THE LAWNMOWERS (Austin, TX)
A Name, Not A Concept 7" EP
Eddy (DMC-101/102), 1984
Daren Hess moved to Austin
from Colorado right around Christmas 1979 to attend the University of Texas. His prior musical options consisted of bland radio
rock and disco so he never had aspirations of being a musician. But on a fateful night during his first week at UT, Daren caught The Skunks playing a
gig and was inspired.
A week later at the start of 1980, he was looking out the
window of his Jester Dorm room and saw some guys playing lacrosse. He
immediately grabbed his stick and ran down to meet them. One of the guys kept
being referred to as Ramone. When asked if that was his real name, Chris Mudd
explained that people called him that because he was in a band that played Ramones
covers. Their drummer Mike Jakle had just moved back to Houston where he was playing bass with the
Recipients so they needed someone to fill in. Daren, who had never picked up
sticks in his life, said he could do it.
So they went back to Chris’ place where Mike had left his
drums behind. The kit was broken down in the closet and since Daren had never
set up or played drums before, he made a lame excuse to get Chris to set it up
for him. Sure enough when they started jamming together it went smooth enough that Daren
was given the gig and played a show the following week. Greg Potts was their bass player but his stay with the band was short lived as Mike Jakle moved back to Austin a couple months later and wanted to
take over bass duties.
Coined the Lawnmowers, the trio did power pop covers by
bands like the Jags, the Romantics, and the Beat while mixing in their own colorful
pop tunes. They gigged once or twice a month in Austin including a long standing stint at Mike
& Sal’s Pizza joint. Some times they would advertise themselves as Scot Free & The Prisoners or more commonly, Eddy
And His Lawnmowers. Eventually Daren’s parents bought him his own 3-piece
Gretsch kit. Being an art student, Daren drew the image of Claude Rains as the
Invisible Man on his kick drum, an image they often used on show posters and
other promotional materials.
In 1981, the Lawnmowers went to Sugarhill Studios in Houston and recorded three demo tracks with
Andy Bradley. They didn’t have the foresight to release the songs at the time, nor the money to do so.
They were mainly just out to have fun with this project and didn't take it too seriously. In fact, Chris, who had been playing in bands since junior high, was moonlighting with another
band called the Chevelles that had an agent and made good
money doing 50s covers.
Things would wind down in the summer of 1982 after Chris graduated, got married and moved away for a job opportunity. But they did manage to play a gig in Houston with The Haskells before venturing out to the west
coast in a Ford Econoline with stops in Phoenix and Los
Angeles. Mike then did stints with The Rattlecats and Doctors Mob while Daren
went on to play in Alamo Choir which Mike also joined.
In 1984, Chris ended up
back in Austin.
Mike’s sister Dawn was the Lawnmowers biggest supporter. Her boyfriend offered
to release a record for them so they took the opportunity to return to Sugarhill where they laid down four
songs including more polished versions of two of the songs from the demo
session a few years earlier. The double single was released to no fanfare as
the band didn’t even play a gig to celebrate its release. However, “Never See You Again”
did receive some airplay on local KLBJ-FM.
Mike ended up getting his engineering certificate and took a
job at Sugarhill Studios. He currently is the proprietor of White Hat Rum.
Daren has had a long, fruitful career as a full time musician having played
with the Silos, Green On Red, Poi Dog Pondering, James McMurtry, Ronnie Lane, and
others. Chris is still living a corporate lifestyle but manages time to play in
a group called Buffalo Nickle.
The unreleased 1981 demo version of “Want You Bad” finally saw the light of day on 2013's Texas power pop compilation album, Radio Ready that was released on Cheap Rewards Records.
TERMINAL MIND (Austin, TX)
I Want To Die Young EP
No Records (TM-1), 1979
Steve Marsh was introduced to brothers Greg and Doug Murray in early 1978 at a party. After discovering the twins had been playing guitar and drums for a while, Steve, who had previously only played piano and guitar, picked up a borrowed bass so they could start a band. At the time, Steve was a big fan of glam music while the Murray's leaned more towards Led Zeppelin and prog rock. In fact, the earliest carnation of the band was called Red, named after a King Crimson instrumental that they were covering.
The band played their first gig at the Texas Union Ballroom on October 10th with The Huns. The show also marked the debut of Standing Waves (who were billed as Latent Homos). The name Red only lasted a few shows before Greg came up with the name Diamond Mind, which Steve promptly altered to Terminal Mind.
They developed an energetic stage show, which later incorporated props and other entertaining tactics. During one show at Raul's, they had all their friends lend them television sets which they lined up along the stage. Killing all the lights in the room, they set the TVs to test patterns to illuminate the stage.
Besides Raul's, they played all the usual spots around Austin (Duke's, Club Foot, Continental, etc) and sometimes ventured into Dallas, as well as Houston on occasion. By late 1979, they made it into a studio to recorded four songs, which they self released on a 7". 500 copies of the record were pressed and sold out. Atleast two different photo inserts were divided amongst the copies (both shown below).
Shortly after the release of the record, Steve met Jack Crow, who played synthesizer. Adding this new dynamic to the band was the first step leading to the demise of the group. Personality clashes amongst members was another key factor. By mid 1980, Steve and Jack had started a new project together that took them in a different direction, while Greg took over drum duties for the Big Boys after Steve Collier left and started Doctors Mob. Greg and his brother Doug later joined Jesse Sublett in a late version of the Skunks that released an LP, which some refer to as The Purple Album.
It's interesting to note that in 1979, Steve filled in on bass for The Next for a short while after original bassist Manny left the group and before they found longtime stay, Lee Shupp. Steve recorded bass tracks for the band's Make It Quick EP, which may have been re-recorded by Lee before the record was released (there are several conflicting stories about this). However, Steve's backing vocals do remain on the record.
Terminal Mind can also be heard on the Live At Raul's compilation LP.
THE DICKS (Austin, TX)
Hate The Police EP
Radical (NR 12142), 1980
A musical foundation was laid early on in life for Gary Floyd. As a child in Arkansas, he got his first exposure to the likes of Roy Orbison and the Four Seasons through the jukebox at the local teenage hangout. And it was there that he’d gotten his initial glimpse into the world of blues through the grooves of Muddy Waters 45s. Gary watched artists like Jerry Lee Lewis performing on television and observed how the kids were dancing along, but thought it would be even more fun to be singing it and watching from that perspective. He realized at a tender age that he wanted to create music and be in a band.
Gary moved to Palestine, TX when he was four years old, right around the time the Beatles hit big in America. By the time he was in Junior High, Gary formed his first rock ‘n’ roll band, The Morticians. They wore matching top hats and black turtlenecks while performing standards like “Gloria” and “Louie Louie.” Other early groups of his included the Concept, and later, the Illusion.
Gary’s rebellious attitude was prevalent early on. One of his groups was scheduled to play a school assembly. They had a song called “Why Vietnam” that the principle insisted they do not play. Figuring the worst that could possibly happen was he’d get kicked out of school - which seemed more of a reward than a punishment - he urged the band to play it anyway. So they got on stage and played the song in front of the school, and sure enough, they got in trouble and were banned from playing any other school functions ever again.
By ’72, Gary was drafted and relocated to Houston to work as a janitor at an alternative civilian’s office where he spent the next two years fulfilling his military obligation. He never had to do any active duty and by 1975 found himself situated in Austin. It was there that he got a further peek into blues music through “white boy” groups like Johnny Winter and ZZ Top. All the while he was getting hip to more outrageous proto-punk bands like the MC5 and Stooges.
Gary moved out to San Francisco a few years later and got to witness the Sex Pistols final show at Winterland. Shortly before that, he had gotten his hands on a Ramones record which was his first introduction to the formulating punk scene. Seeing the Sex Pistols perform live impacted him greatly. He realized that something new and exciting was happening. He moved back to Austin soon after that and was told by a friend that there was a little club called Raul’s that had punk bands play on Monday nights.
By the fall of ’79, the Austin punk scene rivaled that of any big city with new and exciting bands forming at a rapid pace. Raul’s was the heart of the scene, hosting punk shows most every night of the week. Gary had a concept in his mind for a band call the Dicks. He started putting up posters around town with slogans like “The Dicks Are Coming,” advertising performances at venues that didn’t even exist or on dates that weren’t on the calendar. He hadn’t even sought out any musicians to play with him yet, but was already making the band famous.
Since Gary had been frequenting Raul’s on a regular basis for several months by then, he knew all the faces in the crowd. But one day he saw two unfamiliar guys in pleather jackets sitting at the bar. They looked like they’d just escaped prison. So Gary marched up to them and asked who they were.
Buxf Parrot and Glen Taylor were childhood friends from San Antonio. Growing up three houses away from one another since ’66, they started playing in “kiddie” bands together, jamming out on Cream covers and the like. By the late 70s, they had started their first punk band, the Panic, but unfortunately there wasn’t an audience in San Antonio for that kind of music yet. Often times they’d find themselves playing to five people, none of which were punk rockers.
When the Sex Pistols played in San Antonio on January 8th, 1978, less than a week before Gary saw them in San Francisco, Glen and Buxf were in attendance. They didn’t know anyone else at the club. Much of the crowd consisted of rednecks who had read about the show in the paper. They came to gawk at the band and see what sort of spectacle these Brits would deliver. Many of the others at the show were kids who drove down from Austin to see the concert. The show ultimately impacted many of the Austinites much the same way it did Gary. Bands like The Next and The Huns formed soon afterward, which in turn helped to develop the early punk scene in Austin.
Glen and Buxf decided to move to Austin after they saw the scene maturing there while things continued to stagnate in San Antonio. The other guys in their band, Glen’s brother and a drummer named Sylvester, stayed behind. Glen and Buxf continued playing together after they arrived in Austin but didn’t have a band. Once Gary approached them and they made their introductions, he asked if they’d want to play in his band, the Dicks. The two happily agreed.
The Dicks still needed a drummer to fill out the line-up. They had one practice with Chuck Lopez and then hoped to secure Fred Schultz who played in The Inserts and the Big Boys, but it was Pat Deason who ended up being their permanent choice.
Pat was the son of federal aviation administration worker and had been moving to different parts of the world since a child. Born in Fort Worth, he spent time in Paris, Berlin, Washington DC, Virginia and Florida before making his way back to Texas in 1976. After a few years in Killeen, he wound up in Austin and got a job with the electric department. Before long, he was introduced to some guys who encouraged him to play drums in a band called the Invisibles. Having no prior experience, he purchased a four-piece clear Ludwig set from an ad in the paper. The guy allowed him to buy one piece at a time as money would allow. After a few months, he had the whole kit in his possession and started finessing his chops.
Pat grew up on big band music and hadn’t been exposed to punk in any way yet. It was when his band would play at Raul’s that he got his introduction and immediately fell in love with the new and exciting sounds. Eventually the Invisibles idled so he jumped ship to a group called the SKP’s for a few months. But when two of the core members of the group split for Philly without warning, he found himself looking for a new project.
Barry Gavin immediately stepped in and asked Pat if he’d want to play with the Dicks. Barry was a bartender at Raul’s and the brother of Ty Gavin of The Next. Since he was also friends with the guys in the Dicks and knew they needed a drummer, things naturally fell into place. Barry was organizing a multi-band Punk Prom at the Armadillo World Headquarters for May 16th and promised the Dicks an opening slot if they could get their act together in time. The Dicks had their first official practice with Gary, Glen, Buxf and Pat at the end of April, 1980, just two weeks before the gig.
Using songs from Glen and Buxf’s previous band, Gary came up with new words on the spot. It was at these very first practices that “Kill From The Heart,” “Bourgeois Fascist Pig,” “Wheelchair Epidemic” and many other classic songs came to be. The Dicks put a 30 minute set together and debuted at the Punk Prom with the Big Boys, The Next, Sharon Tate’s Baby and the Reactors.
The reception was great and it wasn’t long after that when Gary got the idea to start developing a stage show and dressing in drag, crediting his creativity and inspiration to John Waters and Divine. The crowds began to grow immediately and it wasn’t just punks showing up. Frats and other onlookers had heard about the Dicks stage antics and would come to see what it was all about. The band had their fair share of scuffles as a result of this, but came out unscathed as Glen and Buxf would defuse the situations.
Brian Flaherty approached the band about recording a single for them with Dan Dryden at Earth & Sky Studios. The sessions for the “Hate The Police” EP was the first time any of the guys had been in a recording studio. They banged the songs out in a few takes and released the record soon after on their own Radical Records (not to be confused with R Radical Records which was started up by David Dictor of the Stains shortly after).
Manolo Lopez was a friend of the band. His brother Chuck had sat in on drums at the very first Dicks practice. Manolo worked at UT with the wife of a muralist named Carlos Lowry. As an artist, Carlos also did political art and leaflets. Manolo suggested Carlos design the sleeve for the new Dicks 7”. After meeting the band, they realized his work had the right feel for what they wanted, so they had him design the sleeve, insert and center labels for the record. Though a self proclaimed hippie at heart, Carlos became one of the strongest supporters of the Dicks. He ended up doing artwork for all their future releases including the iconic “Kill From The Heart” LP, and also designed covers for the Offenders and Stains. When in a crunch, Carlos even drove the Dicks to Houston when their van was broken down.
That September, the Dicks were given the opportunity to be recorded live at Raul’s for the sake of being featured on one side of an album that would showcase the Big Boys on the other. The night before the recording sessions, Dan Dryden did a practice run at an Ideals show as Raul’s. Some of those songs eventually surfaced on the Ideals’ “High Art” EP that came out a couple years later. The Big Boys and Dicks “Recorded Live At Raul’s Club” split LP was released in 1980 on the Rat Race label to much fanfare.
The band persisted on, drawing big crowds in Austin and playing Houston and the surrounding areas on a regular basis. They earned slots opening up for touring bands like Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat and Black Flag. On one such instance, they caught the attention of Greg Ginn and Chuck Dukowski, who then wanted to put out a Dicks record on their label, SST.
The “Kill From The Heart” LP was recorded in 1982 at Earth & Sky with Spot, who had worked on many of the early SST releases by Black Flag, Minutemen, Meat Puppets and others. Gary had been wanting to move back to San Francisco, so after the recording was finished, he encouraged the rest of the band to make the move out there with him. Although they didn’t particular care for the idea, they didn’t fight it and went along for the ride.
That summer, they headed out on the Rock Against Reagan tour with MDC, DRI and the Crucifucks. The tour ran for several months and though it was well organized, it had its fair share of dilemmas. When it was through, Gary wanted the band to return to San Francisco, but the rest of the guys weren’t too keen on driving all the way through the desert in a ’66 Ford Econoline with a busted radiator. Gary continued on his path to San Francisco while the others stayed in Austin, ultimately putting an end to their involvement in the Dicks.
After he was situated in San Francisco, Gary started up a new version of the Dicks that would continue on until 1986. They released a couple more records, which all featured artwork by Carlos Lowry. After that, Gary played in Sister Double Happiness with Lynn Perko from the San Francisco-based Dicks. Buxf, Pat and Glen continued working on several different projects together and separately in Austin through the 90s until Glen passed away on May 2nd, 1997.
The Dicks started playing reunion shows in 2004 with Davy Jones (The Next, Ideals, Hickoids, etc) and Mark Kenyon substituting for Glen on guitars. The new formation debuted in San Francisco to a sold out crowd before doing a two night stint in Austin. Both nights sold out there, so they played a third, unannounced show that also sold out. After that, they continued playing sporadically across the country to welcoming crowds of new and old fans alike.
The Dicks “Hate The Police” 7” has been officially re-released on 1-2-3-4-Go! Records and the “Kill From The Heart” LP is finally back in print thanks to Alternative Tentacles.
REVERSIBLE CORDS (Austin, TX)
4x33.3 EP
Co-Tex (001), 1979
Bert Crews moved to Austin for grad school in 1977. He was in an anthropology program that divided his time between the University of Texas and Cornell University. When he had down time in New York, he’d go to Manhattan and see bands like the Ramones, Richard Hell, Talking Heads and Patti Smith at CBGB’s.
At the start of 1978, Bert was heading back to Austin at the same time the Sex Pistols were touring the South on their short-legged US tour, which brought them to San Antonio on January 8th. Many UT students were in attendance at the Pistols show and the Austin punk scene started developing shortly afterwards.
Recognizing that truly anybody could start a band, Bert got together with a couple friends to form a short-lived group called the Raybees. They wrote original material but never performed live. By the time summer rolled around, he had become friends with Ty Gavin and the guys from The Next. Bert was taking care of a huge 5-bedroom house for a geology professor who was away, so the band promptly moved in with him. Bert occasionally played keyboards with the Next but that was not meant to be.
Doug McAnich was the brother of one of Bert’s friends from Houston. Since he was in Austin attending UT that fall, Doug and Bert began rehearsing and writing songs together. In September, Lynn Keller also moved to Austin to attend UT. She was in the RTF program like many others in the budding punk scene, but didn’t know anybody yet. One day she was on a shuttle and met Ty Gavin. He asked if she wanted to play in a band. Though she grew up singing, Lynn had never performed in a band before. Ty introduced her to Bert and Doug and they gave her a tape of some of the material they’d been working on. A week later she performed with the Reversible Cords at their first ever gig at Raul’s on Halloween night with The Next.
Ty played drums with them for a little while but Bert wanted the band to become more portable, where they could play gorilla-style and not have to set up and break down a whole drum kit. By that time they had become friends with Tom Huckabee, who was playing with The Huns. He came on board as their steel drum player, which allowed them to play wherever they wanted; not just in clubs, but in coffee houses, burger joints, and on “the drag,” which was the strip of shops and eateries that ran along the western edge of UT campus.
The band, which would become known as the Re*Cords, continued searching for new outlets to play besides Raul’s, which was the one punk club in town. In mid-December they tested the waters at the 1206 Club, a real dive on the sketchy, east side of town. The openers were Boy Problems (who shared members with the Huns) and Motor Men, a short-lived group containing John Dee Graham and Sally Norvell. They had formed from the ashes of another band called Cold Sweat, who coincidentally were the opening band for the Huns during the notorious “bust” a few months earlier.
Following the 1206 show, Burt and Doug joined forces with Sally and French Acers to form another band called the Norvells. From that point on, the Norvells and Re*Cords became an entwined entity, along with the Huns. They all shared members and played gigs together. Also, Sally was married to Huns’ front man Phil Tolsted at the time.
On Valentine’s Day, 1979, the Re*Cords played their first “random” show, an acoustic set on the drag. After that, it became routine for them to set up and play anywhere they wanted. Near the end of February, they played in the parking lot before an Elvis Costello show and they did the same before an Alex Chilton show the next month. Shows at the 1206 club only last through April; an incident involving Legionaire’s Disease Band from Houston and a knifing contributed to that. Undaunted, the Re*Cords continued their mobile act through different areas of the city, including sidewalks on the east side and in front of the capital building.
Bert lived with Nick Modern who made Sluggo! magazine. Since Nick had an offset press, it was easy for the Re*Cords to print up tons of show posters and canvas the town with them using wheat paste. One such instance got them into a bit of trouble with the authorities. Short on blank paper, they grabbed a stack of 1040 IRS tax forms and printed the details for a show they were playing at Raul’s on March 2nd. While the idea was conceptually unique, the government did not approve of the defacement and came looking for the culprits. Though the incident resulted in probation, the show still went off without a hitch.
Later in the year, Dan Puckett left the Huns to focus his attention on his other band, Radio Free Europe. Bert was asked to fill in for the Huns' last few gigs. Shortly after that, things came to an end for the Re*Cords as well. Tom graduated and was moving to LA. Bert followed Nick Modern to San Francisco for what he intended to be a 4-5 day stay, but he never left. Lynn was working with Chickadiesels and Doug went on to start his career.
The Re*Cords have two records to show for their year-long existence. The first was a 7” EP that was recorded on 4-track reel to reel and released on their own Company Texas Records imprint. Tom’s brother, Danny, had a multi-track studio in Dallas and had encouraged them to go up there to record some more songs. A combination of what they laid down for him and other material that Bert had recorded along the way were collectively put together for their posthumously released LP. The album included a lot of overdubs, unlike their first record, and it contained contributions from many people in the Austin punk scene who played coronet, violin and an assortment of other instruments.
.png)
