| Even by border standards the Hole is a wretched, dirty place. I swear I can smell blood. For THICK, the Hole carries a certain nostalgia, most notably for their almost legendary New Years Eve performance back in �99/�00. Incidentally, a bootleg recording of the Hole performance was my introduction to this band that has effortlessly morphed like West Texas seasons over the last ten years? twelve years? As with any details regarding this group, THICK�s true age is hard to nail down, especially when your only sources of information are the members themselves. �We have a combined seventy-two years experience,� Mick (bass) says nearly every time the question is raised. A typical response from this band who has admittedly stunted their own popularity by not bowing to the usual trends by playing country, pseudo-gospel and ambient noise alongside their ripping stoner rock originals; by almost refusing to play venues suited to their style of music; by incessantly hiding behind the shadowy specter of a character named Floppy Blackburn; lastly, pissing off nearly every club owner from Lake Powell to Brownsville. On one hand, THICK�s �history� can seem an obvious ruse, then on the other hand, anyone with a little perseverance can track down a varied circle of industry people that can, and will happily confirm THICK�s relevance, including Mike Watt (the Minutemen, fIREHOSE), Shahin (Ex-Models), J-Thunder and C-span (Stereobate/Tungsten74) and even Paul Schaeffer. No, really. OK: Give me the latest.
Skitz: New drummer� again�
Mick: Better drummer.
Skitz: He�s drained some of that MC5 bit out of us, I think.
Mick: Thank the gods! You know, anytime somebody says, �You guys have a kind of MC5 thing going on,� I think to myself, �No, the drummer has a kind of MC5 thing going on.�
OK: So Havvy�s working out?
Havvy: I�m a bad-ass.
Skitz: Yes, you are.
OK: New material on the way?
Mick: Oh yeah. The new stuff is gonna open some eyes. We�ve really embraced our metal side working with Havvy.
Skitz: But don�t let that fool ya. We�ve written some new Texas Country stuff that�s just plain sick.
OK: Let�s talk about your Texas Country connections�
Mick: Texas Country Connections-Isn�t that some crappy PBS show?
OK: Skitz, you know Matt Martindale (Cooder Graw) pretty well. You and Mick have both played with Bo Salling & the Brakes Are All Gone Band. I�ve also heard you�re tight with Cross Canadian Ragweed.
Skitz: (laughs) Tight with Cross Canadian Ragweed?
Mick: Oh, please!
Skitz: That�s a rumor, dude. I�ve met that freaky cat who sings for �em and I know a lot of his friends� but tight? Not by a long shot. Tight would be what we are with Bo and the Brakes. And to tell you the truth, dude, Cross Canadian is really the least talented of that bunch that came out of Stillwater.
OK: Oklahoma?
Skitz: Yeah, isn�t it strange that some of the best cats in the Texas Music scene are out of Oklahoma? And all those dudes used to live together in the same house. Cody Canada, Jason Boland and Stoney LaRue all lived together in Stillwater. The reason I laugh at you asking us about Canada is that I really don�t like that guy too well. Asshole-ish, prissy little thing that he is. I dig Boland�s work. He�s cool. I don�t really know him that well. But Stoney LaRue� that cat is a pure bad-ass. Hell, he co-wrote most of the songs that have put Boland and Canada where they are today.
OK: Speaking of rumors, I heard you fellas got into it with Dixie Witch at a gig in Ft. Worth.
Mick: It was the Wreck Room. Like a whole year ago. We got into it with one guy in the band.
Skitz: Over something stupid.
Mick: We were really trashed.
OK: What happened?
Mick: I just told you, dude, I was trashed, he was trashed, we were all trashed--,
Skitz: And a misunderstanding occurred. Simple as that. Let�s not make big deal outta that crap.
Havvy: This is the first I�ve heard.
OK: Being the new guy, I bet you get left out of a lot of details.
Havvy: Are you kidding? They don�t talk to me at all. Not unless it�s �Hey, man! It�s not dah-dah-DAH-dah! It�s dah-dah-dah-DAH!�
Skitz: That�s not true. Didn�t we have an engrossing discussion over the pros and cons of solar energy just yesterday?
Havvy: I don�t remember that.
Mick: Greenhorn...
OK: THICK has been lumped into the stoner rock genre for a while now. How do you guys feel you hold up next to bands like Queens of the Stone Age, Alabama Thunder Pussy, or Fu Manchu?
Skitz: Did you just say genre?
Mick: He did.
Skitz: I hate that word. Sounds like a nasty French food. Like one of those gourmet dishes that takes up like a tenth of the plate. �I�ll have the genre with some stoner sauce.�
Havvy: �Mercy-BO-Coo!�
Mick: �Oh-hau-hau-hau-HAU!�
Skitz: You know something? Nobody who even knows what �stoner rock� is knows who we are. Most of them don�t care. Look, man, Fu Manchu is a bad-ass band, period. Queens of the Stone Age, although I don�t quite agree with the whole ProTools thing, they are--flat out-a bad-ass band. Alabama Thunder Pussy-kick-ass band. Period. THICK -the Kings of Texas Schwag Rock are a bad-ass band. Period. And as far as holding our own�? I don�t know. I don�t think I know what that means, Ollie. I mean to tell you the truth I could give a shit. THICK has been in this game for too long to worry about that crap. All those guys do a little better than us in the states. That�s obvious. I mean I don�t care whether we get mentioned by so-and-so in such-and-such mag or such-and-such zine. Just like we don�t care when half the mags or zines in Japan know who we are and what we�re about. In another two years everybody will call us grunge again or turn around and come up with new name like cactus metal (laughs). All this kind of talk is moot to me. I look at it this way: I can piss off anybody who needs to be pissed off� and I can make friends with whomever I choose. Now I�m not insinuating anything about the bands you mentioned but most of them have to be a little on their guard. They�re just big enough to have to worry about that kind of stuff. Oh, and I�m officially taking Thunder Pussy off that list, dude. Those guys obviously do whatever the fuck they wanna do and I commend them for it.
Mick: I didn�t hear him say �genre.� Did you?
Havvy: Nope.
OK: All of those bands are from a variety of different places. But it�s kinda hard to decipher exactly where you guys hail from. Is it Amarillo or Teralingua? Or Whiskeyrilla?
Mick: Whiskeyrilla.
Skitz: I wish we could base outta Juarez again.
Havvy: This shithole?
OK: This is a shithole.
Mick: This shithole is probably one of the only honest places left on the planet.
OK: At the risk of further confusion�, why the confusion?
Mick: What confusion? We have family and friends in Teralingua and Presidio. And we have all kinds of friends and family down here and in El Paso. But we love our peeps in Amarillo and the music scene there.
Havvy: I don�t know anybody around here.
Mick: Greenhorn�
Skitz: We used to rehearse here at the Hole, back when it was a private bar.
OK: This was a private bar?
Skitz: Private as they come. That Paul dude from the Letterman show came around all the time back then.
OK: Paul Shaeffer?
Mick: That guy�s a flamer.
OK: Paul Shaeffer would come to Mexico? And come to this place?
Mick: Shaeffer the Flamer
Havvy: Didn�t that guy write some song from the eighties?
Skitz: �It�s Raining Men.� He wrote that with some other cat from LA.
Mick: I bet it was JD Souther.
Havvy: That guy was in the Eagles wasn�t he?
Skitz: It wasn�t JD Souther. And Souther isn�t from LA. He�s from Amarillo. And he wasn�t really in the Eagles�
OK: Do you know Souther?
Skitz: Even if I did, I wouldn�t admit to knowing anyone connected to the Eagles. What a bowl of shit soup those cats were� are� whatever�
OK: We�re kind of getting off line here� Where are you based right now?
Mick: We like the private bar scene. We�re in Amarillo right now. We rehearse at a place called the Goldfinger Tavern about three miles outside of Amarillo. It�s a private place. We know everybody who walks through the door and they know us. They�re accustomed to our humor, you know? Nobody�s gonna get pissed off at something we say or do. We can practice from 9 am to 2 am and nobody gives a damn. We can play country all night or metal or Rastafarian dirges. Nobody hassles us for any reason.
Havvy: Except when they want us to drink with them.
Mick: If you got a problem with that, you�re in the wrong band, greenhorn.
OK: What�s in the works?
Mick: Festival.
Skitz: We want to see if we can start an annual festival out here or somewhere. You know us and how we don�t much care for club owners unless they know there place. We want to do a fest that has nothing to do with corporations, clubs, promoters, booking agents or any of those fish. We want to do a huge show with guys like Dixie Witch, Super Heavy Goat Ass, Thunder Pussy, whoever wants in.
OK: That still takes money.
Skitz: Dude, this is the 21st century. The air you breathe is costing you or somebody else money right this minute. We want to do it. If somebody with money wants to do it, or a lot of somebodies with money want to do it, then it�ll happen. It�s just a matter of getting it done.
OK: Where�s Floppy?
Mick: Look at that. Somebody mentions money and he asks where �s Floppy.
OK: Is Floppy a real person?
Skitz: Lawsuit!
Mick: LAAAAW-SUIT!
OK: Then who is he?
Mick: Tell him, Havvy.
Havvy: What?
Skitz: Floppy Blackburn is a great American and true patriot.
OK: So he�s a Republican?
Mick: Lawsuit! (laughs)
OK: Have you guys ever given a straight answer?
Havvy: I�m rubber, you�re glue�
Mick: (laughs) Now you�re catching on, greenhorn.
- Oliver Klosoff |
