Lunch with Bill and Jason Eady and Matthew Grimm

by Cindy Chaffin of Life Outside The Bubble

Rebecca traded days with me at work today which gave me an opportunity to head over to Bill's Records and check out my old pard' Matthew "Banger" Grimm and his newest, bestest band Matthew Grimm & the Red Smear. Those of you who have been around the Texas Country music scene for awhile should remember Banger's former band...a little outfit called...The Hangdogs.

Matthew was living in NYC with the other 'dogs until his parents fell ill. Being the good guy that he is, he packed-up and moved to Iowa to take care of 'em. He started giggin' solo 'round the state, then this happened:

"Thundering out of the heartland like twenty thousand midwestern mongols -- that is, polite mongols, who stop to swap insurance information -- Matthew Grimm & The Red Smear are Iowa’s newest bastards of rock & roll and the sworn enemies of all things genteel and orthodox. Grimm, with the venerable guidance of producer/guitarist Pete Anderson, underscores that with the subtlety of a clown-hammer in the blistering, vulgar, impolite record, Dawn’s Early Apocalypse, his first since departing New York, and the pseudo-legendary band he co-founded, The Hangdogs, for his native Iowa."

"Based in Iowa City, the Red Smear plays ass-rattling rock meat-grindered with hefty doses of power pop, punk and habaneros. Fueling the band’s attack are Grimm’s foul-mouthed disdain for a whored and corporatized status quo and disrespect for everything august and sacred, which prompted the Iowa City Press-Citizen to call him the “hardest-hitting leftfielder this side of Manny Ramirez.”

"The other guys, far less didactic and way easier to sit adjacent to on a barstool, have joined Grimm’s Quixotic revolution ostensibly for the free beer. After the Hangdogs became a revolving door in their latter years, Grimm conveived the Red Smear as a loose, modular aggregation of anyone who could tolerate him long enough to play his songs and help him avoid the namby-pamby “singer/songwriter” label." Read more here.

Banger is an honorary Texan fersure. He's buds with the Macon Greyson boys, The Lonelies and a few other assorted local musical cohorts.

MG & the Red Smear performed at Bill's Records this afternoon and I just so happened to be there with my audio dealie.

Click Here to Listen!

Check out the band tonight (Friday, May 12th) at AllGood Cafe around 9 PM. But be sure and get there early for the award-winning Boys Named Sue.

Banger is also one helluva funny S.O.B. so be sure and check out his weekly banter here.

Jason Eady also took the stage at Bill's Records today, and he was quite a pleasure to the ears.

Click Here to Listen

I've seen Jason's name on venue concert calendars quite a bit over the years, and all the good things I've been told about him were absolutely true - this dude has a very bright musical future:

" Born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, on the edge of the famed Delta region which gave birth to its distinct form of American music, Jason Eady is in the tradition of the solitary singer/songwriter.

"While he spent his teens playing in bands and paying homage to the Nashville sound, Jason began to assimilate a variety of musical traditions. At 19, he became disillusioned with the prospect of conforming to the narrow confines of the early 90's Nashville establishment. He joined the Air Force, became proficient as a translator, and tried to reconcile himself to the idea that a career in music was a thing of the past. This strategy might have worked had he not stumbled across the work of Steve Earle. While stationed in England, a friend invited Jason along to hear Earle perform in London. The result was a paradigm shift in the possibilities of what songcraft could be. It also put to rest any notion Jason may have had that he could hide his dreams in a guitar case and watch them gather dust. For a time, he immersed himself in Earle’s music and then expanded his exploration to singer/songwriters like Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, John Prine, and Kevin Welch. While his dream may have remained deferred, out came the guitar and Jason began to forge a unique style of his own."

"Leaving the Air Force in 2000, Jason returned to Mississippi. He got a respectable day job but continued to hone his songwriting skills. In 2002, he moved to Fort Worth, Texas where he discovered a receptive audience for his eclectic sound and new inroads began to appear."

"In early 2005, Jason met with producers Walt Wilkins and Tim Lorsch and the two agreed to produce Jason's debut album. The album, titled "From Underneath the Old" was released in September 2005 and includes twelve songs that Jason wrote between 2004 and early 2005. "From Underneath the Old" showcases Jason's eclectic approach to songwriting with styles that include and interweave elements of folk, gospel, blues, country, rock, and bluegrass. Thanks to the producers' uncompromising approach as well as outstanding performances from an impressive lineup of Americana musicians, the album presents Jason to the world in unabashed form."

Jason and his full band perform tonight at Love & War in Texas - 7:30 PM.

Jason Eady will also perform at Bend Studio, opening for Adam Carroll on Saturday, May 27th.

Be sure and check out more great shows at Bill's Records!

Saturday, May 13th (3:00 PM) - Hosted by Brett Dillon of KHYI w/Allen Hurt / Smokewagon .44 / Randy Hopper - FREE!

You can also find great audio/video from shows at Bill's here at BillsFest.com