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Way back in 1985, a strange young man named Steve Marsh formed a band in Austin, Texas called Happy Dagger. On drums
was Tommy Hughes, slide guitar was by Kendall Smith (the crazed lunatic driving the car at the end of the movie Slacker), and playing bass was...
we forget. He decided to quit the band a week before the first gig, and in desparation to find a replacement it was determined to call other bands who were
advertising looking for bassists to see who their rejects might be (since there wasn't enough time to post an advertisement of our own). This led us to the seminal Irish reject,
Ed Greer, a former hand on the Mississippi Queen riverboat. After a few months, a vocalist and compadre named
John Hawkins was added to the lineup. Shortly thereafter, Hughes quit the band. Marsh had been pressing to add found objects to the drum set
(part of his original concept), and Tommy decided he couldn't do it. So a demo was recorded by local producer Patrick Keel using Hawkins' drum machine (which also refused to add found objects).
And then Hawkins and Smith left, too.
A friend of Marsh named Mykel Diaz introduced them to a fiery young trash basher by the name of Richard
'Runt' Smith and inadvertently suggested the name Miracle Room when Marsh misunderstood "Nurse With Wound" over the roar
of printing presses where they worked. The die was cast. Demos were recorded and rehearsals held in an unused room at the back of a dance
studio under a Sears in a small shopping mall. Shows generally took place at the Cave Club, owned by the underground's best friend
Brad First. The house poster boy was Frank Kozik, who documented several performances
in his poster art and went on to found Man's Ruin Records.
As talk of a tour began, it became obvious that closed environments for long periods
of time with "Runt' might be asking for trouble, and the legendary Austin drummer known
as Rock Savage joined the fray playing the drumkit from hell.
That first tour (in Ed's pickup truck) took them to the Knitting Factory in New York City
where, on April Fool's Day 1988, they performed on a bill with Blind Idiot God. The
response was overwhelming and, after returning that summer for a New Music Seminar gig
at the Knit, the group moved to New York after recording a farewell show at Brad First's
Club Cairo, showcasing their incredible live presentation and expanding homemade
instrument arsenal.
Things happened quickly in New York. Jerry Leibowitz, a former manager at the Knit,
was asked to "manage" the band, a song appeared on the first "Live At The Knitting
Factory" disc, an E.P. was released on Bar/None Records, and the band was invited to
take part in the first Knitting Factory tour of Europe along with such acts as the Sonny
Sharrock Band and Bosho. And all within a year and a half of moving to the Big City.
Even the best stories have their endings, and this is no exception. Despite the extremely
positive press they were receiving everywhere, the band found it difficult to find a label
that would release a full length product. Meanwhile, Savage had decided to focus his
energies on the band Barkmarket, and Clem Waldmann joined on percussion, along with
the performance artist Jane Dowling, in time for a tour of America and a mini-tour of
Europe and Canada before the group disbanded in 1993.
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