|
This is a story about some kids from Arlington, Texas who moved to Austin, Texas to go to college. They formed a band. Kind of.
I guess Talby started like most bands start. In a bathroom around one in the morning. With two drunken idiots. And a guitar. And a harmonica. A cardboard box, a couple of spoons. A jambox, and a cassette. Andy and Michael recorded about 13 improvised tunes that night but had no intention of really starting a "band." Or did they? In any case, the two were quite bored. And quite drunk. So recording songs in a bathroom seemed liked the natural thing to do. And, in fact, the improvised pop gems seemed to put a smile on the faces of their friends. Andy and Michael decided to call themselves The Bugs and continued to record their extemporaneous little numbers over the next few weeks. After a while they invited their friends, Charlie and Andrew, to record with them. The two provided a euphonious rhythm section, and the four came to be known as The Bugshuffs.
That was during the fall of 1995. It was good. Tapes were made that compiled the best of the improvisational sing-a-longs and given to friends. Soon everyone was talking about racoons and cocaine. Going back to school and the shores of North Hampton. The bear in the woods and corn on the side. Andy, Michael, and Charlie continued to record through the spring of 1996, and, in the summer of that same year, attempted to record their songs on Charlie's 4-track. Unfortunately, the group just wasn't ready for that kind of structure.
In the fall of 1996, Andy and Michael moved in with their friend, Brent, who was invited by his new roommates to participate in their drunken recordings. This version of the group was called Talby. The Medicine Kids loved Talby. So did Lorianne, Katherine, and Andy's cat, Cowgirl. I guess it was around this time that Andy, Michael, Charlie, and Brent decided to form a real band out of the Bugshuffs/Talby project. They traded in their drunken, improvised, jambox-recorded songs for rehearsals and a 4-track. But guess what? It didn't quite last. Andy moved to Denton, Texas, and Michael hurt his foot real bad. What ended up happening was that Michael, Charlie, and Brent pursued the "real band" thing during the spring of 1997 under the moniker It's Not Rocket Science. Because it wasn't. Charlie invited his friend, Xander, to play along, and the quartet fine-tuned about fourteen or so rock songs. At this point, Xander was not included in the Talby/Bugshuffs collective. But he sure as hell added some splendid guitar work to It's Not Rocket Science.
During the Summer of 1997 not much happened. In the fall of 1997 Michael moved in with Brent, and It's Not Rocket Science started playing out. In the spring of 1998 they played out some more and even had a song on a CD compilation. But it was Talby that somehow persevered. During the fall of 1997 and the spring of 1998 Andy made occasional visits to Austin and helped to keep the spirit of Talby alive by forcing Michael and Brent to record with him. In the summer of 1998 Andy invited Xander to partake in a Talby session. Xander had moved in just a few doors down from Michael and Brent, so Andy's invitation posed no real inconvenience. The recordings that ensued proved to be Talby's shimmeriest recordings to date due to Michael's recent acquisition of an old organ and a delay pedal.
Sometime during the summer of 1998 It's Not Rocket Science broke up. Charlie blames Michael. Michael blames the Gulf War Syndrome. Xander and Brent didn't know about the break up until three or four months after it had actually happened. Oops! Sorry guys.
In the fall of 1998 Michael, Charlie, and Andrew moved in together. But that didn't exactly inspire any Bugshuff or Talby recordings. It wasn't until the spring of 1999, when Andy resumed making his Denton to Austin visits, that the drunken, improvised recordings of the Talby/Bugshuffs collective caught a second wind. Actually, it was a little bit earlier than that. In January of 1999 Michael was lost somewhere in America, and Andy and Charlie made some spontaneous recordings of their own. They dubbed themselves Quetalby. Sometimes aided by their friends, Olivia and Amy, they provided an experimental twist to past recordings by using backwards effects, delay, jarring percussion, and lotsa yelling. But there were pop songs too, of course. When Michael was found somewhere in America and heard the Quetalby recordings, he was inspired to bring Talby and The Bugshuffs back to life. Andy had never lost inspiration.
The recordings that took place during the spring, summer, and fall of 1999 were sort of different from earlier recordings. First of all, Andrew began participating in the fun again after a three year hiatus. What could he have been doing all that time? Second of all, many recordings were done live to Charlie's 4-track instead of a jambox. Third of all, many new instruments were added. Like what? Like a moog, a banjo, a tipel, a drum from an Iban headhunter tribe, a classical guitar, and a fretless bass. Fourth of all, a fuller sound was achieved by playing multiple instruments at once. Charlie became quite good at playing the drums and the bass at the same time. Or the moog and the drums at the same time. Michael enjoyed playing the organ and the guitar simultaneously. At this point, Andy, Michael, Charlie, and Andrew were recording without any real sense of who they were. Were they The Bugshuffs again? Were they Talby? They were Talby and the Bugshuffs. Naturally. At least that was the title of the cdr that they put together for their friends. 60 copies of the cdr were made replete with cover art and a 22 page booklet. It was released as Mio Records 01 towards the end of 1999. Despite the superflously arduous effort that accompanied the making of the CDR, Andy, Michael, and Charlie decided, yet again, to try to make Talby and the Bugshuffs into a real band. For any information regarding the outcome of that decision, go here.
By the way, in case you were wondering... Andrew still lives with Charlie and Michael but is only a sometime member of Talby. Xander's been in Germany since August of 1999 and won't return until May of 2000. When he comes back, he's welcome to resume recording with Talby. Brent is pursuing extra-Talby endeavors and is an ex-Talby member. Unless the group hears from him otherwise.
|
