Nothing but static

Reagan isn't the only one splitting: Drummer Tony Barsotti has also left the group, replaced by former One Hit Wonder drummer Chris Webb, whom Doni and his brother, guitarist Zach Blair, met when Hagfish toured with Webb's band last year. Like Reagan, Blair says Barsotti is looking for a new challenge, something "to prove he can do more than play furry drums and twirl his sticks." (Which is all fine and good, but how does playing in a Generation X cover band--with Peter Schmidt, Mike Graff (ex-Course of Empire), and Johnny Hawkins (Cool Christine)--fit into his new plan?) Barsotti may also end up playing with Reagan in Tele, at least live.

For now, Blair says the band's strategy is to tour every summer and put out a new record every year. In fact, Hagfish plans to release at least two albums this year. First up is a live album, Caught Live, due in a few weeks on Cold Front Records, the label that released an EP, Texas Rockers, by the Blair brothers' side project El Diablo last year. A few months later, Cold Front will also put out a collection of Hagfish demos, songs that didn't make it on either of the band's last two albums, 1995's ...Rocks Your Lame Ass or 1998's Hagfish. As for new material, Hagfish is ready to go into the studio as soon as they find a new singer. Blair promises the new material will be a little heavier, but fans shouldn't be disappointed.

"If you like our older stuff, then you'll like this," Blair says. "It's just a new singer and a new drummer. If people want to be pissed off about it, that's fine. Just give us a chance."

--Z.C.

Cable Bound
In the say-wha? department, the Discovery Channel has licensed a song off Captain Audio's debut EP, my ears are ringing but my heart's ok. The tune "Often Mistaken for the Sun" is scheduled to appear in an episode of Outward Bound, a new show aimed at the pre-teen crowd that premieres April 3 at 9:30 a.m. during the channel's block of kids programming. "The program is sort of a Real World-type program for kids, where they follow a group of 14- and 15-year-old kids on the Outward Bound program," says Laurie Goldstein, a publicist at the Discovery Channel. "And interspersed are interviews with the kids where they talk about their feelings toward the other members of the group. It's really fast-paced editing, and the music captures that. It's really a fun program." And when we think of Captain Audio, damn it, we think of the outdoors...and fun.

--R.W.

Send Street Beat your playlists to rwilonsky@dallasobserver.com.