Music and the death knell

Dave Gonzales will be in town Saturday night for a show at Knuckleheads. Gonzales co-founded the Hacienda Brothers with singer Chris Gaffney (above) about six years ago. In April, Gaffney died of liver cancer, two months before the band released “Arizona Motel,” its fourth album.

It will also be the band’s final album. Saturday’s show will be both a tribute and a farewell to his longtime friend. According to the Hacienda Brothers Web site, it will feature Gonzales’ new band, a collection of “all-star Texas musicians” called the Stone River Boys.

We went through a similar situation around here, when Kirk Rundstrom of Split Lip Rayfield died in February 2007. However, after a respite, the other three members of his band chose to resume touring, play the old songs and preserve the name of the band. A few SLR fans I talked to wondered about that -– keeping the Split Lip name alive, without Kirk in the band. I have no problem with it. Even if they’d changed the name of the band, they’d always be referred to, and known as, the guys from Split Lip; every flier and poster would say, in small letters, "formerly of Split Lip Rayfield."

When someone quits a band (or gets fired), the response is usually pretty simple: Replace him/her and move on, like Metallica has done. When somebody dies, it’s not so cut-and-dried. The situation is more sensitive. Led Zeppelin broke up after John Bonham died. Robert Plant once told me that was one reason the band would never get together again and tour (a partial white lie, I guess): Without Bonham, they would not be Led Zeppelin. The Who went on without Keith Moon, but were never the same. AC/DC nearly broke up after Bon Scott died, but hired Brian Johnson instead and put out its most successful album ever. The Pretenders and Chrissie Hynde tried hard, but they never really recovered from the deaths of Pete Farndon and James Honeywell-Scott.

But a band is a business, so even after a death or tragedy, it has to think strategically, too, especially if it’s on a big label and it has numbers and obligations to meet.

For fans, it’s different. When a band changes personnel it can be something akin to getting a step-parent, depending on how much you love that band. R.E.M. is still vital, but it hasn’t been what it used to be since Bill Berry left. (And his departure had a lot to do with his near-fatal brain aneurysm.) Nothing can be like the original version or the version that has been around the longest. I read in Billboard recently that Paul Westerberg is talking about a Replacements’ reunion, but how authentic would that be without Chris Mars, who has retired, or Bob Stinson, who died in 1995?

A band from Colorado called Tickle Me Pink (above) is dealing with these questions right now, unexpectedly. On June 30, they jumped off the Warped Tour and went home to Fort Collins, where all four members share a house. They’d planned to celebrate the July 1 release of their debut album, “Madeline,” on Wind-Up Records with some hometown media interviews and an in-store performance.

But the morning of July 1, the band’s bass player, Johnny Schou, was found dead in his bedroom. The initial autopsy was “inconclusive,” according to the Denver Post. On July 4, the band’s drummer Stefan Runstrom (really, that's his name), told the Post the band was still in shock, but it planned to hire a new bass player and make as many of the gigs it could in the Alternative Press Tour, which starts July 18. (They are also scheduled to perform at the Bottleneck in Lawrence on Aug. 25.) “If Johnny was alive,” Runstrom said, “I know he’d want us to continue with something he’d put his heart and soul into.”

Chris Gaffney might have said the same thing: Go on without me. But Gonzales apparently (and understandably) feels that without his dear friend there is not enough to go on with. And that only compounds the loss.

| Timothy Finn, The Star

Comments

[kevink]

The boys in Split Lip really agonized over the decision, too. Eric Mardis (banjo) told me he expected it would be quite some time, maybe even years, before SLR could play a song that was written by Kirk or that formerly featured him as a lead vocalist. It's still far too emotional for them to try to mimic what he did vocally, or hire someone as a replacement.

[Tim Finn]

I haven't seen them since he died. I will, though, eventually but soon.

[kevink]

It was a much different show, and, because of the lack of Rundstrom-penned songs, it eliminated several of my favorite tunes from their set.

The trio that plays together is still very much Split Lip Rayfield, and yet still very much not them, either.

[bob]

I haven't seen them since Kirk died. I've seen SLR 15 - 20 times at bars, Salmonfests, Wakas, Winfields, etc... I am not ready to fully invest myself into the trio. All great guys and I'm sure the band is great, but it won't be the SLR I remember. I wish them the best of luck.