Thin White Rope
formation |
Starting at the beginning… 1977: Scott Miller, Scott Gallawa and I formed Alternate Learning in Sacramento while we were in high school. At the time, a school mate, Thad Selmants suggested the name "Thin White Rope,” which was ignored. (He was also to suggest “Death Cab for Cutie,” which we also nixed.) 1978: Scott Miller moved to Davis and we found a bass player, Carolyn O'Rourke and Keyboardist Lynn Ross and began rehearsals. (Scott Miller really wanted my sister, Nan, in the band as a keyboardist, but I rejected the idea as being in bands was something I wanted to do and I didn't want my family interfering with it. This did cause some tension between us.) We played a number of gigs and we tried to raise ourselves to the same level as The Suspects, The Mumbles, The Twinkees and other local alternative bands. 1980: Personalities within the band conflicted and Scott Gallawa and I left. We put up ads in the Davis area and Guy Kyser answered. He had auditioned to be in Alternate Learning and for whatever reason didn't go with them. Guy brought with him bass player Mark Higura who was Guy's roommate. We began rehearsing under the name the Les Z Boys, doing covers of New York Dolls, Johnny Thunders, Sex Pistols, Roxy Music as well as a few originals written by Scott Gallawa and Guy. Moonhead, Munich Eunich, Macy's Window and Down in the Desert were from this period. We also played a number of gigs and recorded a few demos down in KDVS studios.There were a number of personnel changes: Mark Higera left and was replaced by Ken Lacewell who left to join True West. 1981-2: Guy and I were getting kind of bored with what the Les Z Boys were doing - or actually NOT doing - so he and I split off and put an ad over at Skip's Music seeking a bass Player and another guitarist. I think it was Roger Kunkel who answered the ad and knew of a bass player, Kevin Staydohar. It was at this time that once again, my friend Thad suggested the name Thin White Rope which the four of us agreed upon. TWR rehearsed some of the same covers as the Les Z Boys, but introduced Guy songs as well. Two different sets of demos were recorded at this time: One with Scott Miller producing, the other produced by Russ Tolman. I have copies of these sessions many of which appeared "Exploring the Axis" and "Moonhead." In April of 1983, Kevin Staydohar and I were drafted into True West which was getting a lot of college airplay. I recorded some extra tracks to add to the True West EP to create the "Hollywood Holiday" album (most of the record had been recorded with Frank French on drums and Mike palmer on bass.). I played drums on two U.S. tours and recorded three songs with Tom Verlaine producing at Bearsville that were not released until years later. 1983: I was fired from True West in December because "I just didn't fit in." During this time Thin White Rope floundered around a bit, before getting Steve Tesluk on bass and Frank French on drums. After they joined, TWR really started to gel into its own thing. Roger Kunkel’s and Guy Kyser’s guitar styles, though completely different, complimented each other amazingly well. Steve Tesluk's bass style was totally different from anyone I had heard. Both percussive and melodic, and when that was combined with Frank French's rock-solid drumming, they really didn't sound like anyone else. There was a four-track recording with about 14 songs from this time and line-up that are my favorite TWR recordings. I became really excited about the direction they were going in and started seeing the band at gigs and hanging out with them with the idea that perhaps I could re-join. 1984: The four-track recording was sent to a number of likely labels: Notably Enigma; based upon Game Theory's new-found success with Enigma, another demo was recorded in December with Scott Miller producing. At this time there was talk of big things, tours, etc, and Frank French, who was a bit older than the rest, wasn't interested in touring - so I was right there to replace him. On the Scott Miller-produced recordings, Frank played on all but three songs and I played on those. Those demos went out and Enigma was interested, but so was Lisa Fancher of Frontier Records, who heard of Thin White Rope (through a review from English Mag, "Bucket full of Brains," who loved the 14-song demo). Frontier was doing a signing of several bands that included: The Salvation Army (3 O'Clock), The Long Riders and Rain Parade in a joint Island/Frontier Neo-Psychedelic project. I guess it was something along the lines of: Lisa does all the leg work and Island puts out the records. Island got cold feet and decided to sign only The Long Riders and Rain Parade to a straight Island deal. Lisa, who was still fond of TWR, "bought" TWR from Game Theory's manager, Scott Vanderbilt, re-re-recorded Thin White Rope for release as Exploring the Axis. Lisa had also signed The Pontiac Brothers from Orange County and Naked Prey from Tucson, and later that year all three bands went on a U.S. tour backed by Spin Magazine called "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Tour." |