heathen town

the stonehill apartments
denton texas 1988
our new life
so exciting
we were gonna conquer the world you know
got a dingy 2 bedroom right over the leasing office
paper thin tan carpet
this location would soon lead to problems
practicing rock'n'roll music in the living room led to
thump thump from below
"could you please KEEP IT DOWN!!"
sometimes a threatening phone call
what would our parents say if we were evicted
fearless acoustic rockers we were
faris out on the town almost every night at first
he was on a mission
fry street
the flying tomato
doctor smith's an old pizza hut that had been converted in to a bizarre nightclub
doctor smith was it's african owner
faris quite cavalier
the social butterfly
he was also on a mission to find us a band
and he did
i had already imported my girlfriend evangelina lujan
from e.p. to the luxurious stonehill apartments
kick-you-in-the-face-girl
that's another story
maybe after you know me a little better
one night faris comes home late
wakes me and gina up
he's really excited
"i think i've found our first band member
he's a bass player
his name is brian
he looks exactly like paul simonen from the clash!!"
sure enough brian really did
i couldn't believe it
he had copped every single one of his moves too it was freakish
he'd obviously spent half his lifetime in front of a full-length mirror
he'd perfected every nuance of simonen's slithery groove
he had the hair too fifties greaser style
slicked up right
he had the clothes too
i'm telling you he was a real live complete denton texas 1988 version of the clash's paul simonen could've made it in vegas if paul s. was elvis
or wayne newton even
so there he was
stonehill apartments 1988
full on clash moves
in our living room above the leasing office
bobbing and weaving jerking and jumping
bass guitar slung almost down to his ankles
it was like he was in madison square garden
not on paper thin tan carpet stonehill apartments denton texas
1988
faris was on electric me on acoustic
one hundred graves shell beach
i got a rehearsal cassette stuffed in a box somewhere
we taped everything those days
on our 4-track
man we were horrible f had some nice guitar parts though
i still couldn't sing to save my life all flat and tiny sounding
man i was horrible
brian said he knew a fella who played the drums
enter rich holden
one of the nicest guys i've ever met
sweet ole rich
kinda sad and droopy
like ringo
the girls loved him still do i think
our denton texas 1988 ringo
he was the sprout guy
that's right
rich drove a sprout delivery truck
actually when we first met him he was delivering medical specimens
sprouts soon followed
rich wasn't much of a drummer
hell of a nice guy though
still my friend to this day
lives in sunny CA
still sells sprouts - kinda
so brian faris rich and i christened ourselves heathen town
named after an elvis macmanus tune i liked
started practicing in rich's place
mattress' on the walls
ramshackle
we were a weird amalgamation of the church and the clash
if you can imagine that
one strange trainwreck
faris went to visit brian one night
lights out
b.l. crouched behind a sofa pointing a rifle at him
like some sort of vietnam vet
was he imagining the commies coming to get him?
steal him and his clash and elvis presley records away
he was no vet
it was denton texas 1988
he was a paul simonen impersonator
except no one knew of paul s. in denton but us
one day rich phones up in a panic
"maaannnnn you're not gonna like this
maaaannnn oh maaaaannnnnn
someone broke in to my place last night and stole all our gear
maaaaannnnnnnnn"
we raced over to rich's hovel to see a sickening sight
door kicked in
our p.a. gone
our amps gone
we were devastated
it was over now
there was no way we were ever gonna be able to continue after this
what are musicians with no tools of the trade
we were finished
so we call brian to tell him the horrible news
we knew he was gonna be pissed
he was gonnna break some heads to get to the bottom of this
they took his precious Kustom bass amp
padded yellow sparkle vinyl
his roommate says "brians gone he's off to college station
joined the core left late last night
didn't you guys know?"
what?????!!!!
we had no idea
he never uttered a word
roommate said brian had known about it for weeks
his dad had his not-so-secret-to-everyone-but-us departure imminently planned
we figured out the bad bad truth soon after that
brian had made one last stop before splitting denton texas
rich holden's house
to kick in rich's gingerbread door
to collect his yellow sparkle vinyl Kustom bass amp
to steal all his bandmate's gear