This is one of my favorite “young adult” books. This book can easily be judged by it’s cover. The two fellows on the cover bear an uncanny resemblance to myself and Reed Posey when we were 22 or so. The story is also a lot like the story of mine and Reed’s life together.
Cavedweller has only done a handful of shows in the Fort Worth area. There hasn’t been much going on there since the grunge-era clubs closed. The Ridglea Theater is still open I think but I never played there.
Club Nowhere was open for a split-second before having to close it’s doors forever. It was run by one of the owners or co-owners of the famed Madhatters all-ages club that ushered in the likes of Baboon, Brutal Juice, The Toadies, Bedhead, Tripping Daisy, Funland, et al.
I remember this show very well. It was booked by my long-time buddy Chris Shockley and his band at the time Mourn. Mourn was a kind of Tool-esque post-metal band with what seemed like a dozen members. Having many many people in your band often translates to a large turn-out at shows. Their music had absolutely nothing in common with Cavedweller but since everything seemed to be a huge joke to me at the time I didn’t think twice about driving out of town to do a show where the crowd was most likely to not only ignore me but probably shout obscenities and “get off the stage” while I strummed my classical guitar singing songs about sailors. Surprisingly, when it was time for me to play(solo), everyone sat down on the floor and listened intently, and the few people there who were fans made requests for “Too Much Acid”. They sure like their acid in Fort Worth.
Too Much Acid
I made this half-assed flyer obviously from stencils in about 5 minutes. Most flyers at the time weren’t made so much to get people to come to shows as they were just subtle methods of exposure. If one person came to a show because they saw a flyer it was considered a miracle. This was still a poor excuse for a flyer. The club didn’t even have the correct name on it which made things that much less likely anybody would make the drive. I also included my friend Josh’s first business card which gives the impression that Toni and Guy may have something to do with the show, further sabotaging potential club draw. In essence this flyer is an anti-flyer.
Yet another example of lazy flyer-making. There’s almost a sense of resentment about this flyer. I opted out of including directions since Arlington is virtually unnavigable to any non-residents.
Zombies was a club that lasted for a millisecond in the theme-park-strip-club mecca that is Arlington, Texas. My previously mentioned buddy Chris also booked this show for me. He was a good friend to take such a risk booking Cavedweller at these kinds of places. This particular club was exceptionally strange. The stage was in a separate room which was practically as big as the stage. Also the stage was about 5 feet high. I seem to remember playing very well even though nobody was there but the 4 or 5 people who came with me. The band that played after Cavedweller was a true bar-band who had a catchy song about St. Paulie Girl that none of us could seem to shake even years after the show. This was the only time I played in Arlington.
The Brakeman
“The Brakeman” is a song that Cavedweller frequently played live for a few years. This version is a demo I recorded with the Tascam Porta II in the garage at Blythewood during the winter of 2005. It didn’t make the cut for the “Gloria” album because it was a bit too rock-n-rollish and very JAMC-derivative but it sounded great played with the full band. After a while more of our live songs began to sound like this. Unfortunately we never recorded a version with the whole band. I have a version I recorded with T.W. Bond at Bundyhill Studios for a compilation but I never heard the final mix and I assume the compilation never got released.
The lyrics in this song are along the lines of how I imagine things would be if it was 103 degrees outside all the time and football season was year-round.
Canal Song W/Photo
Canal Song is from the 2000 CD “Schoolboys Charm”. The title of the CD is taken from an American Analog Set song of the same name. The title to me now seems rather Twee. I’m not even sure what it was meant to imply besides the fact that I listened to American Analog Set. Possibly the result of being in college too long.
I took a series of photographs of my studio on Locust St. in Denton with a Polaroid camera. There are several bands I had seen do this, including Steely Dan and Love Child.
Schoolboys Charm was the first album I recorded on 4-track. I had been resistant simply because that is the way I am. Also I felt like my dual tape deck live-dubbing situation sounded less muddy regardless of it’s tracking limitations. I had Chef digitally transfer all the tapes to Wavs and the technology back then was lacking so the result was quite hissy.
Canal Song W/Photo is one of my many Syd Barrett derivatives. Obtuse lyrics involving a loose narrative about nothing in particular attempting to evoke some sort of ethereal what-not. The Radio Shack reverb unit I frequently used made everything have more of a karaoke delay than an actual reverberation. I liked it because I knew very few people used it and after a while it became recognizable as a style. Canal song is one of the better songs on the CD which seems now to me to be heavily affected with British folk-rock tropes.