Monday, August 27, 2012

Those Peabodys

To someone (that someone being me) living in Richmond at the turn of the millennium, Austin TX seemed like a kind of Fantasy Dream World.  Shows every night, t-shirts in the winter, cheap Mexican food, a healthy economy, a progressive political climate, affordable rent, and women!  It didn't seem like a real place, but it was.  My friends JT, JD, and Ben made the move; and it didn't take much convincing for me to follow suit.
The popular Austin rock and roll band that I was aware of were Those Peabodys.  They formed when they were in High School in Temple, TX and were formerly known as something like Professor Peabody and His Wayback Machine.  I had given their album a good review in the now-defunct Punchline magazine.  What I found (and still find) remarkable about their first record is that the band was a 2-piece.
Adam Hatley played drums and guitar.  Some facts about him:
1. Easily one of the top 5 rock drummers I've ever had the honor to share a stage with.
2. Once he dressed up as He-Man from Masters of the Universe for Halloween, and he barely had to do anything to get make the costume.
Clarke Wilson played bass and vocals.  Some facts about him:
1. Best afro I've ever seen on a white person.
2. He prefers parties when they're at someone else's house.
By the time I moved to Austin, they had recruited Aaron Franklin to play drums.  They'd play house parties, Emo's, wherever.  Often places you could walk to, and you'd know everyone there. 
The lineup expanded further when JD Cronise was added on second guitar.  Around this time, they recorded their second album (in the spirit of not googling, I admit that I forgot what it's called).  The label that was supposed to put it out folded, so the album died.  Aaron Franklin was replaced by Mike Fonseca... wait, maybe Mike played drums on the album?  JD quit to form another band whose name I forget.  Look, I was living with my wife and two baby daughters, I had a hard time keeping up (see above about why I wanted to move to Austin).  Anyway, Mike quit or something and Erik Conn came in on drums.  They recorded again, and I don't think it was released.  Then they broke up.
Where are they now?
Adam and Clarke are now in a band called Bangaar.  Go see them.
Aaron Franklin started a monstrously successful barbecue company.  I think it's called Franklin's Barbecue.
JD went on to worldwide fame, fortune, and hot sauce (which I'm currently out of) in The Sword.
Mike Fonseca is in the band Modok, the best band in Austin currently.
Erik Conn is still in Tia Carrera and Thee Vitamins and at least three other bands.
So, here is the Those Peabodys album.  Listen to it while thinking back to days when Lone Star cans were partially blue.
Those Peabodys Youtube Playlist

3 comments:

  1. the record with Conn came out. it's called animal saturday and it rules just like you'd think it would.

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  2. Hey, did you get that CD? Those Peabodeez Nutz!

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  3. the 2nd album , did come out , it's called "Unite Tonight" , with JD on it. It's good as shit that's the first one I had and saw them live while supporting that record. They had a bunch of other tour only ep things, I have three of them, all killer. As is Animal Saturday. These guys are one of the most underrated rock bands from this era, they eliminated live.

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