About Me
"THE DUCKIE BOYS"
BY BILL FROST.
PROVO'S GREAT WHITE-TRASH HOPE ON THE PUNKGRASS EXPRESS. (1997)Years ago, I lived in a house next door to a group of trailer park rejects. Day and night, they would sit on a ratty couch on the porch of their slumlord-neglected dump, yelling at each other and starting the occasional fist-fight on the lawn. At least I think it was a lawn; it was difficult to tell beneath the blanket of cigarette butts.
They’d even offer me a snort of Mad Dog 20/20 as I walked by on my way to work — at 7 a.m. Once, I made the mistake of leaving a window open and playing my guitar. The next thing I knew, the perpetually-shirtless group had casually walked into my room, spilling Pabst on the carpet and demanding to hear some David Allen Coe.Assuming they’re not all dead from liver failure, my old neighbors would love the Duckie Boys. Hell, the Duckie Boys will be those guys in 10 years, if not sooner.Pennsylvania Dave (bass) scans Bill & Nada’s with nervous paranoia, fighting the urge to light up a Pall Mall. "I’m from Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Hate. I came to Utah to meet up with a girl — she never made it. She was from another country and couldn’t get a work visa."Such is the luck of the Duckie Boys: That’s why their theme song is "Unlucky," the reverb ‘n’ whiskey-soaked title track from their gloriously ragged debut cassette.Unlucky sounds like it was recorded overnight in a county jailhouse. When the tape winds up with an amphetamine-stoked demolition of Woody Guthrie’s "Jesus Christ," you know you’re in white trash country: Their best-selling piece of merchandise to date is the "Wife-Beater," a cheap, white tanktop with the Duckie Boys logo proudly displayed — stains optional.Sweatin’ Willie (guitar and screamin’) had only started playing when the band formed two years ago and has since developed a guitar style somewhere between George Thorogood and David Koresh. The band is rounded out by drummer Pony Boy, a skate-punk of varying hair colors, and occasional lap-steel player Todd Snow. The Duckie Boys’ sound isn’t rockabilly, and it’s not quite psychobilly, so a new name had to be coined."This mandolin player wanted to sit in with us," Sweatin’ Willie remembers, "He played bluegrass and he told us, ‘Heck, what you boys play is punkgrass!’ So that’s what we do: punkgrass."In their short existence, the Duckie Boys have opened for a list of acts that reads like a Who’s Who of the garage and rockabilly set: The Reverend Horton Heat, Moonshine Willie, the Frantic Flat-tops, Wildfire Willie and the Ramblers, Three Blue Teardrops, the Phantom Rockers, the Sin Shakers, the Humble Gods, Das Klown, Ditch Bank Oakies and Deadbolt. Even stranger, more than a few of these heathen shows have taken place at ABG’s in the D-Boy’s hometown of Provo."ABG’s is the only decent bar in town. Plus it’s right next door to the local hotel, so you get a lot of out-of-staters. They’ve got a good thing going there," Willie says between bites of his Tabasco-slathered Big Bill burger.Dave adds: "Provo’s the place to play now, but most of the Provo bands are rich kids who play a pizza parlor a couple of times, then they put a CD out, break up and go on missions."While the D-Boys hit Salt Lake City on a regular basis, Park City is not on the agenda after an ill-fated gig where they had the plug pulled for not playing traditional rockabilly and running up a bar tab far beyond their cash guarantee. Pennsylvania Dave wasn’t even there — he was in jail: Sounds like the screenplay for a Blues Brothers sequel, or, at least, another song or two.In contrast to Dave, who says his day job is "Coffee drinker at ABG’s" and listening to KDYL, Willie is an English teacher in the Utah County school district. Are they aware of his night-time exploits?"The kids are, the principal isn’t," says Mr. Sweatin’. "If I hold out for another six months, I’ll have tenure — I can roll up my sleeves, show off my tattoos and they can’t do a thing about it. The kids come out when we do all-ages shows, but it’s kind of weird to be cussin’ in front of them. We won’t be playing any assemblies."When he’s not shaping young minds or playing with the Duckie Boys, Sweatin’ Willie also gigs with Swamp Cooler, a suedo-lounge act that does bizarre covers, and the Bluegrass Banjos of Death, which should be self-explanatory.Dave has a Flat Duo Jets-style side-project called the Fontanelles, when he’s not on the lookout for the Men In Black, who he’s convinced are around every corner and out to get him."We’ve had offers to play in L.A., but I can’t go — I’ll get murdered," Dave says, looking over his shoulder at a man in a black overcoat in the next booth. No wonder he drinks decaf.Conversely, Willie says, "The coolest thing about being in this band is meeting new people. The other day I was in the liquor store buying some gin and this old man walks up to me with this big, toothless grin and he opens his coat to show me his Duckie Boys shirt. Then he tells me, ‘I saw you guys the other night — you were great, better than David Allen Coe, man!’"Unlucky is available, according to Sweatin’ Willie: "At any show, just come up and we’ll give you one." The Duckie Boys two-year anniversary show happens Saturday, April 19 at the Bar & Grill, with the Phantom Rockers and Atomic Deluxe.
