Words | Dirty

Where do I start? OK, my name is Dave [Dirty to some] and I play in the Louisville, Kentucky, USA band the Glasspack. We for the first time had the pleasure of being invited to play the official 2007 SXSW Music Conference in Austin, TX as part of our label's Small Stone Records Showcase at Room 710 to promote our new SSR release "Dirty Women."
This is mainly a music industry festival, so fans are few and far between. The bands mostly play for press, record labels, distributors, and friends. I heard the word on the street "Shit for the fans, good for the bands." I assume this is due to the high price of a badge to enter the shows at night and the undeniable raise of drink prices when the SXSW people enter the clubs to take over. However, things go on everywhere during the day for FREE! This is where the fans get a piece of what's going on, personal & free of charge.

I was invited to play with the Pack at the SSR night event and also invited to play with my side project Muddy Nasty River at the SSR day event. The day party also housed my buddy Joey's band, Iota, as well as Tim and Dale's band Porn. There were others too, but I cannot write forever. I am preparing to promote the release of our new Glasspack record, "Dirty Women" from Small Stone Records. This is the story of a long trip from Kentucky to Texas, SXSW 2007, and back to Kentucky. It takes 16 hours to get from Kentucky to Austin, TX. And that's a firm 16 hours of driving, so I had a lot of time to drive and think...



On Wed. March 14, 2007, I woke up with hardly any sleep at 6:30 in the morning to go with my girlfriend Jamie [bassist of Muddy Nasty River] to obtain a rental van. We got to Enterprise Car Rental, lied about going out of state and at the first gas station, she pulled over to let me take over. I then drove to pick up Mark [drummer of Muddy Nasty River] and head off to get some cheap Kentucky smokes, yes they are only $3 here still, keeping my ass hooked. Tobacco is the biggest cash crop in Kentucky. During World War II, hemp was the biggest cash crop for rope, until they pulled the plug on the narcotic side. It's still around though, trust me.

Anyway, Mark & I ventured to the local coffee shop for a latte and then went back to my home to meet Brett Holsclaw [Glasspack drummer] and Dave Mancini [Glasspack bassist] whom we will refer to as Boogie from here out, since I am also Dave. We loaded the equipment and hauled ass. Oh yeah, almost forgot to mention that I had to take Lemmy along. Lemmy is my best friend, he is a 100% English bassett hound and he is very needy. I could not possibly leave him with anyone but Jamie, and she was going with us as well. So Lemmy hopped his little silly ass into the van too and we we're off, hauling ass and blazin' Kentucky's other cash crop.

I started driving and this is where it gets boring. Drive. Drive. Piss. Drive. Drive. Smoke up, chug coffee. Drive. Drive. Eat. Drive. Drive. Piss. Drive. Drive. Smoke up, chug coffee. Drive. Drive. Eat. Drive. Drive. Smoke up, no more coffee. Get just past Texarcana and camp. 12 fuckin' hours of driving and I was about to collapse. So we get to this camp site, I can't remember the name but there on the other side of the beautiful lake was a giant power plant, lit up like New York on New Year's Eve and smoking like a national Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. I thought Dick Clark was going to come out on a balcony and mumble some shit no one can understand. That was the weirdest place in nature I have ever camped.

I figured we'd wake up the next morning covered in soot like fuckin' Pompeii or something, skin burning, and looking like zombies. We smoked up, slept, took Lemmy for a walk, and then crashed. When we woke up the next day, everything was ok. I guess only time will tell if the shit in the air affected us. We took some showers, ate something, smoked up, let Lemmy drops some kids off at the pool, packed up, and hauled ass again. This time we would make it nearly to Austin without stopping.

Arriving in Austin on Thursday March 15, we checked into the hotel near the airport, a few miles away from the festival. Brett & I decided to go straight to the SXSW check in point to let them know we were there. The others stayed behind to take showers at the hotel. We found the convention center and it was a beast of a convention center with multiple levels and booths. Finally we found the line for artist check-in and ran into Greg from Bible of the Devil. He was booking our East Coast May 2007 Tour. We chatted our way through the line, got our stuff, and went back to the hotel. At the hotel, we tore up some of granny's barbeque chicken and decided to get out and see some shit. We headed to the festival.



Not finding much to our tastes at SXSW, we decided to go check out the annual Terrible One BMX Party at their headquarters and ramps down the street from SXSW. We got there to find a couple kegs of beer and a bunch of dudes waiting around for some bands to play on the ramps. One of the bands was Tia Carrera, an awesome band we had played with before in Austin.
I asked if it was ok to bring Lemmy in and Joe [owner of Terrible One Bikes company] said ok. I had been having a hard time trying to get Lemmy to poop on the way down from Kentucky. After a while at the party, I hear a bunch of clapping and don't see Lemmy anywhere so I knew he was up to something. He had apparently strutted up onto the ramp and shit right in front of the singers microphone and everyone loved it!
Tia Carrera played and their bassist's amplifier caught on fire and was blazing while they were playing. The bassist didn't even notice. And then some drunk guy took off all his clothes and started dancing around! We hung out there for a while, got some excellent Mexican food and then went back to SXSW when the sun went down.

I headed over to Emo's Annex outside stage to see Big Business. Jared and I have played a few shows together when he was in the Tight Bros. From Way Back When. I hung out for a while, smoked, and then watched Big Business bring the roof down. These guys have a thick ass fucking sound. These guys rule and Dale Crover was playing guitar with them! After that we walked around a bit and went back to the hotel to get some much needed sleep. Lemmy stayed in the hotel room with us.

The next day, Friday March 16, we got up and did the usual showers and ate. We were running a bit behind since the Muddy Nasty River was opening the Small Stone Records [SSR] Day Party before the evening SSR showcase that the Glasspack was to play. We parked right in front of the club Room 710, through the police barricade with the pass we had. We hoped to be able to hold that position in front of the club all day and night without having to move. I was playing twice, only fair we should get the best parking.

I had to rush to get some coffee and came back to find that Kentucky band, The Vibrolas, were out front of the club and wandering around. Next, we went loaded in all of the stuff, Muddy and the Glasspack were to share equipment. Lemmy was allowed in the club, only to shit again right in front of the stage for a crowd of people laughing. I think he likes to shit for an audience.
Anyway, Muddy Nasty River was the first to play the Small Stone Records Showcase, so we got right to it around 1:30PM, I can't remember exactly. I just know that I wasn't cut out to play shows before the sun goes down. I always have a hard time with the day light and rock 'n'roll combo. I struggled through the first half of the set just trying to wake up. By the end, it was ok I guess. At least I was warmed up for the Glasspack.

The Pack was to play at 8 that night so we put the equipment in the corner of the club after MNR, and hung around town all day. I went and got something to eat and came back to watch Porn play. Before the set I had the pleasure of meeting Dale Crover officially for the first time and sent him with some Glasspack vinyl to rock his world, "American Exhaust." Porn were great, all dressed up in ridiculous costumes, Crover was Elvis. They tore it up, they have always grown on me as a band. Moss plays some seriously fucked up songs, I enjoyed.
After that, it was time for the SXSW people to take over for the night Showcases, the official part of SXSW. Drink prices go up, doormen guard the door to check passes, and bands pile in around 7PM. Then they hang the SXSW banner on the back of the stage. They do this in almost every club in Austin. They're like a secret army.

SO the Glasspack finally gangs up and loads onto to the stage around 7:30 to set up and sound check. It was a typical Glasspack set, except I had the soundman drown the vocals with delay effects. Hehe. We ripped through the set while the club was filling up and went out with a bang on "Louisiana Strawberry."
Next up was to be Slot, a newer Small Stone band that actually was an old 90's band from somewhere in Michigan. And I was looking around for Scott [owner of SSR] when it finally dawned on me [after we packed up] that he was on stage playing guitar with Slot! They were great!

Oddly enough, when the Glasspack was through playing and putting our stuff away, Jello Biafra came up and congradulated us on the set. We were stoked. We hung out with this guy for a bit, long enough for me to tell him that PLASTIC SURGERY DISASTERS FUCKIN ROCKS! We had also met Keith Morris [Black Flag] who too was in attendance for our set.



Next, we finished loading the van and started trying to get down the street to see Totimoshi at the Red 7 club. We opted not to take a SXSW pass and take the payment instead. Thus, we didn't have a pass to get in to see Totimoshi. We had seen them earlier while we were playing at Room 710, they were watching. Lucky for Brett and I, they were playing outside and we stood on some old boxes in an alley to see over the fence for their last couple songs. Totimoshi is a great band from Oakland, seriously, you need to see them play! When Toti was finished we yelled hello and goodbye over the top of the fence.
Next, we finished loading the van and watched Sasquatch rock like hellfire back at Romm 710! After Sasquatch tore the place apart, we started trying to find a place to crash We planned on staying another day but since we could find no place to crash, we were tired, and a SXSW volunteer/employee offered to take us to her house o utside of the city, we figured we would just go on home the next day. We had had enough music for the weekend.

Saturday March 17, 2007. Going home was mostly a big blur of sleep. We tried to find a hotel somewhere in Arkansas but there was a big horse race going on and every hotel was full. So we camped. It was cold. We got up, had some coffee and smoked. Then we got something to eat and drove the rest of the way home. THE END.

EXTRA: Since I have wrote this [which took me sometime], the Glasspack did a complete Eastern U.S. tour, released a new 10” brown split vinyl with Muddy Nasty River on Sleeping Village Records, released a new video, closed a deal for Sleeping Village Records to re-issue Small Stone's "The Glasspack/Powderkeg" on 12" vinyl re-mastered, and just finished putting together a complete U.S. Western Tour for November 2007.