Stickpony

For a short summary of the below please visit www.stickpony.info ------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------------The sad, strange saga of Stickpony begins on a May 1997 night at Austin's Electric Lounge wherein Brit Jones' band Cattleguard (widely and correctly considered the worst band in Austin) were playing what was to be their last performance opening for Athens, GA noise masters Five-Eight. As bass player Al Moreno drunkenly made his fourteenth mistake in an 8 song set, Jones unstrapped his Telecaster and threw it at Moreno. The missile luckily missed, but as the guitar met its end on the side stage floor so did Cattleguard meet their long overdue end that night.Flash forward to July of that same year, where we find Jones and local eccentric and hooligan "Nashville" Bill Wise swilling beer at The Texas Showdown Saloon. The conversation turned to speculation as to what George Jones would have sounded like had he been a meth addict backed up by The Stooges. A decision was instantly made to explore this musical direction with Wise as lead vocalist and guitarist and Jones as rhythm guitarist. The new project was christened The Broomstick Ponies and baptized in Budweiser. "Get a rhythm section together," Nashville Bill beerily instructed Jones, "and I'll start working on songs."Jones found a rhythm section in Austin alterna-goddess drummer Stacey Sperling and drunk-savant bassist Steve MacDonell. Fortuitously, Jones had been working on songs as well as seeking these fellow rock warriors for, as it turned out, Nashville Bill's inability to return phone calls resulted in him not taking his place in the line-up (interestingly, Nashville Bill is now the City of Austin's primary architect for it's world famous Christmastime Trail of Lights). Jones, for lack of a more qualified person, took on lead vocals as well as rhythm guitar, and country guitar virtuoso Craig Davis joined on lead guitar. The band, rechristened Stickpony, convened for the first time in October of 1997.The band debuted at Austin's infamous Hole in the Wall in March of 1998 and blew the crowd, incredulous that Brit Jones could front a band that didn't suck, away. All was not wine and roses, however - tension had ignited between Jones and Davis over the merits of Lynyrd Skynyrd (Davis pro, Jones con) and the fact that Davis wrote much better songs than Jones.As the band prepared to depart on their maiden tour of the Midwest, Davis announced that he was leaving the band. When pressed for a reason, he concocted a story that only a heroin addict could dream up, much less believe, involving his girlfriend and Hawaii. Enough said. With three weeks until departure Stickpony quickly recruited local sad-sack alternative guitarist Wendell Stivers, formerly of Sincola, to fill in on the tour, and on the band's return to Austin he joined as full time lead guitarist.Stickpony entered the studio in late summer 1999 with Meat Purveyors mandolin player Peter Stiles at the production helm and cut "Smilin' Into Nowhere", an 11 song opus that did not end up sounding very much like the band, but was agreed to be a strong debut by many a critic and fan alike. Between the completion of this album and its release in March 2000, guitarist Wendell Stivers discovered that doing speedballs and staying up for 72 hours drinking was more fun than attending band rehearsals. Over the next few months this would cost him a dislocated cornea, his job, and finally his place in Stickpony. On the night of his departure Stickpony performed as a 3 piece on the outside stage at Opal Devine's Freehouse - Stivers, in a fit of pique, parked a car on the street by the stage and repeatedly honked the horn throughout Stickpony's set. He's since been forgiven and is currently on a walking trip from West Africa to Southeast Asia. May he rest in peace.Stivers was replaced by the jaw-droppingly talented Alex Crump, who liked to have a beer or 30 every now and then, and planning commenced for a tour in support of "Smilin'". Roughly four weeks before departure drummer Stacey Sperling announced that she was leaving the band. When pressed for a reason she accused Jones and bassist MacDonell of planning a tour just so they "could get drunk in every city in the Midwest." While this accusation was not entirely baseless, it still hurt Jones and MacDonell's feelings. She went on to say that Jones optimism regarding the future of the band was "driving her crazy" and that he didn't have the talent or ability to bear out such optimism. Jones and MacDonell quickly came to the conclusion that she was mentally ill, perhaps dangerously so, and bid her good riddance. Her whereabouts are currently unknown, although Jones still has nightmares in which she floats ethereally out of an alleyway and stabs out his eyes with hat pins. Pot smoking heavy metal drummer Beau Been was brought in for the tour, which mostly worked out fine.It was during this time that Jones' health went into serious decline. The doctors agreed that it was largely the result of trying to work in a band setting with a bunch of flaky, drug-addled crazy people.Been was replaced on Stickpony's return to Austin with pop-punk drummer Thad Swiderski, formerly of The Wannabes and also a heavy pot smoker. Swiderski proceeded to harangue Jones mercilessly to find a permanent replacement because he "didn't intend to do this forever". Jones was confined to a bed during one of his multiple hospitalizations on an occasion that Swiderski called to indulge in one of these harangues - it so happened that retired punk rock drummer Nathan Fontenot was visiting Jones at the time. Fontenot agreed to come out of retirement and join the band.Over the next three years: Alex Crump quit to take a job and "get my life together" in Chicago. He was replaced by Matt Smith, a third heavy pot smoker with a mysterious inability to learn all the songs or keep his guitar in tune. Nice kid, though. A couple of months after Crump's departure he called Jones from the west coast where he was "taking care of some personal business". He then moved back to Austin, and it wasn't long before Smith was fired (via answering machine, to Stickpony's everlasting shame) and Crump was back in the fold. Jones underwent 8 major surgeries and was finally returned to a condition approaching health.In September 2003 Stickpony finally returned to the studio to begin work on a follow-up to "Smilin' Into Nowhere". Basic tracks were complete by mid-October, at which point the true odyssey of this session began. Bassist Steve MacDonell announced that he was leaving the band to take a job in North Carolina driving refrigerated trucks carrying human body parts. Alex Crump took from October 2003 until September 2004 to complete his lead guitar tracks on the record, and on completion announced that he was leaving the band to "get my life together" and to take a job in North Carolina driving refrigerated trucks carrying human body parts. Hmmm. "Underneath The Beer Light" was released in November 2004 and received some darn nice reviews, thank you. Austin honky tonk legend Lonesome Dave Fisher briefly filled in on bass before long time Austin pro Brian Zoric replaced Steve MacDonell. Crump went on a terrifying, Bukowski-esque three month long drinking binge before departing Austin for North Carolina on New Year's Day 2005. As far as anybody knows he's still there. He was replaced with male nurse Randy Spence.The band entered the studio again in May 2005 and cut five songs with producer Stephen Belans (Alejandro Escoveda, Beaver Nelson) - their most professional work to date. They then sat around drinking beer and talking about how they should find a label to put the EP out for the next 16 months.In January of 2006, Randy departed Stickpony under a mysterious cloud of artificially generated smoke. Much of this smoke seemed to originate with him. Minneapolis transplant Mike Franklin came on board and proceeded to set the land speed record for shortest lived Stickpony lead guitarist. After only one gig it became apparent that his other projects were nearer and dearer to his heart - tragic considering that this was the first time that "other projects" actually meant musical projects and not substance abuse - and he left the lineup in April 2006. Austin honky tonk legend Lonesome Dave Fisher was quickly re-recruited as full time lead guitarist. He's a much better guitarist than bassist, and he's no bad bassist.Miraculously, Stickpony signed to Milan, Italy based indie Club De Musique in late 2006. "Head First Through the Sound" - the aforementioned 5 song EP - was released in February 2007. This release proved to be an exercise in poor timing and futility, as Brian Zoric left the band in March of 2007 before Stickpony could officially release the EP in Austin. Stickpony immediately imploded under the weight of its own ennui with this final departure, and exists now only in the memory of about 250 fans worldwide, most of whom were in the band at one time or another. They did get it together to play one final farewell show, with their friend Shannon Rierson handling bass, on June 1st, 2007 - the 30th anniversary of The Sex Pistols' final show at Winterland in San Francisco. Stickpony's farewell, much like their career, was not nearly so historic. The possibility exists that some form of Stickpony could be persuaded to perform the occassional gig given the proper compensation either in cash or copious amounts of alcohol, but no more product will be forthcoming under the Stickpony brand name. Farewell and God bless.