departed to front his own project. The only remaining member is frontman Bill Longhorse, who is now joined by two former members of Vibrolux (though which band in town isn't?)--drummer Bruce Alford and bassist-turned-guitarist Alan Hayslip--as well as former Rodeo Love Gods bassist Keith Long and ex-39 Powers guitarist Greg Prickett.
As a result, the band's three-guitar sound is now darker, faster, denser than before--more appropriate to an arena instead of a bar. As evidenced by demos the new band has been working on for a few months--demos that may or may not lead to material for the band's next Steve Records CD--the rockabilly twang has been replaced by a feedback screech, the shuffle has been drowned out by a boom, and even the old songs have been scrapped in favor of the new sound.
"I just got tired of playing in bars and making the sound you have to make to play bars," Longhorse says. "I like that scene, and I like drinking, but it gets boring after a while. It was fun and a departure for me. In all those years of playing [with other bands], I never played music people in bars would like, and then when I did it was cool, but it's ultimately kind of limiting. I just got to thinking about what sounds I would like to hear, and the guys in this band can do it. I just want to make more noise."
Scene, heard
Stephen Trued, a founding member of Killbilly and a revered banjo player in bluegrass circles, died March 2 of leukemia. Trued, who was the real anchor of traditionalism in a band that always struggled to blend its punk and country desires with bluegrass tastes, had suffered from hemophilia his whole life, and his body finally gave out. In the words of Mark Rubin, the bassist and tuba player for the Bad Livers and an early member of Killbilly, "He was how the band happened. Stephen taught me how to play. I knew little, if nothing at all, about bluegrass before I met him. He was just an amazingly encouraging person to be around who had the spirit of the music more than the chops. The rest of us were basically poseurs..."
Earl has met its "timely demise," as singer John Branson puts it. Forget that dull stuff about artistic differences; this band, which released a terrific split single last year with Breadbox, busted up strictly because its members didn't get along well enough to stay together. "I feel like it was a huge, long part of my life, and I'm upset about it," Branson says. "I also feel like it had to be done." The band, which began as something of Toadies protege (Todd Lewis produced Earl's debut, and Mark Reznicek played drums) ultimately found its own potent voice and had planned on recording a full-length record...
UFOFU has received a demo deal with Capitol Records, which means the band will record a set of tracks for the label in April. If Capitol likes the demos, the label will most likely sign the band; if Capitol rejects the songs, UFOFU is free to take the demos, without obligation, and try to get a deal somewhere else. (Vibrolux once had a demo deal with Capitol, incidentally.) In the meantime, next week the band will release a four-song seven-inch EP on the California-based Time Bomb label...
Don't hold your breath: Originally slated to hit record stores in April, Jackopierce's follow-up to its 1994 A&M Records debut, Bringing on the Weather, has been bumped from the label's schedule to a possible June release. OK, those of you waiting for this news can now go back to holding your breath.
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