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Volume 14 – #5 – May 2011
Posted by on June 1, 2011
Buddhists believe that life is suffering. There is always a conflict between how one thinks his or her existence should be and the unfulfilling reality. The bottom line being that desire is the culprit. The world is overflowing with things to want. It’s a gushing volcano, actually, and it’s bound to get much worse. There’s just too much temptation to spice up an otherwise dreary existence. The… (read more)
Volume 14 – #4 – April 2011
Posted by on April 29, 2011
A documentary crew, led by Dallas filmmakers, Bart Weiss and Mark Birnbaum, has been following us around for about a year. They’ve also been doing separate interviews with me and other members, even part-timers. I’ve had to go through boxes and books, all kinds of promotional memorabilia and lots of VHS videos are being transferred to DVD. This has forced me to think about everything that has… (read more)
Volume 14 – #3 – March 2011
Posted by on March 31, 2011
One time Brave Combo played a festival in Little Rock, Arkansas. I believe it was called AUGUST IN ARKANSAS. It was downtown by the river. I don’t remember our set at all. Most of our past shows are just a blur now. Only specific things are easy to recall, like isolated bizarre moments, which do happen all the time, but they’re not necessarily attached to a place or event. Generally, I just see… (read more)
Volume 14 – #2 – February 2011
Posted by on February 28, 2011
Where are we going? By we, I mean, our species. This has become harder and harder to figure out as I get older. But maybe the purpose of one generation can never be the same as the next one or the next one. This is because one generation can’t understand, much less predict, what will motivate humans of the future. And just because I’ve been here way longer than a 25-year-old, it doesn’t make… (read more)
Volume 14 – #1 – January 2011
Posted by on January 31, 2011
Well, January is usually a month of leisure for Brave Combo. The spring festival season is still months away. The world, in general, is partied out. It’s not a great time, weather-wise, to tour north of the Texas/Oklahoma border (a really smart policy this year). We never release a new album right after Christmas, so there’s nothing fresh and exciting to hawk. And, sadly, local live music clubs… (read more)
Volume 13 – #12 – December 2010
Posted by on December 31, 2010
Frosty’s all deflated and packed away for another year. Christmas 2010 is behind us and now it’s time to focus on nothing, cause January 2011 will come on strong. I will, once and for all, finish the decade-long (not quite, but close) album project with super-duper percussionist/workaholic, Mike Dillon. Also, I’ve been hired to compose music for the pilot of a new national children’s television… (read more)
Volume 13 – #11 – November 2010
Posted by on November 30, 2010
In spite of it all, it’s time to throw caution to the wind and spend, spend, spend. Christmas truly is just around the corner and Brave Combo aims to celebrate in our usual twisted manner. We hope you’ll join us for some fun and merriment. Ghosts and Goblins have morphed into Bambi, Santa and the Nativity. This happened in my neighborhood and it happened in yours, too. Thanksgiving was totally… (read more)
Volume 13 – #10 – October 2010
Posted by on October 30, 2010
OH, WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MORNING! Chem-trails are alive and well in Texas. Yesterday the skies over Denton looked like a checkerboard. Then the lines all spread out and became wispy-looking fake clouds. Fantastic! If you dwell on something long enough, you become accustomed to it and get acclimated to thinking about it. No matter if the topic is politics, food, power transference, animal rights or religion.… (read more)
Volume 13 – #9 – September 2010
Posted by on September 30, 2010
MAKE DENTON YOUR DESTINATION. Big things are happening in this town. One faction wants this and another wants that. Power to the people! Unless the people are stupid. Then what? Well, there’s enough discussion about that on TV these days, so my opinion would be, well, just another opinion. But, I do know this. Brave Combo and Wisconsin’s polka darlings Copperbox, featuring Danny Jerabek, will… (read more)
Volume 13 – #8 – August 2010
Posted by on August 31, 2010
IT’S POLKATIME. Well, in a way, it’s always polkatime in Comboland, but when August turns into September every year, the real 2/4 season kicks off. Starting with the legendary (or is it infamous) West Fest on Labor Day weekend, we spread the grooviest of grooves for two solid months. Polkafests, Oktoberfests and/or polka-themed events are currently scheduled in West, Texas, Roanoke, Texas, Addison,… (read more)
Volume 13 – #7 – July 2010
Posted by on July 31, 2010
JOKE OF THE DAY: GIRL: Hey, I finally trapped that feral cat I’ve been feeding and took her to get spayed. BOY: That’s great. I know you’ve been working on this for months. GIRL: Yeah, well, it turns out she had already been spayed. BOY: I have a cat like that. And now, to continue with my year-by-year break-down of important Brave Combo events. Geez, this is taking forever! I wish I’d written… (read more)
Volume 13 – #6 – June 2010
Posted by on June 30, 2010
LIFE GOES ON, AND OTHER CLICHES. A train is wailing in the distance. It’s a sound that comes with the territory if you live anywhere near downtown Denton. It especially cuts through the night air. And to no one’s surprise it’s a lonely sound; one that represents something moving on, not staying in one place; rolling down the track, literally, into the darkness; into the unknown. My mother died… (read more)
Volume 13 – #5 – May 2010
Posted by on May 31, 2010
SPEW, BABY, SPEW. I fear the BP oil explosion and gushing leak in the Gulf of Mexico will be America’s Chernobyl. At the time of this writing, the earth’s lubricant was not yet contained and it’s now a fact that this dwarfs the Exxon Valdez disaster. Like Chernobyl, this could be a boo-boo that is too big for humans to correct. I don’t need to say anymore. BIG NEWS THAT ISN’T BAD. Well,… (read more)
Volume 13 – #4 – April 2010
Posted by on April 29, 2010
As our 30th year of existence comes to a close, I realize, again, that all year, from April 2009 until April 2010, I intended to post a comprehensive history of important Brave Combo dates and facts, carefully seasoned with tangy tidbits. I did try to kick start the thing earlier in the year with a couple of brief postings, but never really found the time or desire to dig through boxes and boxes old… (read more)
Volume 13 – #3 – March 2010
Posted by on March 31, 2010
Here’s the deal, or at least one of them. Music gets to me too easily. My mother, Emma Finch, had a stroke recently; a bad one. She’s in pretty terrible shape right now. Everything in my life has changed somewhat because of this, but it seriously sucks for her. She’s 84 years old (and wouldn’t mind me telling you that) and imagining her recovering much is difficult, but we’re all trying,… (read more)
Volume 13 – #2 – February 2010
Posted by on February 28, 2010
Okay, now I get it. Humans are simply in a struggle to become god-like. That’s it. But we’re this weird combination of progress-driven brainiacs, getting closer and closer to some kind of technical perfection yet the same bumblers we’ve always been, just modern versions of bumblers. We have personal computers that immediately connect us to a world of unlimited communication and a mastery of… (read more)
Volume 13 – #1 – January 2010
Posted by on January 31, 2010
And now a little about Haiti. Of course, we all know about the recent earthquake and ongoing horror this sad situation has created, and I hope you have or will give whatever you can to help. But many people don’t now that the Haitian people speak creole, which is like a French dialect. And the music to which I’m the most familiar unique to this amazing country is called “kompa.” My first exposure… (read more)
Volume 12 – #12 – December 2009
Posted by on December 30, 2009
I have an idea, but don’t tell anybody. It involves a dancing donut, and, possibly, a dancing onion ring. Sound good, so far? Imagine the possibilities. I was thinking there should be a way to have a fanciful (or is it “danciful?”) video of the dancing donut (and friend, the dancing onion ring) appear suddenly on one’s TV, like a pop-up ad on a computer, whenever bad news is about to be reported.… (read more)
Volume 12 – #11 – November 2009
Posted by on November 30, 2009
It appears Brave Combo’s new BFF, Bob Dylan, is actually out there helping spread the BC word. In a recent interview he devoted a few sentences to crediting us for his new recording of “Must Be Santa.” In the same interview he also recommended our version of “Hey Jude (the cha cha version we recorded with Tiny Tim). And, the coolest thing is this. When we first recorded “Must Be Santa”… (read more)
Volume 12 – #10 – October 2009
Posted by on October 30, 2009
JOURNEY INTO WEIRDNESS. If nothing else, being in this band called Brave Combo has given me the opportunity to experience and actually participate in some mighty unusual things. As well, this has caused unexpected things to occur. And now, as the band turns 30, it is really easy to see all of this as a journey and a pretty dramatic one, at times. When you span three decades, significant events are… (read more)
Volume 12 – #9 – September 2009
Posted by on September 30, 2009
The United States of America is falling apart. Or so it would seem if you listen to nothing but political pundits arguing constantly that one side is right and the other side is totally wrong. Of course, I voted for Obama. He wasn’t my favorite Democratic Presidential candidate. I didn’t have one. Mainly, he wasn’t Republican, and that’s really all that mattered. He’s done about as well… (read more)
Volume 12 – #8 – August 2009
Posted by on August 31, 2009
The Brave Combo 30-Year Saga Continues. In 1979, our first-year performance calendar included appearances at Benny’s, The Usual Place, Crossroads and Captain Nemo’s Beer Garden in Denton, Poor David’s Pub, The Festival Theatre and The Stoneleigh P. in Dallas, The Hip Pocket Theatre, Tootsie’s and Yesteryears in Ft. Worth and a bunch of wedding parties, festivals and mental institutions (seriously).… (read more)
Volume 12 ' #7 ' July 2009
Posted by on July 31, 2009
In April of 1979 Brave Combo attempted to play its first gig. We'd put up flyers around the NTSU (North Texas State University) campus, announcing an early evening polka music concert outside the student union building. We had already created a little buzz in the university's dance department, where Brave Combo co-founder, Tim Walsh, and I accompanied ballet and modern dance classes during the week.… (read more)
Volume 12 ' #6 ' June 2009
Posted by on June 30, 2009
Whoa! Slow down! Everythings going along, screwed up as usual, and before we know it theres no more Michael Jackson, Sky Saxon or the Polka Grammy. If you had told me a month ago that these three musical icons were about to disappear, I probably wouldnt have been surprised, but still definitely shocked. Michael Jackson was as close to an alien human as a person could possibly make himself and motivated… (read more)
Volume 12 ' #5 ' May 2009
Posted by on May 31, 2009
Brave Combo has officially existed 30 years. I dont know how to feel about that, exactly. I know Im losing touch with a certain pop music mindset, yet not caring as much as I though I would. In some ways, even if Brave Combo has been mostly under the radar commercially, weve pursued stardom via pretty conventional means; making recordings, touring, doing interviews, going after radio airplay by… (read more)