EP #9 - Slacker Dave Loves Gary Dean Davis

This is episode number 9 of the Slacker Dave Loves Nebraska podcast!

On this episode Dave goes to Omaha and hangs out with Gary Dean Davis at Pageturners Lounge. Topics include: What inspired Gary to join a band, his pirate radio career, touring, breaking stages, all the bands he has been in, Speed Nebraska and all the bands he has released on the label, his career in the teaching profession and so much more! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Loves Nebraska Stamparron Roger Wilson will it come and rules like her day Loves Nebraska Willows the ball A calachie makes him roll Sopridade And that French he filled with cheese He's the one who loves it all of us from through and through Slacker Day Loves Nebraska Slacker Dave loves Nebraska Slacker Dave loves Nebraska and now Slacker Dave Hey welcome to the Slacker Dave Loves Nebraska podcast.

SPEAKER_02 0:53

Hi I'm Dave. Thank you for uh joining us today. We are coming from uh Paige Turner's Lounge in Omaha, Nebraska. Uh what is this tree? Dodge. 50th and Dodge Street.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

This is this is Main Street Omaha Nebraska.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

Heck yeah, we're doing it outside. There's gonna be noise. Uh Kane's gonna hate this one. But uh we're doing it anyway. Uh I am joined today by Gary Dean Davis. That's right, the head of speed records, the singer of the wagon blasters, the singer of the Monroes, the singer of Frontier Trust, Diaz for Dragster, Pioneer Disaster. Pioneer Disaster. What else am I missing? Uh the press. The press. Oh man.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

How long have you been doing this, Gary? Um, I've been playing in bands. This is actually since um first band I played in was the press, and our first gig was in December of 1986.

SPEAKER_02 2:01

December of 1986. Awesome, awesome. Still doing it, not stopping. Don't tour or anything anymore.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Depends. I mean, we wagon blasters drove down to St. Louis and played uh our friends Bunny Grunt. Oh, they love Bunny Grunt. Did a release of uh they they they did like a seven-inch release. They did um where they put all their seven inches on a on a 12-inch. And uh they used a picture I took of them on the stage at the Capitol, and that's the front of the that's the front of the record. And so through that they they said, hey, you guys wouldn't want to come down and play play the record release of it. We're like, yeah. Heck yeah. And so so who knows? Road trip. We keep talking about going up to Sioux Falls, we keep getting invitations to go up there. There's a club up there that's that's interested in us. And if we can figure it out, we did that um oh we we did the uh here in Nebraska did like the things out in out in outstate Nebraska. We we did we did one of those shows and and uh uh you know up by Tacema and and uh that's cool.

SPEAKER_02 3:08

I wish somebody would do that again. That was a great idea. They only did it like one year maybe or two years. One or two, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

Yeah, it's a really cool thing to to get out and and go to places. So I don't know. I mean, we're all of an age where we have families and jobs and things like that. But but if we can swing it, you know, why not?

SPEAKER_02 3:26

It's hard to get four people together, let alone uh the band I'm in right now is six. So, wait, one, two, three, four. Gotta gotta take a couple cars. Well, four minimum, and it can be up to you know, whatever. Yeah. But uh, yeah, trying to get uh, you know, what night can we play? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

It's amazing, yeah, like you said, of our age, just to be able to get together and practice every week and write new songs, and you know, we're we're fortunate that that we continue to do those things. And uh people ask us to play shows every once in a while. We'll set up a show ourselves, and and so it just depends on um if we can make it happen. You know, we we you know we play in Omaha, we go down to Lincoln now and again, and and uh, you know. Heck yeah. We we keep talking about going to Chicago. My my daughter lives in Chicago, so we we keep talking about going to Chicago to play, but we haven't we haven't set anything up just yet.

SPEAKER_02 4:26

Just to see the daughter, that's it. Just to see her and play a show.

SPEAKER_00 4:29

She'd get a bunch of her friends to show up. We'd we'd have a crowd ready, so heck yeah. Um, so who's all in the band right now? Well, in Wagon Blasters is myself, um William Thornton, who had been in the Frontier Trust, of course, and then Jesse Render um plays drums, and and he had been in the Monroe's. And then Kate Williams, who was in all kinds of bands, Darktown House band. She was in, I think she played in every ska band in Omaha at some point in time. She plays trombone and and uh plays accordion and uh um plays bass for us, so um, you know, we just we just love playing together. Uh that's a weapon. Williams' brother Bob was our original bass player, and then then he he stopped playing bass, and and so we had to get somebody new, and Kate said, Yeah, I'll give it a go. So Well that's cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

So, okay, so right now it's a Wagon Blasters. Before the Wagon Blasters was the Monroe's.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

And then who was all in the Monroe? You mean Jesse Render, and then Mike Tulas played bass. Oh, yeah, yeah. And then Lincoln Dixon played guitar.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

And Lincoln Lincoln was from Columbia, Missouri, and uh he had been in a band called Product 19. Yeah. Who had played in played in Omaha before. We the Frontier Trust toured quite a bit, and Columbia was one of the main places that we stayed at a lot, and and we had lots and lots of friends there. And and uh um it was kind of one of our regular stops, of course, St. Louis too, and and uh the Ditch Witch guys. Sure, the Ditch Witch guys, and and and the Starkweathers, and and uh yeah, we did a record on Faye Records, uh the Frontier Trust, which is which is a Columbia label.

SPEAKER_02 6:08

Uh yeah, there's the whole Nebraska Columbia you know, the Mercy Rule.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

Yeah, that's right. They they they did a record on on Faye as well. So yeah. That's awesome. So it was lots of fun. So yeah, so um Okay, wait, where are the Monroes, right? Yeah, before the Monroe. Well, before the Monroe's was was uh the Frontier Trust. Oh no, no, I missed one. Diaz for Drexel. DS for Drexel. There you go. You you got the order for that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then who was all in that band? Um, let me think for a minute. Uh Steve Azevedo, uh, or no, not Steve Azevedo. Uh um Jeremiah McIntyre was in it, Joe Kaborowski was in it, I was in it, and uh Steve Double Joe.

SPEAKER_02 6:53

I love Joe.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Yeah. And uh, and likewise, that was like our post-Frontier Trust band, kind of like Hot Rod Rock. Yeah, yeah. And uh we did a little bit of tour and two. We we went out to played out in Cardi and and went to Chicago a couple times and down to St. Louis and and uh put us put a seven inch out on Speed Nebraska Records and and uh and then Jeremiah moved to Chicago and had his band Entertainment. And we did we did a uh 45 with them on Speed. Oh, awesome, awesome. And then before that was Frontier Trust. Before that was Frontier Trust, and uh that was me and William Thornton and uh Joe Kabarowski, uh Brian Swanson, and before that, um Alex McManus played bass in it, and before that, Bob Garfield did. Nice. So we kind of kind of kind of went through a couple folks playing playing bass. All right, but uh Brian Swanson was was in it for uh uh two of the seven inches and then the full length.

SPEAKER_02 7:54

Nice, nice. So before Frontier Trust was Pioneer Disaster. That's right. Boots in Pioneer Disaster.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

He had to push me on it. All right. I love it. So it was me and Joe Kabarowski played drums, and um uh Joe Fogarty played guitar, um, and Bob Garfield played bass. That was sort of the main, and then Alex McManus played guitar in it a little bit. He like he did um some of the live shows with us. There was a time when Joe Fogarty couldn't be in town, but we had some shows, and so Alex played guitar for us. So that was that was a nice, very, very upstanding of him to do that, and uh um lots and lots of fun. And and uh we did um a cassette release, I think it was five songs, maybe six songs, and um recorded up up with Junior's Motel up in Oath Oas. The famous yeah of that era. They recorded up there and Front Your Trust did the first seven inch. And uh Ritual Dwight, I think, did the one might have, and Cellophane Ceiling probably did too, and and uh I don't know Merci Rule went up there. There's there's a lot of good studios in Lincoln, so so maybe maybe they didn't need to do that. I don't know. It was it was a budget deal, was the thing. And he would let you sleep there, and it was you'd you'd get up there and whatever you could do over the weekend, you know. And uh that's awesome. It was lots of fun. So, but we did, we took um four of the songs from that 7-inch and we put it out on a 45 on Speed Nebraska. And it was it was funny because we did we did like the Monrose first 45 and the Pioneer Disaster 45 came out within a couple of months of each other, which was looking forward and backwards at the same time, I think was was kind of the idea of that. And and uh when we did the record release for the Pioneer Disaster, and Pioneer Disaster is you know, not a man won't play again, that's okay. And uh we did we did a uh outside picnic and horseshoes and kickball and had a good time with that, and all of our kids were there and and running around and and and those kinds of things.

SPEAKER_02 9:59

So I was telling somebody that there used to be a Lincoln versus Omaha softball game.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

We did Lincoln versus Omaha softball game, which was just a lot of fun. A couple of years back. I mean, I just feel like like particularly like when we were in um well, even like when we were in, so we didn't get to it yet, but the press was was the first band I was in. Yeah, yeah. And the press um was myself and Brad Field played drums, um, Chad Brown played um guitar, and Mickey Argomato um played bass. And Mickey just uh deceased about a year now. And uh and and just trying to figure out how to be in a band and and all those kinds of things at the beginning. But we played, we played a we played at the famous um commonplace show for uh 13 Nightmares did to raise money for their for their full length. Oh yeah. And so all the bands played, and you had 15 minutes, and for the band The Press, that was our best show of all time, was that because 15 minutes we didn't have any time to do other things and mess around. We got to play Ron Albertson's drum kit, and um, so through all that, everything came together. That and I think that was our best show. But but in my mind, that was also an important time when playing that show in Lincoln and then Pioneer Disaster played at Duffy's, of course, and uh other places as well, and certainly Frontier Trust. Our first show was at the Big Red Rocorama. Oh, yeah, we're gonna get to that, and uh all those things. So I really felt like like whereas we're from the Omaha area, we we always felt a good connection with with Lincoln. And and so the the the softball game was just a lot of fun. It wasn't necessarily like we were mad at each other or things like that. I think sometimes music scenes can get like that to where they can be kind of territorial about things and and lock in about things, and and and and that was never our perspective at all. We were, you know, we the Frontier Trust did a did the uh 45 on Caulfield Records, and we did our full length on Caulfield and you know with Bernie McGinn, and and I I think we just always felt like we were just part of the Nebraska music scene.

SPEAKER_02 12:08

Oh yeah, I I there was a time there uh where like you know, the Frontier Trust, Mousetrap, Ritual Device, Mercy Roll, Sideshow, right, uh Cellophane Ceiling, you know, cactus, you know.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

I mean, yeah, I mean, yeah, we could go on.

SPEAKER_02 12:27

Everybody was friends. Yeah, that's right. You know, everybody came to people's shows. Yeah. You came to other people we supported each other.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

All my favorite bands were people I knew.

SPEAKER_02 12:36

And uh it's it's it's uh uh you know, I I I feel at that time there was really no place in Omaha like Duffy's.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

The Capitol came a little bit later, a little bit later, and of course the cock factory. Yeah, the Cap's. So different than different than Duffy's. Duffy's was right on the strip where where it was all happening all the time. And I feel like Omaha we had to work a little bit harder at that. And the Capitol was like, wow, that's that was like a real like Duffy's. It just was. It was like a real place. And Trey and Layla did did amazing things in our city, which really, really helped not only our music scene, but helped bringing in touring bands and and you know, first time I saw Manor Asterman was there. I think I was at that job. You know, I mean, just things like that that just really allowed us to be a music scene and have that kind of support. The Cog Factory, of course, uh as well, and and and and just being that all ages club allowed for anybody who wanted to come to the show could come to the show. And the deaf and capital, you know, they they had it so that underage people could come to shows too, and and and that was always important to us as a baby.

SPEAKER_02 13:51

Yeah, Lincoln had the brickyard, and right, but then or uh shakes. Well, that was later, but at the time of the cock factory, there was no place like that in Lincoln, right? There was no underage club, Shakespeare.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

Shakes came a little bit later and tried to fill that up. That was just a revolution, and and the cock factory is really important to us. We were friends with Rob and and and and when the very beginning of it, before the cock factory opened, that's where Frontier Trust practiced. Oh, yeah, yeah. And so just because I worked a night job, and so I'd get off work at 11 o'clock, and we needed a place that we could practice at 11 o'clock at night. Oh wow, and practice till one or however late we we wanted to go. And um I mean, so many great where the cock factory was located just east of 24th on Leavenworth, you could make a lot of noise. And and and and it was okay. And nobody, no, nobody got too excited about it, didn't bother anybody, and and uh so because of that, so before it was even when it first opened up, then we were still practicing there, and bands would come in and they'd hear us practice, or like, hey, you guys just want to play tonight? Tour, like, yeah, sure. And so that was sort of when we started playing a lot and practicing more than once a week and um touring, and just those first touring opportunities when you play multiple nights, it just happens where it all comes together, and and I think that for us as a band, that was really when we really found our sound, and we found what what we what we thought we wanted to sound like, I think, and and um allowed us to you know develop more of an audience, you know. But when when you play shows and and you look out at the audience and you don't know most of the people, that's when you know, like, oh, something's going on here, because it's not just those, oh there's that, you know, I know everybody in the audience tonight, you know, and and as it grew to where where where you had that ability to do it. I think that that that was really when when when you felt like um things were progressing in a good way.

SPEAKER_02 15:55

Yeah, Trail and Layla, uh um, and then uh the Cog Factory, I just changed Omaha, and then you know, later O'Leavers and then the whole Benson thing.

SPEAKER_00 16:06

Oh, sure, yeah. We just played the 49er. That's lots of people have fond things to say about that. That was kind of where I don't know that Frontier Trust ever played there. That the Monroe's played there quite a bit.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

Yeah, because that wasn't uh Trey and Layla move over to there for a while. No, no, they didn't?

SPEAKER_00 16:23

I don't know who ran that. I I don't I don't recall. Um but but they were kind to us, they they they let us play and come in and and do all those kinds of things, and so um by the way, uh the sinkhole was that in front of that's right in front of brothers.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

Oh my god, I'm like I said.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

That's the first thing I saw when I saw the picture. I'm like, well, there's brothers. I said, Well, good thing. At least it wasn't like there was a sinkhole on over on Pacific Street that a car, a couple cars fell in. They were just sitting, they weren't moving, they were just sitting at a stoplight, and boom, it dropped. So nobody got hurt. That's scary.

SPEAKER_02 17:01

Yeah, and I don't think anybody got hurt over in front of the brothers, but that's the kind of stuff that doesn't help with my tunnel uh uh you know feelings. Right, right. You know, that they're all of a sudden the ground could just empty out. I'm like, yeah, all it needs is one little crack and then that tunnel floats. Oh, and then it goes, yeah. Alright, so um I remember when we did Big Red Ran Rocarama. Right, we booked Pioneer Disaster. Right. It said Pioneer Disaster on the posters, right? Everywhere said pioneer disaster. Sure. You showed up with a different band.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:42

How did that happen?

SPEAKER_00 17:43

Well I mean, just that quick. Well, that's the that's the story of a band, right? Every band has a shelf life. And and um also, I believe you never know when your last show is gonna happen. No, you don't. Seldom do you know this? Sometimes bands will do that where they play a show and they're like, This is our last show, everybody come see us play our last show, and then you do that, and then somebody else will say, Well, can you play another show? Yeah, we'll play another show. And so Or five years later, yeah. And we've seen that happen, but Frontier Trust did that and played. We drove all the way down to St. Louis and played a show after we broke up. And so I you know, just bands break up. I think that's the nature of being in a band. And Pioneer Disaster, like I said, we put that cassette out, and um I loved Pioneer Disaster. Yeah, it was a great band. I loved being in that band, it was a lot of fun, and um just change in direction and and uh songwriting and and different things like that, I suppose, happen and um meet different people, and you're like, hey, maybe I want to be in a band with this person, and so it's tough, it's tough to be in more than one band at the time at the same time. So lots of people do it, and and I think particularly in in Omaha and Lincoln, you see that for sure, where different people. So, for instance, when Brian Swanson was in Frontier Trust playing bass, uh he was also playing guitar and and in um in um Culture Fire. Oh, yeah, yeah. And so, which was a great band, and you know, we played with them quite a bit, and and and Bob Thornton played bass in that for a time, and and so everybody kind of played in in different bands at the time, but but I think that um sometimes it's difficult like like being a lyricist and writing writing songs like that to be in more than one, unless you're doing something really, really different. So I suppose just Frontier Trust or uh Pioneer and Disaster had kind of run its course, and and um right towards the end though, we were still writing new songs, and yet it was just like, yeah, it's time for a break. And a break becomes a breakup, and and so I think I think in some ways that that's what happened, and then and then we started Frontier Trust, and um when we played the big old rec big red rack orama, I think maybe we had five songs. And just recently, um we uh speed Nebraska put out a CD of all the 45s of Frontier Trust. And um the reason why we did a CD is because my kids all have CD players in their cars and I wanted them all to have it, so so so we did a we did a CD release of it, so we decided to do a release show of it, and um so um uh Bill Thornton and I decided to do some Frontier Trust songs, and and we've done this before over the years. Um he left, he moved to Portland, and then and then he came back to Omaha, and and we played a show for some reason for something, and we call ourselves Half-Trust because it's half a Frontier Trust, I suppose. And plus, we thought it was clever that a half trust is sort of like a half-truth. And and um so we just played just me and him playing Frontier Trust songs. And we had actually done that when we were in Frontier Trust. Um, we wanted to play a show at the Capitol, and it was with Rachel Device, and and Frank Kozick made the poster for it. Oh, yeah, yeah. And we really wanted to be on that poster. We played it at the Capitol plenty of times, but it was that poster that that, and that poster became a famous poster that he actually used that same image on the cover of his book. I have it, I have it. As a kid on a swing with a with with like a Kafka type image on it.

SPEAKER_02 21:21

Yeah, which before that had the offspring wore a the singer wore a ritual device shirt on his on the video for that big hit. Right, right, that's right. And then later on, Kojak used the same image. I have that poster. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

So we really wanted to be at it, but um our drummer for some reason couldn't be in town. And so we're like, what are we gonna do? So so Bill and I decided we're gonna do it anyway. Just me and him. And which it you saw Frontier Trust. That you know it's all about the big drum sound and the big bass sound, and and here's me and Me and William Thornton on stage is the two of us. And he still played his electric guitar, and I still sang and did do the things that I do, but it was just the two of us there. And so that was sort of the first version of us doing that. And so we've kind of do this now and again. And we're gonna play uh Speed Nebraska is celebrating 30 years of being in business. So first record came out, and and we did the Solid Jackson record in 1996. And uh who was in Solid Jackson again. What's that? Who was in Solid Jackson? George Peak was and um Scott Buccane, who goes by Andrew Buckin now. And um good answer. Aha, I I got that far. Yeah, that's pretty good though. Um Pat Oakes played drums on so on that record, he plays drums on one side, and then their other drummer whose name escapes me right now is on the other side. And Blake, uh Blake Smola, I think, was the was the bass player, and um he's deceased, but um so they did, they had done some recordings and things, and they had this song called Fell, which was kind of my favorite song by them, and they had recorded it and weren't gonna do anything with it. Oh and I was like, what if I start a record label and I do something with it? They're like, okay. And so they let me do that, and that's the first 45. I think we pressed 500 of them for some reason. Since then, most of the 45s we do, or we do 300 of them, which is which is a good number. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And um, so so we did we did that, but um, so we're so celebrating 30 years of speed, we're gonna do a big show. Uh Wagon Blasters are gonna play at it, uh uh DipTat is gonna play at it. The guys that that used to be in I don't the famous Ideal Cleaners, which did lots of releases on speed. And um uh uh Bad Bad Men is gonna play. Oh, I love that those guys that love the band, you know. And Domestic is gonna play, and then since it's a speed show, we're gonna charge $10 on it, but we need to have five bands because you need to be paying $2 a band. And so the so the so the fifth band is gonna be Half Trust. So just so getting ready for that, I had to find lyric sheets uh to remember what it's been a while since I've sang those songs, and so even though we went on tour and we did lots of things, I sang those songs a lot, and so so I was digging through my archives of it, and I found the original song lyrics that I had when we played the big red rock orama. And when we played that, we had five songs, I think, and I didn't really know the lyrics yet, but it was really important to me to sing the lyrics as they were. So I printed lyric sheets on it really, really big and highlighted them and everything so I could see it really well, and had them sitting on the stage so I could look at them while we were singing the songs and everything. So I have those original sheets. Oh my god, that's it. And so so we pulled those out because we're gonna we're gonna sing some, but we're even gonna bring back um some songs that we did originally in Frontier Trust that we never recorded, and were kind of like early songs that we liked a lot. Um the song Martin King was one that was kind of a well-known song at the time, but for whatever reason we stopped playing it, and but just trying to bring out some fun things, and and then uh William has some new songs that are kind of in that style that are more Frontier Trust songs, and they would be Wagon Blaster songs, believe it or not, there's a difference. And um so so we might even be writing some songs specifically for that. So I guess that in a sense, like arguably I'm in at least two bands now. So welcome, welcome.

SPEAKER_02 25:37

Though I mean, I've always loved his guitar playing. I mean, it's it's you know, you say Frontier Trust is the big drums and the bass and everything to me. To me, I am a drums and bass guy. It's that's life, drums and bass. But when I see Frontier Trust, it's Bill stomping around, playing those killer riffs, right, and you and you jumping up and down. I mean, to me, that's Frontier Trust, is you guys going on. So I can see half trust being like a beautiful thing.

SPEAKER_00 26:16

It'll be interesting. We've done it before. We we we played up the street here at that Katie's Gero Shop one time, and I think we actually there's pictures of it. I think we just sat down when we played that. And so, but it's hard, it's hard for me to just sit and and not channel, you know. I'm I'm trying to channel D Boon and and the way Minutemen did did shows and just that being being physically trying to be the song, I think is is is is is what I'm trying to do. It's it's not just oh I'm performing a song for you. No, I'm trying to be the song.

SPEAKER_02 26:50

I can see that. I can see that. Uh I mean you put on a show. I mean, not like you're I'm not saying like uh let's put on a show, kids. You know, I'm just saying like when you go up there, the band, when the band starts, you're not just nobody just standing there. Nobody you you feel the energy from the band. Yeah. You know, and and uh show should be fun. Yeah, I mean there's bands where the band doesn't need to be there. I could just listen to the music. Right, right. But generally, I like live bands. Right. So I don't know, I've told the story a million times. I don't know if I've done it on the podcast, but like the band Jesus Lizard. Right. For the longest time, I thought their records sounded like shit. Like I did not, they didn't sound good to me and everything like that. And then they stopped playing live for the longest time. Right. And then I go back and listen to records and I'm like, these things were amazing records, you know. But I mean, I've always I I I like I like live bands first and then studio bands second. Right. So I kind of it's fun to see those.

SPEAKER_00 28:07

I've got a big collection of live live records too of of different bands and and continue to. I just got a I just got a Trash Women live record, their famous one uh from whatever year that came out, 92 or something like that. That uh but just I really like live records. I think it just gives you a sense of um seeing the band and and being there and and that I I agree with you. The the live experience is you know, being a music fan is is is that it's fun to listen to records and music in the car and whatever else, and and but but but there's nothing about nothing quite like going to see a band live and having that experience with them and seeing bands multiple times and seeing something different that they did or different places that that that they played at. I mean, I think about lots of the different places that I played at and in different bands and continuing to play at, and most of my all-time favorite ones were because of the audience, were because of the experience that that took place. We were they had a thing about the anniversary of uh OJ Simpson driving down the interstate in the Bronco. Yeah, yeah. And and and uh my kids were watching it because they didn't know anything about this, because it's not something we necessarily talk about. And and they're like, Where were you at when that was going on, Dad? I said, I was in Buffalo, New York. I can I was at I was at uh Shankin's Cafe. With people that knew OJ Simpson as the running back of the Buffalo Bills, and they were like, What is going on? And we were on tour with with Mercy Rule, the Frontier Trust was, and we played at there was like a loft there. Uh there was a band called Tugboat Annie from Buffalo. I remember that band that they were part of the scene there, and they played at this show too, and they invited us to play at it, and we had played every night with Mercy Rule, and that night was kind of our night. That was like, wow, just everything came together, and the audience was was digging what we were doing. And and so that's that's one of those shows that that's a really big one for me. And then another one is um we played in somebody's basement in Lincoln, um, like right towards when right before Frontier Trust stopped playing. And to me, that was one of our best shows because it was just it was it was it was punk rock. It was just we were in somebody's basement, and you know, there's no sound system, it's just you know, we're just going and and and shows like that that remind me when when we first start when I first started singing in bands, um it was difficult for me. Um, like we played a show, I couldn't talk for two days at least. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. My throat was gone. And and then we booked a tour with the Frontier Trust. And I'm like, what am I gonna do? I'm gonna play every night. How's this gonna work? And Heidi Orr said, You just need to drink a gallon of water every day. And she gave me Ricolas and said, Honey. Spend some time with these, drink yeah, eat some honey. And through that, I I got through it. I mean, we play every night and we'd you know be out for a couple weeks at a time or whatever. And and uh um it you just had to take care of yourself in that way. But you have to do that physically, no matter whether you're a singer or you're the guitar player or um playing any instrument, you just physically, and that's something that I think as a band you had to you had to figure out in a really big hurry. And I think there's lots of stories about bands that can't figure that out and get really destructive and and can't keep it together because of that. And and and it and I saw that like right when when we first started, we had to kind of figure that out. Like you can't be excessive every night and and get up in the morning and drive to the next town. You know, you you you gotta get some miles on you, and and so you had to you had to be smart about things, and and I I think moderation is the key to that for me. And just you know, take care of yourself, take care of your body, and and uh make sure that that that that you can that you did that you're doing this for for the long for the long term, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 32:16

I saw a band come through the zoo one time, good, good guy. I love the band. And uh they were partying, they were having fun. Right, right. And then the next time, they're they were great, and then the next time they came through, I I kind of noticed them like they're all drinking water. And they were on, they were a machine, they got done, and they started having some some some adult beverages, you know. But when they were playing, they weren't playing, it was business.

SPEAKER_00 32:47

It was business, and it was like I mean And everybody does it different, everybody has a different experience, and and when I talk about I've seen bands where they there weren't lubricated up and up and they weren't very good, yeah. And and I can just speak about myself personally in that regard, and you know, I've been in a I've been in in bands with a lot of different people, and everybody has different opinions and different things that work on them. And if you did an interview with any one of those people, they'd probably tell you the same story in a different way than I did because Gary's talking out of his out of his ear. But the uh um uh I I can only speak of what my experience with it was and and how I felt about it, and and I'm I'm so fortunate. I'm just blessed that that I've been able to be in a band all these years and and be able to do it, and and people come out and support us, and and uh, you know, we've we've worked with with some great record labels, and you know, Jerry and Barry with Faye Records and and Columbia and and Bernie and Dave Sink put out the first Frontier Trust record on One Hour Records.

SPEAKER_02 33:49

And I would uh at some point uh in my uh podcast future, I would like to get some people together just to talk about Dave Sink. Oh yeah, yeah, you don't you you do some really good stories and and uh I think he's an important uh figure in the evolution of the Omaha Lincoln, you know.

SPEAKER_00 34:11

He was just such a good um promoter of things and an encourager. He he really encouraged us to do things, and you can do this and you can do that, and let me let me let me you guys let me help you guys put a record out. And and uh and then just bringing records into the store, and uh, you know, when the store first opened, they they had bands uh mousetrap played in the antiquarium, you know, for for kind of their opening of it, and and some different things like that. And Dave went to shows. Dave was always out at the show and and uh um had his favorite bands, and like anybody, everybody has an opinion about different music. And um Dave didn't hold back with sharing his opinion about things, and and and uh you know, but loved the things that he loved and but was was a huge promoter of of Omaha music and loved Omaha music.

SPEAKER_02 35:02

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

Oh, what a great guy.

SPEAKER_02 35:05

I mean good human kind of thing like that, you know.

SPEAKER_00 35:08

Everybody has their fault. But all those guys, you know, uh um that that that were part of the antiquarium, and and you know, Kevin Jones and and uh um Brad Smith and you know I'm uh Simon Joyner, I mean, uh just so many people that, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some other people that they'll be mad at me that I forgot their name, but the uh but but Chris Deedon, you know, I mean just everybody associated with that store were all big promoters of the Obama music scene and and and and helped out with things and some of them played in bands and and uh um uh you know and uh but but we're big fans of it. Went to shows and and promoted and and supported bands.

SPEAKER_02 35:55

All right, we're gonna take a break. Okay. Uh thank our sponsors quick here, and uh I just wanna thank uh Kane Stevens. Thanks for producing, and uh of course my lovely wife Amanda for just uh being my lovely wife. That's all I'm gonna I need to say there. But uh alright, we'll be back in a couple minutes. Hey y'all, I just want to thank uh Rourke's Tavern for sponsoring Slacker Dave Loves Nebraska. Rourke's Tavern, it's Lincoln's downtown. It's like a neighborhood bar right in the middle of downtown. We're at 1329 O Street, and uh you know Rourke's I've always described as kind of like the backstage to the Lincoln uh musical community. They do fun things all year round, they got specials every day, they got pool tables, they do dance parties, they got a chili cook-off every year. So just want a nice, relaxing time. Come on down, see Jordy and the whole family down here at O'Rourke. Thank you. Hey, want to give a big thank you to Rick Peters for sponsoring the Slacker Dave Love Nebraska podcast. Rick is an independent insurance agent, uh, AMS Insurance Center. The phone number is 402-476-3599. He's a great guy, great personal service. Amanda and I have been uh customers of his for years. He just a real good guy. You just you want to come see him. But the most important thing about Rick is he is a host of not one but two shows on KZUM, 89.3 FM. Uh he hosts Rockin' Bones on Friday nights from 6 to 7.30. Rockabilly and all that kind of related fun music, and then Tuesday mornings from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. It's the Sugar Frosted Chocolate Balm Diggity Good Time Show. And you never know what you're gonna hear on there, but you know, they call him Rickabilly. I like to call him Rickopedia. He knows a lot. Great shows. Thank you very much. Hey, uh, I just want to thank uh Pete and Amanda from the Zoobar for sponsoring the Flacker Dave Loves Nebraska podcast. Zoobar, wonderful place. Uh live music almost every single night, sometimes most the weekends twice a night. Uh Zoo Fest, July 10th and 11th. Put that on your calendar. But thanks, Pete. You roll. All right. Hey, thank you. Uh thanks, Stuart Marks and uh uh uh uh uh the zoo bar and Rick Peters. And uh well yeah, don't forget Zoo Fest coming up July 10th and 11th. Otherwise, I think this should be out before then. I think I hope so. If not, hey, it was fun at Zoo Fest. It was a great time, you know. The Fascale brothers were amazing. As always, yeah. Trigger Ray Raper, oh man. Uh all right, uh so yeah, I'm joined by uh uh Gary Dean Davis, the uh head of Speed uh Nebraska. Speed Nebraska record. I need to say that. That's fine, yeah. Uh he brought me a record.

SPEAKER_00 39:27

That's the famous Speed Lightning uh uh 12-inch that we did that's that's got all these famous bands on it. Uh Wagon Blasters are on it, which which I'm in, and the Really Rottons, which is Charlie Johnson and Benji Kushner. Yeah. Uh some of the last recordings that Benji did and Justin Jones. Yeah. Uh this awesome band uh from Omaha called Untill. Um and all the songs are about driving and and racing and things like that. And I think the people in Untilt, none of them drove when they did their songs. So they were they were that young that they weren't driving yet. Right, right. Uh band called Cat Piz from Omaha.

SPEAKER_02 40:01

Uh love uh I I love the the Wolf family.

SPEAKER_00 40:06

Yeah, yeah, Nathan is in that one, too.

SPEAKER_02 40:08

Nathan's in is great.

SPEAKER_00 40:09

Yeah, and Bad Bad Men, and then of course Mezcal Brothers, once again, some of those last recordings that that uh Benji did. And um Broke Loose, uh Omaha band. Uh Clarence Tilton, a famous Omaha band.

SPEAKER_02 40:22

Uh uh The Weber boys. Yep. They're uh good Wisner boys, my boy. Beautiful Wisner, Nebraska. They're my hometown boys, the Wizard Boys. But were they the Wisner Pirates? Uh Wisner Pilger Gators.

SPEAKER_00 40:37

And then of course Pagan Athletes, which is the the Wolf brothers, Griffin and Nathan. The Weber boy, their dad was the a science teacher and track code. Awesome. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So so we just decided to do um a 12-inch. We had done the the um uh soapbox derby records, the 10 inches, and so kind of in that same vein, we we started off trying to do this, and it started off as a 7-inch and became a 10-inch and then it became a 12-inch, and we did it on Hot Wheels orange, uh uh Hot Wheels track orange colored vinyl.

SPEAKER_02 41:10

Pantone number and everything. What's that? Is that the correct Pantone number for the Hot Wheels track?

SPEAKER_00 41:15

It is indeed. Of course, we did Speed Nebraska, did uh did the Hot Wheels races uh as part of our uh did that. We did the soapbox derby, um, we did the famous uh uh red wagon race at at the bourbon. Oh, yeah, yeah. So like think about the bourbon when you come in there, how when you first come in and there's sort of the concession stand that's down there when it was a theater. Yeah, and so if you start on one side of it and you go around into the other side of it, we figured out that you could have like a red wagon, you have to have one person in it, and the other person's behind it, they're kind of the edge and so the person sitting it has to steer it. Oh, wow. And the person behind them had to push it, and we did time trials for that. And of course, it's been Nebraska, so there was a trophy that somebody won at the end of it. And uh Lee Meyer Peter and his team were there, they were like the pit crew because red wagons weren't made to do this, and so we had to keep repairing them as we were going along just to keep the action moving, and so it certainly is one of those memorable speed events, and just like the Hot Wheels races and the soapbox derby, you know, just all those things.

SPEAKER_02 42:16

Is a brilliant idea, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:18

Uh so just things that just things that that are fun. John Taylor and I are usually just talking about something one day, and we're like, you know what we ought to do. That's and that's that's how we did. We had done the Hot Wheels races, and we had done the red the red wagon, and and we're like, you know what, we we need to do like a soapbox derby, and we found out Omaha has a soapbox derby track, and you can put a race on there, and so we did all that, and we encouraged a bunch of people to make some crazy cars and things like that. And and uh how many injuries came out of that? Well, that was sort of the last one was when when John goes hospitalized at the end of it, so that was when we were like, you know, maybe we're an age when we shouldn't be doing this still, and so you want to, though. So we kind of took a break in that from doing those things, but keep doing shows and keep putting records out and just being inspired by that. And there's no reason to stop. No, not at all. And what I think is great about this record is like you have, you know, Domestica, of course, and and bad, bad men, and and uh uh uh wagon blasters, and and uh so some of these guys that we've all been playing in bands together over the years and know each other all the years, but then we have some of those younger folks in here too, Untel and and uh uh pagan athletes and and cat pizza, you know, just trying to uh continue on with it. And you know, Speed Nebraska is never about the past, it's always about now. And it's always what's coming up next. And so that's that's that that's where we where where we need to be.

SPEAKER_02 43:46

How many records uh what number are you up to on the um let me think for a minute.

SPEAKER_00 43:53

Um Is it on the on the on the sleeve? I don't you know, I should probably count more than I do. Um So we do like and and it should be easier to keep track of. So when we first started it, I did the numbering series, it was all the hundreds. Yeah. And so the first record was one hundred, and the second was two hundred. So then we got to nine and we're like, now what? And so we had done CDs before, because the first CD we did was full blown. And uh so we numbered that ten thousand. So we're like, all right, well, the CDs will be ten thousand, and so then when we got done with nine, we're like, well, we can't jump to ten thousand because we already use that for CDs, now what? And so we had a meeting, uh Mike Tulas and I sat down together, like, what are we gonna do? And and we had a really good conversation about it, and and what we decided was when uh Chrysler always had what were called A bodies, um, which are uh like valiants and dusters and uh darts and B bodies, which were like uh chargers and and uh C bodies, which were like Furies, and cars. And so we decided along that same lines the next series would be A. So we did A100, and then we did B100, and so we're so that helped us kind of keep track of it too, because I think we're in the Bs right now, so that means we're over we're over 20 at least, so uh 45s we put out, and lots and lots of CDs. Of course, ideal cleaners uh felt like they were putting out a CD every other month, so they were very, very active band on the label and doing lots of things, and uh, and then then we've just done just a couple full lengths now. Um Clarence Chilton has has their full length, uh their latest full length on the label, and then Bad Bad Men, of course, and uh and then the compil the Speed Lightning compilation, and um I can't think of I'm forgetting something else. We've done like some sort of like reissue things like like the the Frontier Trust Speed Nebraska, full length. Um Bernie McGinn, who lives in San Francisco now, um, found some CDs but no covers. So we pressed up some covers, so we did a reissue of that on Speed Nebraska, on CD uh for that. And so just you know, always trying to honor uh uh the things that we've done and make sure that the music that we put out is to me it's important that it's it's active um original music. It's people that that have something to say. And and so you know, we try to not be, you know, whatever's on the radio. We've been in the music scene long enough where you've seen those kinds, where there's bands that are like, whatever's the latest, greatest thing, let's try to sound like that. And you know, I when REM was first really big, everybody wanted to be REM, and everybody wanted to be the replacements, and then every, you know, you name it. Everybody wanted to be Nation of Ulysses, you know. I mean, just I wish everybody was Nation of Nation of Ulysses. They wish they were Nation of Ulysses.

SPEAKER_02 46:50

Oh man. You know, they don't get brought up enough in the Nation of Ulysses, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:56

Let's talk about them.

SPEAKER_02 46:57

So there's a is it National Ulysses? It might be the what's the band after them? The makeup? I think it's the makeup, yeah. Saw the makeup at Cock Factory.

SPEAKER_00 47:07

That was like a life-changing.

SPEAKER_02 47:08

There's a uh uh uh video, Joel Gibson. Did you know remember him? He was back from the day, but he videoed a lot of stuff. And it he's got like uh the people like uh uh the makeup in a basement. Uh all these shows at uh Shake's and Blockface Herman and We played at Shakes with a Veil. A veil, that was amazing. They just got back together. Yeah, they just played.

SPEAKER_00 47:37

So I think that, you know, I mean, and then to me, that's always been kind of the trick of it, music-wise, is just because for myself personally, I grew up in a home where we listened to a lot of country music. Yeah, and my dad always had country eight-tracks. I mean, I can still think of them. He had a Hank Williams eight-track, and he had Patsy Klein and Wayland Jennings, he had the Outlaws, of course, and and Willie Nelson, and Floyd Kramer. I mean, so all these different A-tracks over and over again in the truck. And then, and then when I first started listening to Minutemen and Black Flag and Hoosker Doo, and I'm like, wait a minute, this is something else, and minor thread, and just all these punk rock bands that that really inspired me a lot, you know, but but I still have that background personally of of country music and things like that. And so for me, that that's kind of the combination of oh, it makes that makes total sense.

SPEAKER_02 48:30

So I like to ask people this question like so when you're when you're a young Gary Dean Davis, uh I'm always young Gary Dean Davis. When you were very young, Gary Dean Davis, not an adult. I asked you about number two parts. Number one is where were you getting your music? How were you learning about this music? Okay, and number two, uh, when did you realize that you could be in a band?

SPEAKER_00 48:59

Okay. Um, well, I you know either way. So originally listening to music as a kid, um, we had older cousins that had record collections of 45s, and they would move on from them, and they'd just give us a box of 45s, and so we would have to dig through them and find the treasures in it. And and in in in my family, six kids, everybody wanted to dig in that box, and everybody, you know, whoever got to it first got what they thought was the best. But I realized that uh um the things I wanted out of that box were nothing like anybody else wanted, and so it was gonna be okay. And so things like that that we would dig out, and then just my dad's record collection that I still have today. I have like his buddy Holly records, and and just love, love, love those and and enjoyed listening to those, and and then just other things um just that original, and then and then finding out about record stores, and you know, of course, everybody goes through the Columbia House Record and Tape Club because you pay that penny and you get you have an instant record collection, yeah, yeah. And and you you don't know the the the the fine ink on on that contract which said you actually paid for all of those, but it was gonna take some time, but um but then going to um going to home going to Homers and Pickles for the first time, and then of course discovering drastic plastic. I mean, where were you going to be able to do that? And so it was tough for me because I grew up I grew up near Elk City in Bennington, so out in the country, and so to go into Omaha was always an adventure. And every time I went downtown, I ended up driving the wrong way down a one-way street because one-way streets didn't exist where I grew up. And so it's like, oh, wait a minute, there's one-way streets. Well, how does this work? And so um, but going to Jurassic Classic for the first time, um, I went there and and got to meet Henry Rollins when Black Flag was in town, and bought he had his his very first book. Oh, okay. And I bought his book, uh, which is his birthday. Um see if I can remember. It was like 2161 or something like that. If I can remember the exact it's it's his birth date. And uh and uh he was just hanging out out there and autographed the autographed it. He just wrote Henry and did the black flag bars, and uh um, but just finding out about drastic plastic and finding out about punk rock, some guy I worked with first talked to me about punk rock one time, and I'm like, what is punk rock? And talked to me about the misfits and talked to me about black flag and and uh suicidal tendencies and all these crazy bands over the years, and and for me originally it was buying those compilations because because you you had a limited budget, and I want to find out about all these bands, and so like one of the most important ones was was the blasting concept that SST put out that had black flag on it, Saccharin Trust, which I just thought was a fantastic band that evolved as a band so much, later became kind of a jazz band, and it was just like but they were a punk rock jazz band, and so it's like they never left punk rock no matter what kind of music they played, and so um so I think that that discovery of those places that you could go to and find those things and and just be amazed that that that even existed, and then the big revelation for me was going to shows and bands sold you their music, so it wasn't you didn't have to go to a store, you had to go to somebody. It's like, you want to buy a record? This is my record. Oh, okay, and so buying those records and doing that and finding out for the first time. I remember I went into Pickles and uh on just west here on Dodge Street, and finding out that the band Cellophane Ceiling put out a cassette tape. And I'm like, who's this? I've never heard of this band. They're like, oh, well, they're from here, they're from here? Like you can be from here and put a cassette out, and like a cassette was like like the thing, you know, like you really made it big. And so buying that cassette and finding out that there was music in our town too, and there was people doing viable things, and so I think all of that coming together um made me feel like maybe I could be in a band too, and just you know, I never felt like I could be in a band. Bands always seemed to be like things that musicians did, and I was never a musician. I mean, I played in in band in elementary school and junior high, and but but never considered myself a real musician or anything like that. And so, um, but I think like yeah, I keep I keep mentioning the Minutemen that that's just a band that to me was just like they did so many different things in their music that just felt like there's something for everybody in this. And and I felt like when you read interviews about Dee Boone and Mike Watt talking about what it meant to be in a band, you got that sense of like we're all supposed to do this. And I felt like Joe Strummer said that too. It's just like, what are you doing? Get busy, whatever it is. If taking pictures is your thing, take pictures, do it. If putting out a fanzine is your thing, do a fanzine, do it, make something happen, be part of your music scene, be part of your community, even if it's not just music, if it's art, you know, whatever it is, get engaged, express yourself. And and I think that that feeling of that through punk rock, as well as a lot of the things that I was reading that that that made me feel energized by that, you know, whether it's whether it's reading Franz Kafka or reading George Orwell or just you know, or or or James Baldwin, just reading people that that are inspired and can express their inspiration and and how they communicate. I think punk rock does such a great job of that. And and and so to me personally, that's what spoke to me that made me feel like, and and the first band I was in, the press, I was uh I was a DJ in a in this very neighborhood, uh an authentic pirate radio station. Oh, really? So we operated on the FM dial without an without a license to do so. And we were we were teenagers, and and those are things that teenagers do sometimes. And and Christian Slater kind of stuff. And and and primarily to play punk rock records. And um we are we got too big for our branches in some ways. Uh we were actually broadcasting 24 hours a day. We would make tapes to run overnight and things like that. And we kind of could broadcast. We the the person whose house we were in, his dad was an engineer and put a big antenna on top of the house. And so we could get like a five-mile radius. Oh wow. And and so we had advertisers, I mean, we were we were doing everything, and and the FCC showed up and said, You can't do that anymore. Oh my god. And so through that, we decided to work with Cox Cable and do cable FM as a radio station, and so that cost some money, and so to do that, we had to do a fundraiser, and and we played local music on there too, of course. And and so a bunch of local bands said, Yeah, we'll play a show for it. We did it right around the corner here at the A. B. Swords and Library, and so we were booking all these bands, and so myself and and some of the other DJs from the radio station were like, Well, we want to be in a band too. You know, like these bands are playing, we want to play. And so we decided to form a band, and and that first band, uh the press, we sort of knew how to play parts of instruments and things like that, but so much so that like every other song we switched instruments. Oh so at that first show, I played bass on a couple songs, I played drums on a couple songs, and I sang a couple songs.

SPEAKER_02 56:35

Interesting, interesting.

SPEAKER_00 56:36

Yeah, and so but we kind of decided my my the other drummer could count to four, and I can only count to two. So, because of that, going forward, he became the regular drummer. And I did anybody from that band get into any other bands? Um, we one of the songs that that band did, Pioneer Disaster recorded and put on the cassette. It's on the it's also on the 45 that Speed put out. Did any other musicians um I don't know that those guys went on to do anything? Mickey became a translator, well, joined the Navy, and then he became a translator and he lived in Ukraine. Oh wow, teaching teaching English to Ukrainians and loved it, loved it, loved it. And the war, because of the war, he had to come back to the United States, and then he got sick and and passed. And and and so I don't know that and Chad Brown was a guitar player, but I I don't know that any of those guys ever did anything.

SPEAKER_02 57:33

So then from there I I became part of Pioneer Disaster and and then and then then the Frontier Trust, and then you know, convincing the kids, you know, uh nowadays, uh uh uh you know Lincoln just has this new thing called music box, and they have a spot where you can the city puts it together now where you can record, you can practice, you can do all this stuff. Right, right. And this thing, I mean, this kind of stuff didn't exist back then.

SPEAKER_00 58:02

Right. And that's the toughest part is find a place to practice. I talked about how we how we we practice at at the Cog Factory, and then we used to practice uh down 40th here, um a place that John Wolfe lived in before, and then Joe Komarowski lived in there, and I think Bob uh Thornton lived in there, and it was above a carpet factory. So likewise there was like sound deadening, and and I was still on that same schedule, so we would we would practice late at night up there.

SPEAKER_02 58:30

Uh there's a carpet factory in Lincoln that's banned the return. I don't know if you remember the return. Uh the return? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember those guys. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:40

Yeah, they had he had like a studio in a carpet factory. So there's two carpet. Same kind of thing, just to deaden the sound a little bit. And so, yeah, it was popular plays. Always tough to find a place uh to practice that that you can not get yelled at for being loud or the police come and things like that, which which happened, but I don't know. You know, there's different different things like that that happened. One of the you know, you talk about shows that we played and that one of my favorite ones, I still have the flyer for it. Um, this um Amy Westergren who uh owns that Ivana Cone ice cream place. All right, so she lived in an apartment over here on Leavenworth, like 24th and Leavenworth neighborhood. And um she decided to let um the press and mousetrap play in her apartment. What could go wrong there?

SPEAKER_02 59:31

Not thinking.

SPEAKER_00 59:32

And and so it wasn't enough that, but but at the time, if the press was playing a show, we needed to make flyers for it. And so we made flyers, and there was that newspaper, the Metropolitan, and they would put it at UNO, they'd drop a bunch of them, and I would take the newspapers and stuff our flyers in it. So, like everybody who got the Metropolitan, and people would actually, that's something they were supposed to pay to do. So Metropolitan's not in business anymore, so I don't think I'm in trouble or anything. But but young punk rock guy, we would we would stick our our flyers or in there just to get them out to people, and and she was just like, You flyered a show in my apartment. I'm like, yeah, and um, so just uh things things like that that that that that we do that that's just fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:17

Well the kids nowadays have like the academies of rock, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:22

Yeah, we didn't really have anything like that. Nobody had that in the but now you know it's but that's good because I think that what the people that have their kids be a part of that, and I think the the the the people that are on the band until are kind of an example of that because they did that Omaha girls rock, and and Kate's helped out with that before and and and volunteered uh to teach music to people, and you have a gift and you want to give it. Yep. And so I I think people as as our generation has aged, we want to give back in that way and and make those opportunities that we didn't have available for our kids and and things like that. My my kids played a variety of instruments. My daughter is uh works with kids now and then and is just a prof she's a professional actor in Chicago and does plays and things like that, but sings beautifully and and performs in that way. Um my son Dean played guitar for a little bit and piano for a little bit. Um and my son Henry um did lots of percussion things and has played with the Omaha Symphony before and and studied at the Conservatory of Music and played with the with the orchestra at Creighton Prep. So when's the family band coming together? Well, and we kept talking about that. Like, do you want a drum set? And he's a percussionist and this and that. He's like, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. And then finally the other day he said, you know what? I want to learn how to play bass. And he's never played bass, and so we went over to Lydget over in Council Bluffs and got him a starter bass and a and a practice amp, and and he's going at it right now. So awesome! Congratulations! So we'll see, we'll see what's next. So oh, we're trying, you know. We but I think the most important thing is just like um I heard um Judy Bloom was on the radio the other day talking about um writing, and and she said, you know, the most important skill to have to be a great writer is to be a great reader, and and to make sure that that that you're in it. And I think the same is true about music that if you want to be a great musician, you need to be a great music fan. And you need to be listened to a lot of different types of music and find different things. And and I think in there, you know, I listen to a lot of jazz music, you know, and I listen to a lot of, you know, we've uh my my wife is a is a church singer, and so we listen to a lot of a lot of faith-based music, and we sing a lot of faith-based music in my house, and so you know, just just just having that variety of music. Gospel. Absolutely, absolutely, and his church music is just amazing.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:48

I uh uh wow, yeah. Uh I you know, I gotta go back a second here. You're talking about being a DJ. I don't know if you've heard this, but I heard some kind of grumbling that Omaha is starting a community radio station, kind of like KZUM is in like it. That would be awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:08

So, you know, uh I would love to be a part of it. I mean, I always I I think so. I have a journalism degree, yeah, and I worked in radio, and and um felt like I was missing something, and I became an educator because of that, and just felt like I needed to give something back to my community. And being in radio is an important job, and and you do give a lot to your community, but but for me, I I felt it's really, really important to be an educator. Yeah, and and so, but I still feel like I could still do radio, and then and I feel like I was talking to my son about this just the other day. I said, I think I'd be a better DJ today than I was then just being of the age that I am.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:48

Gary, I've been on the radio for almost uh let me see here, 11, almost 15 years. Right. If I can do it, Gary.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:00

And I haven't been thrown off yet. One of the teachers that that worked at at my school, he moved to a small town and and uh uh just as a fun thing, he picked up a classic country shift at the at a radio station in his town that's doing that. So we've been talking about a lot of the classic country things and and enjoying that.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:19

And and uh we just uh Ross Schlesinger just started a show on our our on K ZUM. So Flack Blake has a show on K Z U M now. Right, right. I I love the community radio. I love the to me it's it's like you are a community radio kind of person, you listen to all the different music. If you get the community radio, you're every two hours you're gonna get something different, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:44

Right, yeah. Um well and it's funny because we were talking about that. So in this building right here where uh where the drugstore was, okay, right above it, was uh K Radio, when it moved out of the house and was on on uh cable FM and all that stuff, um, they used to be housed right up there. And and when I finally left it, just because I was playing in the band and we were getting busier with things, and so it became tough to have a I had a job, but but I but the radio ship was kind of for fun, and so I had to let something go. I need to have I I that time I was doing that, I needed to be band practice, things like that. And so so my last shift as as a radio DJ was was in this building. Oh nice, awesome, awesome. Well, until you get an extra shift. And and my last shift, I played you you had like a regular list of things you were supposed to play, but you had the ability to do what you want. But on my last shift, I played John Coltrane, and I played Hank Williams, and uh I played Black Flag and I played Benetman, and so I I I just kind of I I You know, I'm gonna say anytime you want to come down to Lincoln on a third day between 10 and

SPEAKER_02 1:06:00

Dude, you can come and you can DJ, you can take over my show whenever you want. That would be fun. Play whatever you want. That would be fun.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:08

The only thing is gotta be the FTT compliance. Well, of course, yeah. And and you know, I mean, as a DJ, what I would always do is there was like the regular stuff you were supposed to play, but you know, I would just play whatever, especially like trying to play local stuff. I mean, I like um the band from Lincoln Elysium Crossing. Oh, yeah, yeah. So I knew about their and I had I had their cassette, and somewhere along the lines, they had a show in town or something, and they called the radio station, or I think I played it for them or something. Like, or they could somehow there was a connection, and they're like, We're in the band Elysium Crossing. I said, Wow, I have your cassette right here. And they're like, You do? And I said, Yeah, I bought it at you know, at Homer's or Pickles or Jurassic Plastic, wherever it was selling, uh, dirt cheap. And uh I said, Yeah, I love you guys. I said, Well, you guys should stop by, I'll interview. And they're like, Really? And so they just like spur of the moment, they showed up and I had them on the radio.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:04

So that's that's amazingly cool. Yeah. Uh uh. Wow. Alright, so uh not only are you an amazing rock and roller, but you're a shaper of children.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:22

I'm a school principal. Yes. I have been, this will be my 28th year of being being a Catholic educator. Uh how long have you been a principal? Well, uh 24 years. 24 years of a principal. So you just you went straight into management. Um well, I was a I was a classroom teacher for four years, and then my first job, I was technically a head teacher, which meant I was the principal and had to do everything a principal had to do, but I also had classes that I taught still. And so I was I was a PE teacher and I did confirmation preparation, and then I was the librarian working with middle school kids, and I just loved that experience with it. It was a great transition going from being a classroom teacher because working with kids is what you love and why you do it. And then being a principal sometimes is tough, and and uh, but that transition of still having that opportunity to work with kids, so much so that when when um I finished my master's degree and could officially be a principal and didn't have to be the head teacher, I kept being it. Oh, really? And so I did that for nine years, yeah. So what age group is uh your school? My school is preschool through eighth grade. Okay, and so that's three-year-olds through 14.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:37

So very, very uh moldable, not moldable, that's not the right word I'm looking for, but very, very vulnerable time in kids' life.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:48

It can be, but being a faith-based environment really gives us a good opportunity, and partnering with our parents is the essential component of that too. And and we have a great team of teachers, and it and it's just uh the school I'm at, it just is an amazing community, and and lots of people involved, volunteers, and as well as people that work there. Everybody is is really trying to do the work of Jesus, and I think that that's that's the huge part about it, and and that's that's our focus every day.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:17

Uh you know, it's an honorable, it's an honorable profession. Oh, I love it. Yeah. Uh teachers, nurses, you know. People who are in care of other people. Yeah. Hospice nurses should be made goals.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:32

They're on the way to sainthood already, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:34

They should, you know, uh there's no doubt about that. But okay, uh, a couple last questions. Okay. First off, you're from Bennington?

SPEAKER_00 1:09:43

Yeah, out near Bennington, um, sort of between Bennington and Elk City. Okay. Uh we're gonna okay, well, let's do Omaha. So so that was kind of tough for me when when I started first starting to come into Omaha and going to punk rock shows and things like that, where I wasn't really from here. And so so there was kind of that, I wouldn't say there was like tension about that, but just kind of felt kind of outsider, you know. And and but I but there's lots of people that you meet, and Omaha has a really, really great music community before that. And and I think that a lot of people were really, really inviting. And and I and I felt real strength in that and and and still lifelong friendships.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:25

I think most music communities, be it punk rock, be it metal, be it whatever. Oh, absolutely, yeah. If you come to the community, yeah, you're gonna get invited.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:34

Yeah, that's right. That's right. They want you to be a part of it. We enjoy this, we want to share it.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:39

One of us. Absolutely. One of us, you know, I mean, in a good way.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:43

And and and that feels really good about that, so much so, and and and Omaha is a really good example of that. Lincoln's a really good example of that. We we had such a great follow with Frontier Trust, we had such a great following in St. Louis. I was most honored when we played, and and my my dad's family is from Shamina, um, which is near Hannibal, Missouri. Yeah, yeah. And and so, so much so that we played a show there and on the flyer, they they were listening where all the bands were from, and they said Frontier Trust, and they they wrote on their from here. So I did a tour with that. We were being embraced that. We were we were part of their community.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:19

I did a tour with Smallball Paul. Yes. I did, I went on the road with them one time. That was a great band. That was they they had the best house because right up their house was like the world's fair donut place. Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh man.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:36

My guy, he needs a spiking, just thinking about it. We played a show right there. That that's that's one of our famous shows because um Darius Rucker came to our show there. Oh, nice, nice, nice. And we're like, well, what is he doing here? Like, so it's just it's just funny. Some of the different shows and well-known people come to it. Um, the band no doubt. Um, we played just over here over on Farnham, so on 40th and Farnum apartment show, and uh we played down in the basement, and uh and no doubt was playing, I don't know where they were playing, some someplace bigger than that, but they heard about it and came to the show, and and uh they they they thought they could just come in because of who they were, and they weren't budgeting, they're like it's five bucks. And so so so Gwen Stefani has paid money to see me sing before, but I don't think I've ever paid money to see her sing. You should put that on a record or a or a sticker. All right, we're gonna no offense to Gwen. I'm sure she's a lovely person, but no, no one says no.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:41

I meant the everybody else in the band except for her. Because I when I was with the specials, they did uh LA at the Right, right, right. Yeah, yeah, they were part of that scene. The blues, uh the uh oh god, the the the blues brothers uh Bills, whatever. But they were all there to see the specials, but she was in England with like Gavin or something. Okay, but that's my no-doubt story. Uh but alright, we're gonna do Lincoln quick. All right, meet Omaha quick. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:12

We're going out. Where are we eating? Lots of great restaurants in Omaha. I mean, you you you just can't go wrong. Um, my number one pick is usually Greek Islands. And I've been going to Greek Islands since they opened in the 80s and they've been in a couple different locations that I just I love Greek food a lot. I love when they light the cheese on fire and yell Opa. I love it's dinner and a show. And uh so so that's that's probably my number one. I love garats, it's steak house, Johnny's, yeah, uh Johnny's Cafe is is is really amazing. I love I love these family-owned restaurants. Uh we used to go to El Alamo on on 24th Street all the time, great uh uh Mexican food restaurant, and uh Best Diner. Used to be the Lemonworth, but of course Lemonworth's closed, but um that that that used to be um used to go out uh what's the one out north on uh um North 30th? Um I can't think of the name of it, but anyways, that place was really pretty amazing. There's some new ones like Lemon Tree and Ralston. Um that's that's a newer one. They had a fire, but then they did like uh they they did like a truck thing and and sold some of the things out of there to help them get get back on their feet and and and did some really, really great things through that. Um you know there's a couple my favorite ones are in Chicago actually. Just we we go to Chicago pretty often to see my daughter and and uh have our favorite ones there. So um all right, so uh bagel bin.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:46

Okay, okay. Uh uh Adult Beverages. If someone's going out for adult beverages, the night on the town. Where are you sending them? Where are you gonna go? Where are you sending them?

SPEAKER_00 1:14:57

Oh, Leavers is always fun, and there's always great bands that play there. Reburb, I mean, those are places we get to play a lot. Page turns, of course. Uh waiting room, and and uh those are fun. Uh Jerry's is is a great place to go to just to hang out. You know, they don't usually do bands or anything like that, but it's just kind of a fun place to just kind of just be. And uh I miss Brothers. Brothers was amazing because brothers was just they're your friends. And so, you know, it was just some there's lots if if if we if brothers was open, that's where we would be right now. Oh, 100%. So and I've done interviews at Brothers before. So those are those are really, really great places. Um, there's a place right by my house called Perry's that that that uh um my wife likes a lot and and my son is uh is is amused by. And uh so um I you know I think I think some of those places it it's usually going out with friends and and just kind of hanging out.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:57

The hidden gem of Omaha.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:59

The hidden gem. Um for what? Anything. I mean, my wife is part of the stoysage family, so trying stoisage meets is is kind of a hidden gem of Omaha, I think, sometimes. I'll take it, I'll take it. They do they do some amazing things uh that that that I love a lot. Um you know uh well okay, we're good, we're good on that.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:20

Okay, all right. So this is my last question. If someone's coming to Nebraska for a holiday or vacation, where are you sending them?

SPEAKER_00 1:16:31

If they're coming to Nebraska itself, yeah, um I love this the Speed Museum down in Lincoln. My dad and I would go to that, and you're the person that's mentioned that. And and and I think that's that's a must-see kind of place. Um I think um you know, Car Henge, Chimney Rock, some of those iconic places, um, Pioneer Village. You know, I mean, just think about like getting in the car and you're going to play so you sit in Nebraska. So I'm trying to think of things less. Um, you know, the Willow Cather house and and Red Cloud is is is pretty amazing. And uh we played at Lions, Nebraska. They have that that theater where it folds down in the middle of its downtown. I mean, just crazy things like that that exist that are like, okay, why is this here? And it who cares, it is, and people love it and and enjoy it. And so I think I think this though about Nebraska or about any community in that sense, I'm still finding new things. And and so I don't, you know, I I've I've lived here a lot of years, but but but I I still find new things, and I'm always looking for new things too. And so I think that's an important part of things you gotta do. Um, you gotta go to Grapefruit Records, uh, you gotta go to Homer's Records. I mean, those are the places to go to get get great music, and and uh there's Lincoln's got a bunch of great record stores too that that carry the speed titles and and uh um love the uh uh Zero Street and uh what's the I'm trying to think on the other one that um New First Day, I think it's called uh birthday vinyl, yeah. Yeah, that's a fantastic place. So I mean I think lefties and then there's uh backtrack. Yeah, so I mean finding finding music and because that to me, anytime I go out of town, that's the first thing I want to do is go to a record store because that's where you're gonna meet some like-minded people and find different things, and you might not um you know, I don't know, you you might just find something that you hadn't thought about. I we were in Arizona, we went out there for spring training, my son and I did. And of course, we went to a record store, and we went to a taco place to begin with, and there are a bunch of guys hanging out there with hot rods, and next thing we know, we're walking down the street, and there's a bunch of lowriders having a car show in the middle of the street. Oh my god, and just random things that we found. And we went to the record store, and my son found a bunch of things. He's a big vinyl head, and and but like CDs too. Good parenting, yeah. And and I found uh a book about uh uh Fugazi in On the Kill Taker. So one of those 33 and a third records, all about the making of that record, and you know those those those books are just amazing and give kind of that story of it. And I'd always listen to that record, but I had an even new renewed appreciation of of that record in particular, and you know, that everybody, of course, settles in on those those first ones, and and uh, you know, but but just a it never ends. They that you know Fugazi continued to be a great band all the way through. Oh man.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:34

All right, well, we're out of time. Uh thanks for letting me be on it. Um, Gary, thank you for the time.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:39

Always appreciate it. You're one of my favorite people, Dave Raby. So I appreciate all that you've done for our community, all the times that you've let us come when you were part of Duffy's and let us come play there, and your appreciation of us at the big red Roccarama and and uh at the zoo bar and and uh I mean all of those things. You've always you've always been a big fan of of the music scene and and a big supporter of that. And and uh yeah, it's it's an honor to know you.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:07

Thank you very much. That means so much. Uh we got a shout out Bill, who was supposed to be here. William's supposed to be here. He got naked here, he got got held up by work. That that happens sometimes. I'll do another one. I'm gonna do another one. I'm gonna do that.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:19

You have to do one with just him and let him do all the talking. Heck yeah. Yeah, I I sometimes maybe talk too much, so give him a chance to express.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:27

Hey, uh, thank make sure you like, subscribe, hit the button, comment, uh, follow, whatever, whatever the things you're supposed to do. Uh thanks to the sponsored. Uh thanks for Page Turner for letting us be here, Mark. Yeah, right on.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:42

We saw Mark Robinson here the other day from Unrest. He did a fantastic show. Oh, awesome, awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:48

All right, be excellent to each other and party on, kids.