Monday, June 25, 2012

The Amazing Thom Tex Edwards


The Amazing Thom Tex Edwards


Interview

By: Rebecca G. Wilson

I first became aware of Thom Tex Edwards in the early 1990s when I saw a flyer for one of his bands, the Swingin' Cornflake Killers, on one of my roommates' walls. I loved the flyer's archetypal images of Vampirella, a curvy blonde cowgirl and other femme fatales that had been crudely collaged into the xeroxed imagery by a zine artist named Grottu. The slipshod layout had a ransom note feel that seemed to say who cares if it's not perfect, it's got hot girls all over it! Years later I saw another cool flyer of a blonde woman on horseback, again for one of T. Tex Edwards' bands. Still having never heard them in those pre-youtube days, I asked a Los Angeles goth punk friend named Pixie, who is this Tex band? There are TWO Tex bands in L.A. she told me, Tex and the Horseheads and Tex and the Saddletramps. Okay, I thought. Who's better? I asked. They're both great, she replied.

The next time I was to come across Tex's name was about twenty years later online. I found out that Tex hailed from Texas and after listening to his different recordings online I became a fan of his music. I especially loved his serious yet tongue-in-cheek covers of obscure country murder songs and 60s garage songs. I also continued to admire his choices in flyer and album cover art. I asked an artist friend of mine, the Pizz, if he knew who had done the cover art of one of Tex's Out on Parole records and Pizz wrote to me,"I can tell you the story: The band came to Long Gone John of Sympathy Records with a request to put out their record. Long Gone threw a seemingly impossible task before them: If they came up with some amazing cover art, they'd have a deal...and so they did, and he put it out. Yes, I have that on 12 inch. It's the best cover ever..." The artist Tex had gotten to do the cover art is named Bob Frye, and the cartoonish painting of an angry guy coming home finding a barracho and his topless, old lady whooping it up is a cowpunk classic. Another of my favorite Tex Edwards poster designs is a maniacal, woodcut style portrait of Tex by the Hancock brothers.

After being blown away by reading of Tex's long history in the southwest punk scene along with the myriad articles and music links he posts on twitter and facebook (his own material along with obscure blues, rockabilly and art) I asked him if he would do an interview.

RGW - You seem to have an incredibly wide range of musical tastes. This is reflected in the music you have produced in different projects, ranging from your late 70s punk band the Nervebreakers to punk/rockabilly projects such as Tex Edwards and Out on Parole. What are some of your favorite genres of music, blues, punk or what?

TEX - I like elements of most genres of music... There are certain songs or melodies that move me in most genres & styles... Even in hip-hop or opera, there's a few... Although those two are probably my least favorite because of the predominance of the human voice... The human voice can be a wonderful, expressive instrument at times... But also be a grating, unpleasant one too... To complicate things even more, there's some grating voices pleasing to the individual ear of one person but maybe not to others... Captain Beefheart, John Lydon, David Bowie & Jello Biafra come to mind...

RGW - You have played in so many bands. What are the names of the bands you have played with (in chronological order) and who do you play with now?

TEX - Starting in 1973 with: Diamonds Forever, The Idiots, Mr. Nervous Breakdown, The Nervebreakers, Tex & the Saddletramps, The Jungle Heirs, The Texicans, Out On Parole, FTM, The Vagabond Loafers, The Loafin' Hyenas, The Swingin' Cornflake Killers, The Toe Tags, The Affordable Caskets, & The Texwardians. But I've also recorded singles in conjunction with other several other established bands: The Hickoids, Lithium Xmas, Fireworks and Graceland...

Currently playing with Out On Parole, and also The Texwardians, which is a stripped-down version of Out On Parole with an added acoustic guitar in place of drums, for quieter gigs and playing in smaller rooms. And the occasional Nervebreakers re-union shows too...

RGW - Your voice sounds different in the Nervebreakers than it does in your punk country band songs. Have you tried to change up your singing tones on purpose or was this just natural?

TEX - Mainly because I was much younger then (over 30 years ago?)... Over the years I've had to learn how to sing better, more natural & less strained... Also, I've embraced more styles & experimentation & variety... The natural progression is to try different things & see what works for me...

RGW - So did you really attend some true blue rockabilly shows back in the day? What year did you first start going to concerts in?

TEX - The first concert I ever attended was when I was 14 or so (1968?)... The Jeff Beck Group (with a young Rod Stewart on vocals) at an auditorium over on the SMU campus... It was loud as hell & that was my first introduction as to how an electric guitar could be the center-of-attention & a show & artistic expression all on it's own... Plus there was the element of tawdriness & anything-could-happen when Stewart strutted around in tight pants with an unzipped fly all evening... As far as the real Rockabilly-era goes, I was too young to experience that in person... My older brother, Dan, was nine years older than me & a musician... So I caught wind of all that through him... As a little kid, I would listen to his Elvis, Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochran & Jimmy Reed records... Then, as a teen, sometimes my Dad would take me down to the club to see my brother perform in Gene Summers' band... Gene was long past his days of hit records, but he would pull out a few of his old hits every now & then... Then in 1980, I first saw Link Wray, when he played in Fort Worth with Robert Gordon, & that was an ear-opener...

RGW - What was it like opening for the Sex Pistols? Did you meet Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious? What were they like?

TEX - Actually, opening for The Ramones on their first trip to Texas, the year before (in '77), was more of a big deal locally... In meeting like-minded folks from all over the North Texas region & creating a local scene... The Pistols show was more of a media event... That was the first time we were ever on TV... Albeit only for 45 seconds on the 10 o'clock news that night... I was really ill with the flu & lucky to be there at all & barely remember that night... I seem to remember one of my bandmates catching the Pistols' roadie walking out the back door with our guitars... "Whoops, wrong guitars, mate, sorry"... Uh-huh, right...

RGW - What was it like to play punk rock shows in late 70s Texas? Did Texas punk rockers ever get hassled or beaten up by narrowminded folks? People forget that back then there was no Mtv and you guys must have looked like Martians to some Texans, no?

TEX - Oh yeah... Texas has a long tradition of hassling the non-conformists... Back in the 1960's, the San Antonio police told Sir Doug Sahm: "get outta town & don't come back..." And he didn't come back, for a long, long time after that, until years later when times had changed... That was in a big city, but in the smaller towns, it was even worse... Thus in the late '70s you had the Vomit Pigs gettin' the hell out of Daingerfield & moving to Dallas & Biscuit (Big Boys) leaving East Texas & moving to Austin... Back then, the punks didn't wear uniforms like skinheads & mall-punks later did... They created their own look with what was at hand... And the late 70's punks were diverse... It was a rag-tag collection of misfits & outcasts who came together because no one else would have them... Glam-rock remnants, fatties, druggies, record-store clerks, gays, artists, art-rock remnants & troubled loners...

RGW - What are some of the best live shows you've ever seen?

TEX - The best one would have to be The Cramps in 1982 in Dallas. It was the wildest, most intense, chaotic (in a good way) show I've ever experienced. Lux was jumping on tables, breaking bottles, and letting it all hang out that night. It was scary and mesmerizing...

RGW - One of my favorite songs by you is "LSD Made a Wreck Out of Me." I love how you mixed up a psychedelic garage sound with a country feel in that number. Is that a cover or did you write it?

TEX - Oh, it's a cover originally done by Wendell Austin & The Country Swings on Wreck Records, you can hear the original on You Tube [http://youtu.be/CGufQ_TxB88]. Mike Buck dug up all those old songs we recorded for that Pardon Me... album. He still drums with Out On Parole when he can fit it into his busy schedule. He's also part of Antone's Record Shop, which is a great, great record store here in Austin.

RGW - Did LSD Make a Wreck Out of You?

TEX - Ha, ha, ha! No, not really. But I did partake of some back in the days of my youth. But I didn't go overboard on it, like I did later on, with booze and some other substances. I used to think I had to be fucked up to play music, and just to face life. But you know what? Everything is alot more fun and rewarding when you're not. It took me a long, long time to figure that one out.

RGW - What is new with your bands? Do you have any new releases out now or planned?

TEX - First, there's a soon to be released (by Saustex) anthology, entitled Intexicated!, consisting of post-Nervebreakers material from a bunch of those bands I just listed. Various one-off projects, songs from out of print singles, some previously unreleased material, and some tracks from obscure foreign releases; all dating from roughly 1982 through 2000...

Then, Out On Parole is preparing to enter the studio next month, and record an album of new material we have been working up over the last couple of years. I'm really looking forward to that...

RGW - Along with putting out numerous great albums over the years you are a prolific blogger. Would you like to tell us the names of some of your blogs and what they cover?

TEX - I don't know if I'd call them all blogs, but I do post links to, and re-blogs of things I find interesting on a bunch of Twitter and Tumblr pages. Yumsville is gardening, food and travel; Outtathecave is sports; Litteratured is writing and books; ttexmusic and nerve_breakers on Twitter and country hix's, best-frozen-treats, britrockaholic, and dirtylowdown on Tumblr are all music related. Then there's my personal pages for miscellaneous at ttexed on Twitter and wewantnothing on Tumblr. Confused yet? My actual blog is t.tex's hexes on Blogspot. They all keep me busy and out of major mischief...

http://www.saustexmedia.com/2012-RELEASES.html