17 January 26–February 1, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents KINGS OF ALL OF THE WORLD After 30 years together, the Old 97’s are anything but jagged. BY KELLY DEARMORE L ast March on a sprawling soundstage outside Atlanta, Rhett Miller, Murry Hammond, Ken Bethea and Philip Peeples stood together on an elevated drum riser with hundreds watching. A-list Hollywood stars in full makeup, hordes of costumed extras and a film crew gathered around the members of the Old 97’s, but they weren’t there to hear the Dal- las-born band of rocking alt-country pio- neers. Bzermilkitokolok and the Knowheremen were about to cut loose. Oh, and Kevin Bacon was there too. The famously connected actor had been on stage with the band, acting as lead singer since this scenario wasn’t quite surreal enough already. Miller, Hammond, Bethea and Peeples were inhabiting the roles of extraterrestrials who had learned how to rock like Earthlings for The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. Near the end of one of the days the band filmed while in full space-alien makeup, James Gunn, the film’s director who is now the head of DC Studios, grabbed a microphone, asked for quiet on the set and, with his voice boom- ing from the giant speakers throughout the space, gave a short speech about how the Old 97’s had been his and his brother Sean’s favor- ite band for many, many years. The famed director told the assembled aliens and union laborers that he would see the band perform any time it came through town when he lived in St. Louis and Chicago in his formative years. He talked about how he always looked for ways to share the band’s music with the world. Mega movie stars Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista and Zoe Sal- dana were up front and center, along with the furry Rocket Raccoon. Gunn told the crowd that when Disney approached him about directing a holiday special, he agreed because he knew how he could incorporate his favorite band into the project, introducing them to a new audience in a way they had never experienced before. The Old 97’s had released a Christmas record in 2018, after all, and this was a holiday film. As otherworldly as it all was for Miller, the band’s lead singer, he was present enough in the moment to sort of scroll back in his mind through some of the shows he remembered playing in St. Louis and Chi- cago, wondering which ones Gunn and his brother might have attended. “Was it one of the times we played at Cice- ro’s in St. Louis where I would jump and al- ways hit my head on that metal rafter above the stage?” the singer asked himself. “Or was it one of those nights in Chicago when we fi- nally started playing to big audiences?” One thing Miller did know was that he was getting choked up, there on stage in front of hundreds of people, inside the makeup that took over three hours for two makeup artists to apply. It meant so much to him that his band had meant so much to the director — to anyone, for that matter. Even now, he gets a bit emotional about the memory. “It was one of those out-of-body mo- ments where I thought, ‘This is what it’s all about,’” he says. “I thought, ‘This is what it feels like when the planets align and the thing that you have believed in for so many years really works.’” Tanked up out on Elm Street, looking for a ride Stretched out on concrete, running out of pride – from “St. Ignatius” Marquita Court Apartments near Green- ville Avenue might as well be on a different planet from a big-budget movie studio, al- though it would be an essential setting for an Old 97’s biopic. The beat-up brownstone building that Miller likens to “living in squa- lor” is where in 1992 he and Hammond first heard the accordion and guitar sounds of Bethea, who lived in the building too. Miller and Hammond had been friends and collaborators for a few years at that point and had tried out several different musical styles in various bands, including a rock-flavored effort of Miller’s, brilliantly named Rhett’s Exploding. But after hearing Bethea lay some country licks over “St. Ig- natius,” a song Miller had recently written, the three felt as if they had found a musical home. Soon, Peeples, whom Bethea had met while living in Denton a couple years earlier, joined the trio, and in March 1993, the four- some with a punk-inflected twang began playing gigs in tiny clubs, including Chum- ley’s in Deep Ellum. Local folk-singer Lisa Loeb, who would rocket to stardom a year later on the strength of her catchy single “Stay (I Missed You),” occasionally played Chumley’s on the same night as the band. In 1994, Dallas-based label Idol Records re- leased the group’s debut LP, Hitchhike to Rhome, including “St. Ignatius.” Alysse Gafkjen ▼ Music >> p18 Old 97’s band members (left to right) Murry Hammond, Ken Bethea, Rhett Miller, Philip Peeples.
