“We listened to what we got fed, pretty much — which was classic rock,” Kelly acknowledges. “You know, it was Foghat, and Kiss, and Lynyrd Skynyrd, and all that stuff. And we didn’t really have much of a choice.”
Not that there weren’t other sounds sneaking in through the back door. “Folk music was around when we were kids, because mom was really into Bob Dylan and the whole folk thing,” Boone says. “But my first experience with country music was bad Nashville radio country music; I didn’t want any part of country music at all….It wasn’t until I went to Austin that I kind of rediscovered country music.”
Indeed, with artists such as Junior Brown, Don Walser, Toni Price, Dale Watson, the Derailers and others playing constantly in local clubs during the early-mid ’90s, good country music was not hard to find in Austin. The influence clearly rubbed off on the Damnations, as evidenced by the songs they played on that KUT “Live Set” recording, which they subsequently released as an independent CD in a limited run of 1,000 copies (long since sold out, with no current plans for reissue).
The 14-song disc includes numbers by Lucinda Williams, Doc Watson and the Carter Family, plus a couple traditional tunes. The seven originals, however, represent a broader range of musical interests: “Unholy Train” is utterly infectious pop, “Half Mad Moon” has an Eastern European folk feel, and the aforementioned “Commercial Zone Blues” is spiked with the Antone’s aura.
All three of those songs, along with three others from the Live Set disc, were re-recorded for Half Mad Moon, which is finally seeing the light of day after being recorded a year ago with producer John Croslin (whose old band, the Reivers, used to practice in one of those houses behind Antone’s). The record was originally scheduled to be released last September, but problems over the rights to the band name (there’s an L.A. group called Damnation) resulted in the addition of the “TX” designation to the name, and a delay in the album’s release until February.
Half Mad Moon sports a tighter, cleaner sound than Live Set — partly because it’s a studio album as opposed to a live recording, and partly because the band had jelled more with another year under their belts. Steel guitarist Newcomb moved to Idaho in early ’97, reducing the lineup to a four-piece but increasing the focus on Bernard’s instrumental skills.
The producer was also a factor. Known mostly for his work with alternative-rock acts such as Spoon and the Wannabes, Croslin is good at getting solid, straightforward performances down on tape. “He just wanted to get us sounding the best that we could sound, and I think we pretty much achieved that goal,” Kelly says. “I think the record basically sounds like us, but at our best.”
If there’s a drawback to Croslin’s approach, it’s that Half Mad Moon sometimes sounds a little too tidy. The nature of the Damnations’ aesthetic often lends itself to the ragged edges apparent on Live Set; while the performances are stronger this time out, a little bit of warmth is lost in the translation.
The other notable difference between the two records is the sharper focus on original material. Only two covers are included this time around, and both of those are from fellow Austin songwriters — “Catch You Alive” by Mike Nicolai (who recently moved from Austin to Seattle), and “Down The Line” by Jimmy Smith of the Gourds.
The latter tune underscores the special kinship between the Gourds and the Damnations TX, who often seem to function as “sibling bands.” To a certain degree, that description is even literal: Rob Bernard’s brother, Claude, plays in the Gourds.
They’ve also recently exchanged members, with original Damnations drummer Langford rotating into the Gourds lineup last year (though he did play on Half Mad Moon before he departed). At present, the Damnations TX work with a rotating cast of drummers, most often Conrad Choucroun, who also plays with up-and-coming Austin songwriter Damon Bramblett among others.
Bernard also wrote and sings lead on one track on the new album, “Finger The Pie” — which raises the possibility of further contributions from him in the future, or perhaps collaborative writing.
“We’re trying to get Rob more into that too, or just have him bring his own songs in,” Kelly says. Bernard sees more of that happening in the future: “I didn’t want to inject my stuff into the band from the beginning,” he says, “but it’s been a little while, and we work a lot better together now as a band.”
For their part, Kelly and Boone have collaborated on songs since the band began, extending the sibling symbiosis beyond vocal harmonies and into the writing process. “Both of us add to songs,” Boone says. “Deborah would come in with a chord progression, and I would come in with lyrics, and she’d put a melody to lyrics I’ve written, or whatever.”
It’s also not as simple as each woman singing lyrics she wrote; both say they’ve written words that the other sister ends up singing. Then again, much of the time, they’re both singing the words.
“The kind of music we love to listen to has a lot of harmonies running through it, so I can’t ever really picture a song where Deborah would just sing the song,” says Boone, before adding, with a laugh, “Although maybe Deborah pictures it!”
Kelly adds, “People are always asking, ‘And who’s the lead singer?’ They get totally hung up on that lead-singer thing, and we just laugh, because we’re like, ‘Well, believe it or not, we don’t have a lead singer.'”
Spoken like true sisters, indeed.
ND co-editor Peter Blackstock lived from 1987-89 in The Lodge, which was the southernmost point of “The Triangle” at 2827 Salado Street, right next door to Junior’s Keg Beer Store. (Convenient, eh?)
