18. Captain Bringdown and The Buzzkillers

Dylan
Micky loves Bob Dylan more than anything else I think. I met Micky in 1986 and he was a devilish little punk bastard. Everyone loved him though. I assumed that there was certain intention when he played those 10 minute Dylan songs. Ballad of Hollis Brown, etc. I thought he was secretly trying to torture people. I told him this around the time we were starting up our new band. He looked confused and had really never considered this idea before. But it did inspire him to make the joke that would become our band name: “We should be called Captain Bringdown and The Buzzkillers”.

Bart
Grampa Simpson and Bart were out on the town up to no good and the rest of the family showed up. Bart said “Here comes Captain Bringdown and The Buzzkillers”.

Micky
In 2003 things had really come to some sort of a pinnacle. Micky who had been in some of my favorite bands ever, couldn't even get a gig at our local place, BJs. I have to say the years hadn't treated Micky well. More suicide attempts than any one person should have to endure. Alcoholism and drug abuse. The people at BJs now had probably only seen our little Micky in his worst moments, blacked out and surly, who knows. He was probably just a scary local guy to them.

Mary and Dave
I was standing in the shower thinking and came up with a notion. I was pretty bored with myself at 37. Done having kids and love affairs and all the good stuff you can do in life. Looking forwards to death. Time to do something new. So I thought Dave and I should learn some new instruments and back up Micky. I took up bass and Dave has always yearned to play drums. In the past, I could never have been that bold but at the place we were all in this seemed to be possible. Thus Captain Bringdown and the Buzzkillers.

Bill
A few weeks into it I was talking to Dave's then-assistant at our studio, Bill, and he was happy to be involved in the projects he was, but he was a grown man living in a small town who was used to a little city life. One can get antsy. I said why don't you try playing with us? Well Bill and Dave worked 12 to 12, 7 days a week making records. So band practice had to be at 10 in the morning. Not a morning person in the group.

Practice
Dave has the most stamina though. He got up, made coffee, drove around waking and picking everyone up and finally we would practice. In our basement at 10 am. About twice a week. Three times max. The neighbor lady called. She was upset because she could hear the bass in her fruit cellar. Ah a new project. Now we had to make the soundproof room. During that time we hauled up to the studio to practice. This would only be possible if there wasn't a band in. So I guess the timing was ok.

Bad Timing
But is the timing ever ok at 10 am for people like us? Practice was often shambolic. So many coffee spills that we had to get no spill mugs with lids. Micky would show up literally asleep. I was cranky (nickname Surly Bass). Bill showed up one time with no strap or strings on his guitar. There was more arguing in this band than any I had ever been in. Course half of us were married. Micky, Dave and I were so used to each other that I think Bill would often just look on with horror. And Bill was so used to turning his guitar up so loud that we would just look on in horror.

Good Times
Upside was I was playing bass in a band of bass players. I was playing Micky's and/or his brother's songs. I actually can't really ever get bored of that. I got to play a Magic Skyboat song!

And the shows were pretty damn fun. And torture. My first time ever playing bass I had rock boys, Steven Drozd and Harmony Griffin, sitting at my elbow. This was traumatizing but when I forgot where a note was, I could just turn and ask them.

We had Waz for emcee. One night a pirate, one night a psychiatrist in a booth giving out pretty interesting advice, another wearing an elephant head and playing the cowbell (quite well I must add). Waz kept me entertained even when we were boring me.

We played the long Dylan song, Angelina. We covered Micky's old bands, doing People's Front and Magic Skyboat songs. We did a couple other covers (Velvet Underground and Johhny Cash) but mostly we did Micky's songs.

And the better the crowd, the better Micky did. Our last show was in February 2004 as Bill was moving on to the big city. We must've screwed something up and Micky said, “this will be our last song”. The crowd kept hollering for one more. Micky was only joking and of course I took it that they wanted us to only do one more. I guess I was as usual, a perfect Buzzkiller and Micky turned out to be a great Captain.

2/1/05