Joel Stein
"I write about people being aware of themselves and being responsible for their actions," says Baker junior Joel Stein, whose talent has prompted the Public News to refer to Paul Simon and Bob Dylan as "the next Joel Stein."
Stein was always interested in music, though he views the first time he saw A Hard Day's Night as a turning point in his youth. Now majoring in music composition at the Shepherd School, Stein was writing songs prolifically by the age of 15.
Stein considers the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and David Rice as influences. "Most of my lyrics are somewhat intellectual," explains Stein, who enjoys creating odd situations between people. "But most situations between people are odd, so it works."
Stein also admits that "a rather disturbing amount" of his material is based on real experiences, pointing to a song called "Change," which he says is "completely true."
With around 135 songs to his credit (only 75 of which are "recordable"), Stein is looking for major backing. He has recorded an album, Dipped In Honey, which was produced entirely on his own. The tape was sent to several record companies and Stein is putting things on hold until he hears from them.
-- M.H.
Dyn@mutt
One of the longer-lived Rice bands of late, Dyn@mutt has been together since the spring of 1992. Originally, bassist Chad Shaw, a junior at Will Rice, played guitar with Güt Logic, while Dave Deggeller, also from Will Rice, played acoustically at the Coffeehouse and in a cajun band called Biff and the Backwater Boys.
When Güt Logic fell apart, Shaw and Deggeller teamed up and decided to form a band, adding drummer and Will Rice junior Doug "Thor" Dillaman to the group.
Since their formation, these guys have played clubs all around Houston, opening for some major "indie" bands like Silkworm and Pitchblende. They even toured Texas and other parts of the Southwest this summer.
They have two albums out on tape, fetch and the latest, ...Like a Hamster Wheel. Both albums are completely self-produced (the Dyno-boys are big on the whole punk ethic). They plan to record and release a full-length CD sometime this fall.
Dyn@mutt's "sound" is very difficult to describe, mostly because it's based on musical references unfamiliar to most people. Instead of Led Zeppelin and the Beatles, Dyn@mutt cites bands like Superchunk and Barkmarket as influences.
The music is fast-paced, discordant rock, with lots of strange little time changes and obscure melodies. Drummer Dillaman jokingly refers to the band as "scientist rock," a term coined by the Minutemen.
It's interesting music, although not very accessible. These three guys play what they like, how they like it, and not for any kind of real profit. According to Dillaman, "This is more fun than anything else I've done in my life...and I know Dave feels the same way." Just sit back and enjoy the weirdness, which touches down at Catal Hüyük on Oct. 14.
-- J.H.
Love's Fresh Produce
"I think we basically got started just making noise and irritating people, then somebody decided we were a band, and then Brett showed up," says bassist Bill Tanner, a senior at Will Rice. He and guitarist/singer Stu Smith, a Will Rice junior; guitarist/singer Brett Peters, a Will Rice sophomore; and drummer Jason Carreira, another Will Rice junior and member of Buddha on the Moon, make up the band known as Love's Fresh Produce.
Produce only played a few times last year, but this year they plan to take off. Right now they've only got one groupie, but they're hoping that'll change.
The band plays all kinds of music, The "Produce sound" is extremely varied, ranging from Sebadoh covers to "Funkytown," and even an acoustic ballad or two. "Sounds good through two doors," according to one impartial observer.
-- J.H.
Buddha on the Moon
When the members of famed band Güt Logic went their separate ways, former member H.K. Kahng (Will Rice '92) picked up an acoustic guitar, recruited a drummer, and taught J.J. Heldman (Wiess '93) to play bass. The trio became Buddha on the Moon. The name was reportedly ripped from a '50s sci-fi flick.
In April of 1993, Will Rice sophomore Tracy Jo Barnwell joined on guitar, and that lineup of the band has played around Houston. This summer, the band traveled to Atlanta to do some recording, then came back to play some more gigs in town. Buddha is currently working with a new drummer, Jason Carreira, a junior at Will Rice.
Their music is probably best described as "dream pop": swirling, ethereal music, not very harsh or discordant, but not easy-listening, either. It's got a very heartfelt, pained feel to it. "Barefoot shoegazers," says Kahng.
Besides their club appearances, Buddha is also becoming known through their recordings. They appeared with fellow Rice bands Dyn@mutt, Lozenge and Tit on the Farrago Records seven-inch Alles ist Gut!, and are also going to try to release a full album by the end of the year. They'll be playing Catal Hüyük with Dyn@mutt and Lozenge on Oct. 14.
-- J.H.
Lozenge
In the beginning, there was Güt Logic. They made lots of noise, injured themselves, and tried to be a Goth parody, but it didn't work. "It got stupid," says Kyle Bruckmann (WRC '92), former singer and percussionist for Güt Logic.
Bruckmann himself decided to move on to something in the same vein as his old band, but with absolutely no pretense at seriousness.
He made a pilgrimage to Austin, bought an accordion, and managed to install a mike in it, so he could plug it into an amplifier. Then he found Kurt Johnson, a grad student at Rice who could make "great terrifying dying elephant noises" with his fretless bass, and an enthusiastic "metal percussionist" in Philip Montoro, a senior at Brown. Since then only one other member has been recruited, drummer/percussionist Mark Stevens, a Jones junior.
Bruckmann describes their band as "the musical equivalent of Tourette's Syndrome," but Montoro is more surreal in his description: "Iron Man, during his awkward phase, maybe 13 or 14, attempting to pogo in a small room filled with elephant seals, wolverines, and discarded washers and dryers." Right.
Despite their notoriety, Lozenge has only played one or two real shows. The band is currently sucking up to Project A-Bomb Records in hopes of maybe being offered the opportunity to release an album. Lozenge destroys Catal Hüyük on the 14th of October with Buddha on the Moon and Dyn@mutt.
-- J.H.
Tit
"Concept is better than talent. We're a conceptual band," says Eveline Chang, a Jones senior, when asked to describe Tit-2.
Anyway, Tit ("2," since they're the second generation of the band) is very difficult to describe. Their single "You Make Me Wanna Douche" is basically heavy bass and guitar mutilation as a backdrop for high-pitched shrieking and mad feminist ranting.
The original Tit began a couple of years ago, but since then they've gone through several graduating members and new arrivals.
Now "Tit-2" (which may change its name to either "Tits" or "Boobies," instead) consists of Chang, Brown senior Michele Pulich, '93 graduates Courtney Kelley and J.J. Heldmann, and new recruits Tracy Jo Barnwell (a Will Rice sophomore, also in Buddha on the Moon), on guitar and Julie Capehart on drums.
When the band plays together, Chang says, there's not much real structure. She emphasizes the improvisational nature of the band. "We don't really practice, we just kind of play." She notes that while the band is a parody of what she calls "chick rock," they are not denegrating the "riot grrl" phenomenon.
-- J.H.
Bee Stung Lips
Modeling his sound on that of Twang Twang Shock-A-Boom, Baker senior Eric Garland found bass player Mike Trafton (Lovett '92) while advising at Lovett. Trafton in turn found drummer Howard Park (Baker '93), formerly of Ronnie Po and the Co. After losing their original singer, the three were practicing when Mike's roommate and Lovett senior Lance Schupbach just started humming along with the songs, eventually rounding out the band.
Bee Stung Lips stand out from other bands at Rice for several reasons. The group goes for a very clean sound, with Garland's exclusive preference for acoustic guitar a key factor. The music of the band is pop, which isn't necessarily to say "popular."
Although Bee Stung Lips is playing about half cover tunes, Garland points out that they are a writing band, not just a performing one. "We write girl songs, we write love songs, we write songs about sleeping late, what we ate," Garland explained. "We are apolitical. Politics of a relationship are complicated enough." The band is currently working on developing enough original material to record an album during Christmas break.
-- M.H.
The Lozenges
Nope, they're no relation at all to Lozenge -- they just somehow came up with the same name, independently. The Lozenges are "a fun little group," just two guys, Will Rice senior Brett Peters and John-Paul Yabraian, who like to goof around and write songs about their friends. They started writing songs off the tops of their heads sometime last year while studyin calculus at 2 am.
Yabraian, who sings and plays kazoo for the duo, describes the band as "like a big slab of bacon. We get sort of greasy if you cook us too long, and we're full of nitrates," while Peters calls the Lozenges "two guys, a guitar, a kazoo, a bottle of prescription drugs...and a little Palmolive." Their completely self-released debut album, Hop in, Mamud, consists of songs all entitled "It's [insert name here]," each one about a friend of theirs. The songs tend not to be very serious or "deep," but they're fun to listen to.
In terms of playing experience, the Lozenges haven't had much. "Brett says we've done arena tours, but I don't remember them," says Yabraian.
The duo's future plans are to write some more songs, mostly because they've already found a title and cover art for their next album, and John-Paul says their "eventual goal" is to write a song about every person at Rice.
-- J.H.
(The Rice Thresher, Volume ??? No. ???, October 1, 1993)