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Austin American-Statesman - June 25, 1992 |
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Duckhills tough birds to pigeonhole
By
Andy Smith
While the hair on the back of my neck was still standing, the song began. No matter how hard I tried to return to what I had been doing, I had to keep listening. The caterwauling beginning had left me anxious to find out what the rest of the music held. The Duckhills are one of Austin's brightest young bands. In the 17 months they have been on the music scene, they have garnered more attention and recognition than most local bands ever see. They have released two full-length cassettes, placed in five polls in the Austin Music Awards survey, including Best New Band and Best Thing to Happen to Austin in 1991 and are currently in the midst of a third national tour supporting Poi Dog Pondering.
On their earlier tours with Poi Dog, they received critical acclaim and astonishing audience response for an unknown, unsigned band. After several concerts, newfound fans bought out the band's tape supplies. In New York City, singer Benjamin McDonald had the honor of receiving a brassiere onstage from a female fan. The only missing piece is a record deal, but even that may be in the works in the near future.
Who are these Duckhills and where did they come from?
The story begins in the suburban Houston town of Spring, where three-fourths of the band met at Klein High School, ironically also Lyle Lovett's alma mater. As McDonald tells the story, he saw guitarist Randall Grace and bassist James Thompson playing in another band, and knew that he wanted to play with them. Upon graduation in the summer of '87, the three developed their ideas for a band. For the next couple of years while they each attended different colleges, they kept in touch by sending tapes until they reconvened in Austin, ready to actualize the concept they had been brewing since their initial collaboration.
"We had this idea that we were in a band. We weren't actually because we were spread all over the place, but this idea was what kept us together and in touch. So when we moved to Austin, we decided to start really being a band and playing," explained Grace. In February of 1991, after a series of drummers, Jeff Lafitte joined, completing the quartet.
McDonald on Lafitte's impact: "Jeff really made us a band. Before he joined we really didn't know what we were doing. He came in with this ideology and brought us all together." After the Duckhills coalesced as a unit, they immediately set out to conquer Austin's alternative crowd. They built a following on their rise from co-op parties to weekend headlining gigs with their entertaining, energetic stage show and immediately accessible, but beguiling brand of pop. They have captured fans not by beating them over the head, but by quietly capturing them in an irresistible world of rhythms, melodies and comical, yet pointed lyrics.
One of the most refreshing aspects about the Duckhills is the difficulty in pigeonholing their musical style. "Our influences are completely individual, which is where the sound comes from. We have had every comparison imaginable. I guess that's because we come at it from so many different styles. Sometimes they hit it on the head, but usually people just grasp onto whatever is most familiar to them and say that that's what we sound like," said McDonald.
"My influences are not musicians, but people like Woody Allen and Clifford Odets, because of their different ways of approaching art," he added.
This link with non-musical influences may be where the Duckhills draw their individuality from. While most bands in their genre are caught in a quagmire of comparisons and the subsequent judgments on the accuracy of these comparisons, the Duckhills leave people guessing.
After the end of their western tour with Poi Dog in mid-July (they play a homecoming concert on July 24 at Liberty Lunch), they will record a CD for independent release in the fall. Accompanying this project will be the band's first headlining tour, which will concentrate on colleges in the Midwest.
The Duckhills are down to earth with their goals. "I think that we're one of the luckiest bands in the world to get the tours that we have had. I hope that we can keep doing it, and maybe be able to quit our day jobs," said Thompson.
The Duckhills are one of the more creative bands to reach the college market. Their music is confrontational but not in an upfront manner, such as Henry Rollins or the Butthole Surfers. When the songs float in one ear, they do not float out the other without first being contemplated. This band has found a uniqueness within pop music's narrow parameters. Whether or not the Duckhills become Austin's "next big thing" is almost irrelevant, because in terms of musical ingenuity they have already succeeded.
Staff Photo by Karen Warren |
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