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The Battalion
FRIDAY
April 19, 1996
GGIE
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Di, NightNEW5EDlH ,
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nt of Journalism,
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nald Building, TesJ*
Eugene-Eugene looks
to increase following
By James Francis
The Battalion
S ome say music is an
acquired taste. It
comes in a variety of
forms, and the people who fol
low the tunes are no different.
Eugene-Eugene will perform at the
Brazos Brewing Company Saturday at
10 p.m.
"I see the band growing, pushing
towards a bigger audience ... "
— EUGENE SMITH JR.
keyboardist, Eugene-Eugene
Brothers James and Ernest Gibbs play
guitar and drums, respectively; Ralph Mon-
civias is the band’s saxophonist, and Shawn
Druery is an occasional female vocalist join
ing the band at different sets.
The Gibbs brothers hail from a musical
background in their family, but there is one
other individual who, although the only
member of his lineage to partake in music,
shares the band’s experiences.
The man responsible for the band’s dou
ble name is Eugene Smith Jr., the group’s
keyboardist who said the group is “a mix of
rhythm and blues and jazz with contempo
rary gospel.”
He said his major influence is Stevie
Wonder, with the band Chicago as an alter
nate favorite.
“I like Stevie Wonder because of the mes
sages he has,” Smith said.
As for Chicago, he said he sees it as “one
of the top brass bands,” and he enjoys the
feeling he receives from them.
Another feeling Smith takes pleasure in
is the audience participation at the group’s
many performances.
“I look for people who take the time to
listen to the music, people who like to move
when we are playing and give us a response
to know whether we did a good job or not,”
he said. “We try to project a very clean im
age of Christian people who love to play
music and live life to the fullest.”
The band, diverse in its performances,
plays a grand amount of Earth, Wind and
Fire from the 1970s and 1980s.
At locations ranging from the Hilton to
churches and dances to the Walden Retire
ment Community, the group performs up
beat, hip-hop music and gospel songs to
classics such as “Moon River.”
Although Eugene-Eugene has been a
group for almost 10 years now, improve
ment is always an option.
“I see the band growing, pushing to
wards a bigger audience — more from state
to a national level,” Smith said.
Smith said he sees himself as more
of a producer and songwriter as the fu
ture approaches.
As the head of Master Dreamer Pro
ductions, he also publishes a maga
zine, Back to Basics, which is filled
with art, poems and short stories for
the African-American community.
“It’s all about going back to doing things
the way they used to be,” Smith said.
Jasmine Blue strives to
mature after first album
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By Amy Protas
The Battalion
W ith the exception of one, all the
members of Jasmine Blue are
childhood friends. When they
were in middle school, the members were
all in bands. At the time, they did not re
alize that one day, they would come to
gether and record an album.
Jasmine Blue came about when Karl
Kunz, the band’s rhythm guitarist, re
turned to Bryan from Waco.
Marshall Love, vocalist and percus
sionist and a 1995 Texas A&M journal
ism graduate, said he had not been in
volved in music until he found out Kunz
was back from Waco.
“Karl and I grew up together in
Bryan,” Love said. “We parted ways
when he went to music school in Waco. I
didn’t have much to do with music until I
came back from studying abroad in Italy
in 1994. When I got back, Karl and I met
up and began writing songs together.”
Kunz helped Love write an operetta
for his senior honors thesis. The operetta
is called Figurine and was performed on
the A&M campus.
In October 1994, the band acquired
Jonah Salih, a sophomore computer engi
neering major.
Love said Salih can only be described
as a guitar virtuoso.
“Jonah’s sister brought him over to
our apartment one night,” Love said.
“He picked up a guitar, began playing,
and we knew then. He’s an incredible
virtuoso guitar player. He began com
posing difficult melodic parts to fit over
our music.”
In 1996, the three, with the help of
two studio musicians playing bass and
drums, recorded Motherlover.
Kunz said recording the album was an
exciting experience.
“Recording the album was cool,” Kunz
said. “I used to be in the studio all day for
class. It was great to go into the studio
purely for creation purposes. It’s a tight
band getting recorded by a good produc
er, and it really shows up.”
Before recording the album, the band
mainly played acoustic sets.
“The only gigs we’ve done have been in
town as acoustic acts,” Love said.
“Recording the album was exciting be
cause we didn’t know what the music was
going to sound like by adding bass and
drums. We liked it, but we also still like
the songs in the acoustic format.”
After recording the album at Guinea Pig
Studios in College Station, the band ob
tained two new members: Watt Bigham, a
freshman mechanical engineering major
and bassist, and drummer Rodney Ramirez.
Bigham said he started playing the
bass at a young age.
“I always thought Black Sabbath was
cool,” Bigham said, “so when I turned
10, I got a bass. The guitar thing never
really appealed to me. It all seemed
pretty pedestrian.”
The influences of the band run the
gamut from Van Morrison to Yes to Jim
mie Hendrix to Kiss. The band mentioned
Rush as the most common influence.
Kunz said their sound can best be de
scribed as rock ’n’ roll.
“When we say alternative, it’s alterna
tive to Seattle,” Kunz said. “The ’60s had its
own style of music, and we’re rooted deeply
in ’60s music. We’re definitely not Smashing
Pumpkins. We’re roots rock with soul.”
Kunz said the band would never have
been able to record the album without
the help of their friends.
“We appreciate all the support we’ve
been getting,” Kunz said. “We really rely on
our friends. We have a real tight circle of
friends, and there’s so much technical stuff
going on that they help with. The album is
just the end result for all these people that
are getting paid nothing. They’re really
helping us.”
Band yearns to perform
%
m
By Libe Goad
The Bati alion
C owboy Mouth is escaping
from the kettle of music in
New Orleans and serving its
home-grown sound to the rest of
the nation.
The band is playing at the Dixie The
atre Saturday night.
After playing together for four years,
the band recently signed on with MCA
Records and toured last fall with old-
time friends, Hootie and the Blowfish.
Fred LeBlanc, Cowboy Mouth drum
mer and lead vocalist, said he and gui
tarist Paul Sanchez, bassist Rob Savoy
and guitarist John Thomas Griffith
have played with Hootie and the Blow-
fish for six years.
The two bands would exchange
dates, playing together and always
looking for a good time.
“We’d watch them get out and get
drunk,” LeBlanc said.
Their camaraderie paid off. After
Hootie and the Blowfish hit it big,
they invited Cowboy Mouth on a
tour of the nation.
The bands played together like old
times, but with much larger audiences.
LeBlanc said Cowboy Mouth found
many new listeners along the way.
“The best part was playing with old
friends for three weeks,” he said.
In Los Angeles, the corporate rock
ears were ready to listen.
LeBlanc said that after the show in
L.A., record offers fell into their lap. The
Cowboy Mouth
band signed with RCA and spent the
next few months creating R U With Me.
The new album should sound much
like the band’s three previous albums,
LeBlanc said. But the July release will
have the force behind a major label to
help them along.
“We’ve learned a lot of things,” he
said, “and we took much more time on
this one.”
Though Cowboy Mouth has moved
up a notch in record labels, they stick to
their original style — anything goes.
Of course, the band comes from a
heart of diversity in New Orleans.
There, the Neville Brothers and
Marsalis family dug their roots.
The Crescent City also birthed the
beginning of rhythm and blues, Ca
jun and zydeco.
Mixed in with the music of Better
than Ezra and Dead Eye Dick, the band
is a clear reflection of its roots.
On the band’s last album, It Means
Escape, the members’ different influ
ences showed through.
The album presents a mixture of
pop, noisy guitar songs and a song best
sung by a cowboy on the range.
“When Paul and I formed the band,”
LeBlanc said, “we wanted the musical
dexterity of the Neville Brothers and
the intensity of the Sex Pistols.”
And so Cowboy Mouth began.
The band members each came from
a musical background and each brought
in a different musical taste. Sanchez’
acoustic guitar preference, Griffith’s
country guitar, Savoy’s Cajun rhythms
and LeBlanc’s passion for the Beatles,
the Sex Pistols and the Clash met
somewhere in the middle to form Cow
boy Mouth.
And unlike many bands, the mem
bers searched out a name that would
sketch out the band’s personality,
LeBlanc said.
The name comes from Sam Shepard,
the brooding western playwrite, in a
play where two people look to one an
other for advice.
LeBlanc says one character tries to
convince the other to become a per
former. He tries to make a friend think
he can use his talents to become a musi
cal savior.
“He tells him to be a rock ’n’ roll Je
sus with a cowboy mouth,” he said.
“Cowboy Mouth was the only name
that we could all agree on.”
Another thing the band agrees with
is getting back on stage.
LeBlanc said the long months of
recording has made him lustful for per
forming live.
“Our shows are based around the
idea of old Gospel shows,” he said. “We
want to cleanse and purge the crowd of
bad spirits.”
It’s the good spirit that keeps
the band rolling. LeBlanc said hav
ing fun inspires him to keep his
creativity churning.
“The main thing we want to get
across is a sense of passion and
happiness.
“I do what I do,” he said, “because I
think we are f—king great.”
Plebeian Monarchs finds meaning
By Amy Protas
The Battalion
W hat started out as a band
for a high school talent
show has evolved into the
Plebeian Monarchs. The Monarchs are
producing an album and are currently
touring. The band is playing on North-
gate Saturday at 8:45 p.m.
"Music is a church, a place where you go
and worship."
— STEVEN COLLINS
guitarist/vocalist, Plebeian Monarchs
Greg Vanderpool, the band’s guitarist and vocalist,
said the band was able to form again after the members
got out of college.
“We were separated by college, but have recently
brought it back together,” Vanderpool said. “We’ve got
ten into what we really want to be. We want to take it
more seriously.”
Vanderpool and Steven Collins, guitarist and vocal
ist, are the original members of the band. Collins
asked Steven Scheifley, a drummer, if he wanted to
join the Monarchs.
Scheifley said he had been interested in music since he
was extremely young.
“I play drums and I basically started when I was three
years old,” Scheifley said. “I’m 25 and the oldest member
of the band. I’ve been playing forever, it seems like. I
used to turn on the radio station and beat on pots and
pans along with the music.”
Eventually the band obtained Chris Godbey, a bass player.
Vanderpool said the band’s name has significance
behind it.
“Originally, we were just the plebeians,” Vanderpool
said. “Eventually, we added Monarchs. Plebeians are
common people, and of course, monarchs are kings. This
name is not about us as individuals, more about the con
cept. It shows the contradiction of being common and be
ing a king.”
Collins said the band’s style can be compared to The
Police or U2.
“Our music is really anthem-esque,” Vanderpool said.
“An anthem is something you sing with patriotism. It’s
similar to what we sing. When you sing the ‘Star Span
gled Banner,’ you sing it like you mean it. That’s what we
try to do.”
Scheifley said although the music is somewhat mellow,
it is still rock.
“It’s definitely rock,” Scheifley said, “but in a U2 and
Police style. We’re very vocal-oriented. Greg is good about
harmonizing with Steve. I love listening to music that
has the harmonizing element. We’re not a loud band. The
lyrics are more of a positive nature.”
The band considers Daniel Lanois, who produced some
of Peter Gabriel’s and U2’s music, a strong influence.
“I would like us to aspire to be similar to him,” Schei
fley said. “His music is highly spiritual, yet down to
earth. It’s something you can sink your teeth into.”
The band’s other influences are Bruce Springsteen and
Charlie Sexton.
Spiritualism is something that is extremely important
to the Monarchs.
Collins said music embodies spiritualism.
“Music is a church,” Collins said, “a place where you go
and worship. It doesn’t exist in physical realm except for
sound. When you go to church or you are watching a movie,
it’s not as powerful until the music comes in. It’s a universal
medium. Everyone who can hear the music can understand.”
At the beginning of the summer, the Monarchs will be re
leasing an album called Equus. It is named after a play writ
ten in the 1970s by Peter Shaffer. The play, as with the al
bum, deals with what people put up on a pedestal.