Four years gone, Scott Walker (born Noel Scott Engel; January 9, 1943 – March 22, 2019)...
I was a moody, alienated outsider of a teen. I didn’t seem to fit in anywhere, or with any of my surroundings. So as one does, I just sort of created my own version of a world in my head. Part of my weekly ritual was going to a discount department store called Woolco & buying cut-outs. Usually records from the previous few years that hadn’t sold well & were punched with a hole through a corner of the cover & sold at a discounted price. Usually 99 cents, sometimes even 49 cents. It was there I discovered many wonders. Among those that appealed to my disaffected, melancholy disposition were albums I bought by The Kinks & The Walker Brothers.
The photo above is of Scott Walker singing “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore” with The Walker Brothers, three non-related Americans who moved to the UK in the mid-sixties & started a band with the fictionalized last name of Walker. (Sound familiar Ramones fans?)
Then one day at Woolco, I ran across a Scott Walker solo album called ALONER, with Scott from The Walker Brothers singing moody Jacques Brel ballads (“My Death”) along with a few of his own compositions like “Montague Terrace In Blue”, over some crazy over-the-top orchestral backing. You can hear them both here:
Then more Scott Walker solo LPs showed up at Woolco, SCOTT TWO & then SCOTT 3 with Scott’s surreal interpretation of “The Seventh Seal” (despite what it sez below, you can watch it here at this link: https://youtu.be/ejiWfG-vOXo):
His dark, thoughtful, alienated music fit my teen angst perfectly. I got interested in new bands & performers to follow, started dabbling in creating songs myself, & moved continually on…
Years later in 1981, I was heavily involved in getting into roots music that I hadn’t heard before, & buying every album of old rockabilly, surf, & primitive blues that I could get my hands on. One day, I bought an import album called JUKEBOX AT ERIC’S that was purportedly comprised of the songs on the jukebox at place called Eric’s Club in Liverpool.
(Read about the album here:https://www.discogs.com/release/1995828-Various-Jukebox-At-Erics-Vol-1-Rock-N-Roll). Mixed in between the primitive rockin’ R&B obscurities by the likes of Big Al Downing, Tommy Blake, & Fort Worth’s Ray Sharpe (“Monkey’s Uncle”), was a surf instrumental called “Jungle Fever” by The Playboysthat I immediately latched onto:
A couple of years after that, when I’d moved to Austin & started the band Out On Parole with Joe Dickens, we started playing “Jungle Fever” as a closer at the end of our sets. At that time I hadn’t noticed “Jungle Fever’ was written by someone named S. Engel. That is a young teenage Scott Engel & his high school surf band, The Playboys…
Four years gone, Scott Walker (born Noel Scott Engel; January 9, 1943 – March 22, 2019). You play the hand you're dealt...
Today in 1983 in Oklahoma City, we played a Friday/Saturday pair of gigs at The Bowery, a club in the basement of a building, that our manager, Curtis Hawkins had booked to get us out of Dallas.
The Oklahoma liquor laws were interesting. Liquor-by-the-drink could not be sold legally at that time in Oklahoma. So behind the bar, sat rows of liquor bottles with names taped on them, alleging that each patron had brought their own bottle with them for the bar to make them mixed drinks. Which of course was not true, but necessary, for the club to be able to create the facade of following the law. I later learned Texas had been the same way up through the 1960s, but by the time I had turned of legal age, liquor-by-the-drink had been legalized.
In Oklahoma City, we met lots of cool people. Basile & Miho Kolliopoulos, Greek brothers who had a band called The Fortune Tellers. Basile had previously lived in New York City & played with the great band, The Senders, for short period. Wayne Buckner& his then-wife Stava (who was French), let me crash overnight at their home. Much later, in 1984, I would start a band in Austin with Wayne, who became the Reverend Ottis Moon, & named our new outfit Out On Parole.
The photo on the flyer is funny. Because I was a city boy & had never owned a saddle, or ridden a horse more than a few times as a kid visiting a relative's ranch down in south Texas. But one of the girls I ran around with, Barbara LoMonaco, came from a family that was well off & owned horses & saddles. She also dabbled in photography & took the shot used on this flyer. However, I did already own the hat, by the way...
A couple of years before, my fellow Nervebreaker Mike Haskins & I, had started a rockabilly/C&W side band, & named it Tex & the Saddletramps as a joke. Thus I became "Tex" & here I was carrying my saddle...
Way back in the 1980’s, Mr. Mike Buck gave me a cassette mixtape he made called THE RUBBER ROOM, comprised of old C&W songs about murder, madness, jails etc. but mainly about murder. Nowadays it’s a whole genre of it’s own. But back then it was just tapes of weird old tunes that record collectors like Buck shared amongst friends.
I had a friend named Danny Whittington back in Austin with some recording equipment at his house & on a lark, I suggested we record some of those songs next time I was back in town visiting from my then-current home in Hollywood, California. That was how this album came about. What started out as a kind of sick joke turned into a semi-serious music project.
As it turned out, the songwriting on the most part was strong, the musicianship of the friends & friends-of-friends who were recruited was sure, & somehow my drug-sick, mumbled warbling fit right in & some minor magic was created.
Weirdo Austin artist Bob “Don’t Call Me Robert” Frye, another friend-of-a-friend was tagged with coming up with some coverart. Something along the lines of Porter Wagoner’s COLD, HARD FACTS OF LIFE (one of the songs included) & this fantastic creation of Bob’s was the lynchpin in convincing Long Gone John, indie record guy & collector of transgressive art, to release a vinyl LP of the project on his Sympathy For The Record Industry label.
Much, much later, after the century turned & I had moved back to Austin, Jeff Smith of Saustex Media, consented to re-releasing a CD version in 2007.
Which brings us to the present where I still have some of those CDs left to peddle to you here on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/155359257397
AMAZON BLURB:
'Pardon Me, I've Got Someone To Kill' is a re-issue of the classic 1989 Sympathy For The Record Industry release (also New Rose in France, 1991) by T. Tex Edwards & Out On Parole. T. Tex is a true Texas Punk pioneer dating from his work in the 70's with the Nervebreakers and his later Hollywood outfit the Loafin' Hyenas. 'Pardon Me,...' is a collection of obscure C & W 'murder' songs rendered in Edwards' singular style. Top-notch backing on the disc is provided by Austin Roots luminaries Mike Buck (Fabulous T-Birds, Leroi Bros.) on the drums, John X. Reed (Doug Sahm, Jesse Taylor, Lucky Tomblin Band) on a variety of guitars, and other lesser-known but equally talented weirdos. 14 tales about drinkin', cheatin', killin' and prison rendered in high Texan fashion for your listening enjoyment. Includes the previously unreleased 'Last Will and Testimony (of a Drinking Man)' by Tex and the Affordable Caskets.
Austin Sound the independent music source for austin
Sound Off: T. Tex Edwards and Out on Parole
By Austin Sound • Oct 26th, 2009 • Category: Featured Story, Sound Off •
Back in the late Seventies and early Eighties, T. Tex Edwards helped define the “cowpunk” sound in Texas, first with the Cramps-ian ferocity of The Nervebreakers and later with the rootsier pull of his projects that would evolve into T. Tex Edwards and Out on Parole. At times twisted and brooding, T. Tex Edwards’ brand of psycho-billy trolls the darker edges of Americana with a surly Texas swagger and irreverence that rips rockabilly and jungle-twang. Edwards is preparing a career compilation album for release early next year, as well as a new Nervebreakers record, but this Saturday, Oct. 31, you can spend Halloween with the legend and fellow local icons as T. Tex Edwards and Out on Parole desecrate the Hole in the Wall alongside the notorious Hickoids and the Gay Sportscasters featuring guitar giant Evan Johns. Also, we highly recommend following http://twitter.com/Ttexed for some incomparable history lessons!
Profile: T. Tex Edwards
Year Formed:
The original Out On Parole was back in the 1980’s, my first go-round living in Austin. I moved back here in the late 90’s & we reformed OOP when our album got re-released on CD by Saustex in 2007.
Members/Instruments played:
The current Out On Parole has: Joe Dickens, “Big Jeff” Keyton & Chad Nichols on guitars, J.J. Barrera or Pat Collins on bass, & usually Mike Buck or Karen Biller on drums, but Jonie Hell is filling in this Halloween at the Hole.
Former Bands/Side Projects:
Nervebreakers, Tex & the Saddletramps, Out On Parole, The Loafin’ Hyenas, Swingin’ Cornflake Killers, & The Affordable Caskets. /Recorded one-off singles with the Hickoids, Lithium X-mas, disGraceland, & Fireworks.
Albums:
Nervebreakers: We Want Everything (Existential Vacuum LP/Get Hip CD), Hijack the Radio! (Rave Up LP) 2010 CD release of a new Nervebreakers album, Face Up to Reality;
with Out On Parole: Pardon Me, I’ve Got Someone To Kill (Sympathy for the Record Industry LP ‘89/Saustex CD ‘07)
The Loafin’ Hyenas: The Loafin’ Hyenas (New Rose LP/CD ‘91)
with Swingin’ Cornflake Killers: Up Against the Floor (Honey CD ‘96)
upcoming CD, Intexicated!, a “best of” collection of T. Tex Edwards hits, near-misses, one-off’s, & oddities (1982-2001).
Influences:
Numerous, from all over the place.
Strangest comment or comparison ever made about your music:
The couple that met at one of my gigs years ago, both having “Psycho” as their favorite song, & then wanting me to play it at their wedding.
Favorite local bands:
Eve & the Exiles, Transgressors, Victims of Leisure, Leroi Brothers, Churchwood, Hickoids, Cold Hard Facts, Uglybeats, Jesse Sublett…
Favorite local venue:
This week, the Hole-in-the-Wall. Next month, I think we will be at Roadhouse Rags, so that will be…
Upcoming shows scheduled:
Oct. 31 - Hole
Some of your favorite albums from the past year:
The Movie Star Junkies from Italy & the Plastic Pals from Sweden.
Ideal band (past or present) to open for on a national tour:
The Only Ones.
Austin Sound questions: You were at the forefront of the Cowpunk scene back in the late 70s and 80s. Looking back, how much do feel that that scene’s emergence was in reaction to the popularity of progressive country in Texas?
Well it was sometimes called “regressive country” or “punktry & western” back then.
Do y’all have anything special planned for the Halloween show?
I guess we’re obligated to do costumes. I hear JJ’s gonna be an executioner. I haven’t come up with anything yet. And alot of our material is especially creepy as it is.
Song Introduction:
“Move It’ is one of two of my songs covered by other artists, by the Leroi Brothers on the Lucky Lucky Me LP from 1985, (the other being “If Looks Could Kill” covered by Texas Terri).
Sound Off:
We still do the “psycho-country” murder ballads, but also jungle-rhythmed 6o’s pop-psych surfed trash dark-side-of-the-hick fun stuff too…
Come see me with Out On Parole (featuring Joe Dickens, Chad Nichols, Jeff Keyton, JJ Barerra & Karen "Venus of the Traps" Biller) tonight, Friday August 21 at The Carousel Lounge In Austin! Cold Hard Facts of Life open at 9pm...
"...there's this crazy person who frequents antones record store(nick-named "Stinky" by the staff)...he showed up at our gig last night,shirt unbottoned with an underwear band around his waist (no underwear attached)stood & danced at the front door for a few minutes all during"Rubber Room"..."
(From Mike Buck of Antone's Record Shop & Out On Parole drummer)
our people
there is this crazy person who frequents antones record store(nick-named "Stinky" by the staff)he is forty-ish,portly and bald with a wild fringe of hair.he comes in the store,sometimes with his dirty drawers on his head, and wanders around-occasionally giving forth a peale of maniacal laughter. anyway he showed up at our gig last night,shirt unbottoned with an underwear band around his waist (no underwear attached),stood and danced at the front door for a few minutes all during"Rubber Room"
"...Out On Parole (featuring T. Tex Edwards, Mike Buck, Joe Dickens, Pat Collins, "Big Jeff" Keyton & Chad Nichols) at 9:30pm... then later The Transgressors..."
http://www.myspace.com/ttexoutonparole
Lovejoy’s Brewpub 604 Neches St Austin 78701
Out On Parole (featuring T. Tex Edwards, Mike Buck, Joe Dickens, Pat Collins, "Big Jeff" Keyton & Chad Nichols) at 9:30pm... then later The Transgressors...
OUT ON PAROLE with T Tex Edwards & The VICTIMS of LEISURE at Roadhouse Rags - Sunday May 31
(Artwork by Charles Hancock) The Nortons canceled... Billysteve Korpi's great band The VICTIMS of LEISURE take the stage at 7pm, followed by OUT ON PAROLE with T Tex Edwards, Joe Dickens, Mike Buck, Pat Collins & "Big Jeff" Keyton!!! (Unfortunately Chad Nichols won't be able to make this gig, but he'll be back soon)...
Sunday * May 31, 2009 * 7-10pm Roadhouse Rags * 1600 Fortview * South Austin
Roadhouse Rags is located at 1600 Fortview, one block West of Bannister and one block East of Manchaca, on the North bound feeder road of Ben White/290w/71w in lovely South Austin. The store is owned by Kelli Archer and Clay Connell and specializes in Men’s Vintage Western Shirts, Cowboy Boots, vintage purses and jewelry, vintage sleepwear, 1940’s-1960’s California pottery, and an exquisite collection of Women’s Party Wear. Roadhouse Rags aims to bring back the tradition of personal attention, it will provide a one-stop shopping experience as well as provide a social atmosphere. The store will be open for business where clients can peruse the racks while a variety of events musical and otherwise will be happening on the stage in the back yard. ALL SHOWS ARE BYOB! Performance Cover Charge is $5. Kids are welcome and are admitted free.
I am including this not only just to show off, but to share Miss Laura's hilarious descriptions of aging punkers at the Nervebreakers' Club Dada show & her very astute observations on what makes old-school punk rock different from what followed it...
RADIO SILENCE lauralately’s music blog
I’m on a Tex Edwards kick!
I’m going through a new phase. My current obsession is country/punk legend T. Tex Edwards, a fixture of the Dallas music scene for over 30 years.
This phase began courtesy of Mark, my better half, who was a regular at Dallas punk club DJ’s in the ’80s. He got to see a lot of cool stuff happen, including the rise of the legendary Nervebreakers, for whom Tex was the singer. During their heyday, the Nervebreakers played with every great punk act that came through town, including the Sex Pistols (the ’Breakers were the opening act at the legendary Longhorn Ballroom show), and the Clash. After their demise, Tex went on to play with many other bands, including Out on Parole, the Swingin’ Cornflake Killers (get it? cereal killers!) and his most recent act, which has one of the greatest band names ever: the Affordable Caskets.
Mark took me to a show by Tex and the Swingin’ Cornflake Killers at the Barley House a few weeks ago, and I had a fantastic time. At the end of the show, Tex gave me a CD copy of an album he’d recorded in the mid-’80s with Out on Parole - it’s called “Pardon Me, I’ve Got Someone To Kill”. I popped it in the next night, and loved every minute of this album of country-western cover songs about killing people. As a teenager, I was a fan of Nick Cave’s gloomy “Murder Ballads”, and “Pardon Me” is “Murder Ballads” recorded ten years prior and with tongue firmly in cheek. Tex invited us to the reunited Nervebreakers at Club Dada on the 11th; I had prior commitments, which I bailed on early to see the ‘Breakers perform.
The Nervebreakers’ music is fun, snotty punk rock, but this is punk like it was before speed metal accelerated the collective angry-music tempo and punk turned into the NOFX/crust stuff that was the soundtrack to my adolescence. The Nervebreakers’ sound is a relic of the age that spawned the Ramones, and its ties to rock and roll are more evident than any similarities to modern punk.
The show itself was everything I expected, nothing more, nothing less. This is a show by a bunch of guys in their fifties, played to an audience of the same; if these graying guys had tried to thrash around and spit on people, it would’ve looked ridiculous, and they wisely abstained from such antics. This is not the concert to attend if one wishes to see a cranked-up screamfest, and with that in mind, the Nervebreakers put on an enjoyable show. While they were doing a final pre-show soundcheck, Tex stood onstage, looking greasy and disheveled and motionlessly staring at his feet; at first I thought there was something wrong, but I soon realized it was part of an act. Tex really made the show as great as it was: his near-catatonic, glassy-eyed performance was just unsettling enough to serve as an effective vehicle for the “fuck-off” message of the music, and it was the perfect way for a gray-haired, pot-bellied guy to come across as snotty and rebellious.
The other aspect that made this show as fun as it was, was the audience itself. Have you ever seen old people slam dance? If you ever get a chance, do so. Watching white-haired dudes in the front row pogo-ing during the aptly titled “Pogo” was absolutely priceless. I ran into a friend who was there with her mother; her mom was gettin’ drunk and dancing with guys while her daughter stood there with her arms crossed, looking slightly mortified. These old folk can really show the kids how to party, although the moshing usually came in ten-second increments - too much thrash dancing and one might break a hip, no?
All age-related joking aside, I had an absolute blast. The atmosphere at the show was one of gleeful nostalgia, and I totally got swept up in it - I began wishing I’d been born 25 years earlier so I could’ve seen this music at its zenith. The Nervebreakers will probably play more shows, and I’ve heard album rumors - they’re releasing some stuff they wrote back in the seventies but never recorded until now, which should be interesting.
To conclude this post, here is a gift for you: Tex Edwards & the Swingin’ Cornflake Killers, recorded in the early ’90s performing the Wynn Stewart classic “I’m A-Gonna Kill You”. This video embodies everything I love about Tex - he’s totally nuts, in the most rock ‘n’ roll kind of way.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS...
I also re-posted this with The Nervebreakers Yahoo Group at: http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/nervebreakers/
Some of our members there had some interesting comments I hope they don’t mind me sharing…
“Lostribe”: I liked her objective observation about this punk vs. what people are now used to thinking of as punk. Much the same way as I viewed early Parliament/Funkadelic as being an exciting new road for black music, only then to see that only one element of it, the pounding bass, was singled out and expanded upon to become a monotonous fixture and focus for the next 20 years, discarding the facets that made the music interesting and creative, similarly, I view the homogenization of early punk into fast monotonous assembly-line drivel in the ’80s (after the creative first wave was long over) and that now being what some consider the standard as a sad fact of consumer taste.
“Strangerer”: I went back and reread it and you are right, she does well both in placing the idea of punk music in placing the music of the nervebreakers into context. maybe J Liles should worry that she will take his job. (Just a joke in reference to her next blog entry after the Tex one.)
“Lostribe”: I get kind of weary of the punk subject, because almost everyone referencing punk is talking about the copycats that came after the real wave of punk was past, and I guess it’s just a personal preference, but I just didn’t like hardly any of that.
On another subject, Saturday’s Nervebreaker performance reminded me how very good they are at the little punches and breaks. I mean, it’s not the easiest thing to take an already powerful punchy collection of songs and still manage to bring something special to each one to make it really pop during the song, and the audience loves it when that happens. That’s something that is just nonexistent in the frenetic speedpunk that has come to reappropriate the genre.
Welcome to the Vernal Equinox, the first day of Spring. On this day, a person standing on the equator can see the sun directly pass overhead. And at the North Pole, the sun skims the horizon, signaling the start of six months of non-stop daylight. If you will be attending the Owl Tree party today, bring a folding chair with ya.
Yes, at 1pm I'll be singing those great Country & Western murder songs with OUT ON PAROLE (featuring Joe Dickens, Mike Buck, "Big Jeff" Keyton, Pat Collins & Chad Nichols)... And then returning to the stage at 5pm with the resurrection of The NERVEBREAKERS!!!
The Owl Tree Roasting FriDay Party Music, BBQ, Beer, Coffee, Art, Scmoozing...
Friday, March 20, 2009 Time: 12:00pm - 7:00pm Location: Owl Tree Coffee Roasting 3421 North Interstate 35, Austin 78722
Free/No SXSW Wristbands Lineup: Gina Lee and her Brisket Boys 12PM, T.Tex Edwards & Out On Parole 1PM, Churchwood 2PM, Ariel Abshire 3PM, The Transgressors 4PM, The Nervebreakers 5PM. *True-Life Psychodramas & Art throughout the day by The Amazing Hancock Brothers*
