Rubbernecking from p17 interest of an A&R rep from Interscope Re- cords. It was 1992. The band had just self-re- leased a second EP, Velvet, and was trying to get it into the hands of as many people as pos- sible: distributing it to local record stores, putting it on consignment at Sound Ware- house and sending some copies off to Reznicek’s cousin, who owned a record shop in Eugene, Oregon. From there, the EP made it to a music distributor for the whole West Coast, who liked the album and handed it off to the same A&R rep who talked Interscope into signing Helmet — one of the first post-Nir- vana, alternative rock band signings that happened after the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” music video changed the landscape of popular music and sent everyone out in search of the next big “grunge” band. After that, the A&R rep came to Fort Worth to see the band, then flew the band out to do a showcase at the Whisky a Go Go in Los Ange- les, where the president of Interscope Records heard them and signed them on the spot. Grunge has always been something of a nebulous term that really had more to do with the look of musicians than it did with their music. Bands like Pearl Jam, Soundgar- den and Alice in Chains were all labeled as grunge without sounding the same at all. “What’s that dumbass saying,” Lewis asks, “‘I don’t care what you call me, just call me?’ I don’t really care. I don’t get it. In hindsight, visually, I get it because of the plaid and torn- up jeans, but that was just what we could af- ford, and it was everywhere. When the grunge stamp got put on us, I thought, ‘What happened to alternative?’” Reznicek agrees. “All of those bands and us were more influenced by the Pixies than by each other,” he says. “They had catchy pop songs, but they were loud and heavy, an- gry songs … It’s all an evolution from the same stream.” I LEFT MY BROTHERS THERE By the time Rubberneck was recorded and made its way to the masses in August of 1994, the world had lost Kurt Cobain — the man who had become the de facto leader of this new genre — and the music world en- tered the beginnings of the post-grunge era. Toadies already existed outside of grunge with a vocalist inspired by rock gods like Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant, AC/DC’s Brian Johnson and a few quirky little things from David Byrne. The sound was loud and dis- torted, but still poppy enough to be repeat- able and memorable. While not massive, the album was abso- lutely a success, peaking at No. 56 on the Bill- board 200 and turning out two top-40 rock tracks with “Possum Kingdom” and “Away.” The Toadies were the biggest rock band to come out of Fort Worth since Bloodrock signed to Capitol Records in the 1970s. When the band first set out on the road to promote the album, Lewis had every inten- tion of returning to the record store where he’d been working for a year. Once the album went platinum in 1995, his plans changed. That was the year that saw the “Possum Kingdom” video roasted by the titular char- acters of Beavis and Butt-Head on MTV. Butt-Head may have said it sucked, but Mike Brooks Drummer Mark Reznicek peeks out from his kit. most viewers must’ve agreed with Beavis when he said, “Give it a chance.” The next year, “I Come From the Water” would find its way playing behind Chris Farley in a scene in Black Sheep. As successful as they were and could have been, the group was a victim of its time and circumstance. Despite being one of the most original bands to come from outside of the Seattle music scene in the ‘90s, Rubberneck would ultimately be the only full-length album Toadies would re- lease in the ’90s. “Not to take any blame away from the la- bel, because I have a lot of animosity,” Lewis says, acknowledging the oft-told story of the seven-year gap between Rubberneck and its next release. “But our management kept us on tour for well over five years, and two or three of those years were 250-something shows a year. I mean, it was insane. “At the time, I was not good at writing on the road. A lot of the new songs that we had after Rubberneck were used up on like soundtracks and compilations.” With half an album’s worth of good songs lost to The Cable Guy, The Crow: City of Angels, Escape from L.A. and Bas- quiat among other movie soundtracks, and over five years gone by on the road, the band needed to start over completely but the momentum just wasn’t there. I GOT WHAT I CAME FOR It was July 6, 2022, when Lewis would find himself at home watching the latest episode of one of his favorite TV shows, For All Man- kind, on Apple TV+. “It’s like an alternate history, and it goes all the way through the ‘90s,” the singer ex- plains. “There’s a scene in Season 3, where this woman is on a space capsule broadcast- ing music from that year and she cranks ‘Possum Kingdom!’” “And they played a lot of it too,” Reznicek adds. Looking back on the Toadies’ career, Lewis admits there were some things the members could have done differently. “You know, there was a couple of steps that we could have taken in hindsight to make that happen [to be a bigger band], but I’m happy with where we’re at,” Lewis says. But he won’t go so far to say that there are no regrets. “There’s some TV appearances that could have happened that didn’t happen in there because of things in the band, and we didn’t know, or even think about asking, for worldwide distribution right out of the gate,” he says. “We’re basically only known in the States and Canada and by diehard people around the world that might dig a lit- tle deeper, but when we were never on the radio or had our records released overseas.” Regardless, the Toadies legacy lives on in The stage at The Colony show in August 2022. Mike Brooks The band had a second album, Feeler, re- jected by its label. Interscope also didn’t pro- mote the Toadies’ third recorded album, which would be its second full-length release. In 2001, the Toadies were no more — for a little while, anyway. North Texans especially will remember the band’s return with the first Dia De Los Toadies show at Possum Kingdom Lake in 2008 supporting No Deliverance. The subsequent Feeler, Play.Rock.Music, Heretics and The Lower Side of Uptown would follow biannually with their own Dia De Los Toadies concerts until 2017. The band has toured extensively these last five years, but stayed relatively quiet in the studio, with only a single here and a live album there. new forms and new mediums, like the Bock- slider Toadies Texas ale from Martin House Brewing Company that is still widely avail- able five years later. There’s also the self- published line of comics based on the image-heavy lyrics of songs such as “Tyler” and “I Burn” from Rubberneck, as well as “Jigsaw Girl” and “Queen of Scars” from later works. Each work, illustrated by Lee Davis, brings the song’s story to life. Reznicek has been busy with his own orig- inal comic series, which was recently picked up by Dark Horse Comics. Buzzkill is about a superhero troubled by addiction and fighting for the better good. The Toadies themselves appeared in two issues of Marvel’s X-Men comic series in 2016 issues 6 and 7. As for the live show, Toadies still has it. Lewis can still hit those high notes that made his voice stand out in a sea of deeper and raspier voices. “I think I’ve maintained it pretty well,” he says with a smile. “Mainly, I’ve learned how to warm up with in-ear monitors. And taking care of yourself becomes way more important when you’re not in your late 20s anymore.” Now in the final days of its month-and- a-half long run, which has seen sell-out dates in Denver, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Boston and Philadelphia, the Toadies look forward to their first-ever show Friday, Nov. 11, at the House of Blues in Dallas with Doosu the House of Blues in Dallas with Doosu and a rare performance from Mike Graff from Course of Empire, Mike Daane from Ugly Mus-tard and Andy Timmons Band as well as Duncan Black from Mousetrap. An auction is planned to benefit Course of Empire’s former drummer Chad Lovell, who was also the longtime sound engineer at Curtain Club in Deep Ellum. Lovell has been hospitalized since a 2019 accident, and all auction proceeds will go to his family. “Chad is someone who I always re- spected as a drummer and a sound engineer, and he’s a hell of a nice guy,” Reznicek says. “I’m a big fan of his intense style of playing drums, and his sense of humor is a constant source of laughter. I hope we can help in whatever way we can to ease the burden on him and his family.” As the tour kicked off in September, Toadies dropped the first release since its last studio album, 2017’s The Lower Side of Uptown. The EP Damn You All to Hell con- tains four previously unreleased tracks, in- cluding a cover of David Bowie’s “Sound and Vision,” three songs recorded during ses- sions for the band’s last studio album, and “Forgiven,” which was recorded during the No Deliverance sessions in 2008. But that’s not all the Toadies have in store for fans. The group is currently working with legendary alternative rock producer and engineer Steve Albini, who has lent a hand to iconic albums from Pixies, Helmet, The Breeders, Jesus Lizard, PJ Harvey and Nirvana. “Hopefully we’ll see him on this tour when we go to Chicago — that’s the tentative plan,” Lewis says. “If it works out, if he’s still available and we’re available and we have the material at the right time, then yeah.” Acknowledging the Toadies’ history with having the best laid plans, Lewis adds, “Or wait seven years and then see if anybody’s still paying attention.” 19 19 dallasobserver.com dallasobserver.com | CONTENTS | UNFAIR PARK | SCHUTZE | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | MOVIES | DISH | MUSIC | CLASSIFIED | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS DALLAS OBSERVER DALLAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 27–NOVEMBER 2, 2022 MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014
