The Fitz Herald (Fitzgerald's Nightclub, Houston) - June 1992

The Duckhills despise pop pretension

To play June 6 with The Stand opening

Austin's unintending DaDa artists, ("we don't have an image") the Duckhills return to Fitz twice in June, headlining on Saturday the 6th and in support of Twenty Mondays on Friday the l9th.  Like Zappa and the Mothers decades before them, the Duckhills offer a breath of untainted air in the age pop pretension (think U2).  Take for instance, in the Duckhills tune, "Political," the no-nonsense lyric, "I think apartheid is bad/I think world peace is good."  Now we're getting somewhere.

Suddenly, these guys have become a Fitz crowd favorite.  When they played a middle slot last month, we noticed a large crowd crushed together up front, getting off on the music.  The staff has liked 'em all along for their light-hearted approach to the business ("we don't have an image"), and general lack of attitude - hey, no need to be pompous about being a rock star.  These days, how many people do you know that aren't in a band anyway?

You get a lot of diverse directions in their music ("we don't have an image"), and according to the Austin-American Statesman, "...there's something weirdly exhilarating about a band that can sound like Chill Pepper funksters one one cut, junior Zappas on another, limp-wristed Lefty Frizzells on a third..."

And now the general public in Houston (only a few months behind Austin this time) has figured out what a great time the Duckhills can deliver. 

Though based in Austin, the four piece band met in Houston where they first began playing in high school.  "We are really nice guys," bespeaks the collective voice, and "we don't have an image."  That may not sound like a whole lot to go on, but in sweet simplicity it manages to depict the band best. 

Although two releases rest under their belts, the group has yet to focus on one single musical direction.  This makes for a diverse and almost kooky live set that has been described as "cartoonish."  With frontman Benjamin McDonald trained as an actor at the the North Carolina School of the Arts, one never knows quite what to expect; so far, the Duckhills have kept us all entertained but guessing, and ("we don't have an image") the strategy (or is it non-strategy) seems to be working.