an interesting talk with walter ray brock
...who played farfisa in the nervebreakers before barry kooda was in the band. walter remembers playing "some redneck joint" in fort worth (was there any other kind back ca. '76?) when the band was still called mr. nervous breakdown and everyone agreed after five or six songs that they weren't a good fit with the venue. walter remembers that mike haskins renamed the band the nervebreakers "so people wouldn't think it was a country thing" after flipping through his record collection and spying an album by john mayall's bluesbreakers. also talked with walter about cambodian rock, dengue fever, and how the farfisa supplanted a lot of traditional asian instruments because it would stay in tune.
we were at dada to see the nervebreakers, who kicked much ass after hot opening sets by sparrow box (featuring jerry dirkx, ex-telefones, on bass alongside ex-quad pi musos) and spector 45. the big hometown crowd and better sound mix than their austin venues prolly got their blood up (plus barry had played a gig earlier that evening with the cartwrights). hope tex's interferon treatment goes well and mike can find a label to release the new albs (face up to reality, new recordings of previously unrecorded material, and why am i so flipped?, an archival compilation of previously unreleased tracks).
'twas a gas to finally meet liles in the flesh for the first time and see a bunch of folks i hadn't seen in forever. deep ellum, while not as crowded as it was the last time i was there (five years ago), seems to be reverting to the mix of art and music spaces that it was when i first set foot there 15 years ago, which would seem to make it more hospitable to the arts community that got displaced during its yrs of full-on music ghetto-dom. my sweetie shot a bunch of pics, which in the fullness of time she'll post on her photo blog.
we were at dada to see the nervebreakers, who kicked much ass after hot opening sets by sparrow box (featuring jerry dirkx, ex-telefones, on bass alongside ex-quad pi musos) and spector 45. the big hometown crowd and better sound mix than their austin venues prolly got their blood up (plus barry had played a gig earlier that evening with the cartwrights). hope tex's interferon treatment goes well and mike can find a label to release the new albs (face up to reality, new recordings of previously unrecorded material, and why am i so flipped?, an archival compilation of previously unreleased tracks).
'twas a gas to finally meet liles in the flesh for the first time and see a bunch of folks i hadn't seen in forever. deep ellum, while not as crowded as it was the last time i was there (five years ago), seems to be reverting to the mix of art and music spaces that it was when i first set foot there 15 years ago, which would seem to make it more hospitable to the arts community that got displaced during its yrs of full-on music ghetto-dom. my sweetie shot a bunch of pics, which in the fullness of time she'll post on her photo blog.
posted by stashdauber at 3:04 PM
2 Comments:
Ken, thanks for the kind words about the NB performance at Dada. A good time was had by all!
Re: who came up with the band name? Here is my recollection. When we were playing gigs in 1975, Tex (perversely) suggested that we play each show under a different name, all variations of "Nervous Breakdown." So, the first show we were "Nervous Breakdown." I had heard that Steely Dan introduced their shows as "Mr. Steely Dan." So, we used "Mr. Nervous Breakdown." Then, one night after rehearsal, Tex and I were brainstorming names. I came out with "Nervebreakers," a play on Bluesbreakers. We both immediately paused, and said "yeah." So, the name stuck. Anyway, there were only two of us there that night, and only one of us was sober, and that's the way I remember it.
So I guess my memory is based on at the next rehearsal when you told the rest of us.
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