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Lucero
w/ Jessica Lee Mayfield, The Glossary
When: 7/19/2008 8:00 PM
Online & Phone Sales Have Closed
Tickets are available at the Marquee Box Office. Please Call (480) 829-0607 for
information.
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Lucero played their first show in April 1998 in a Memphis warehouse across the street from the Loraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot. Co-founders Ben Nichols and Brian Venable decided to start a country band with the idea of "country" being somewhere between the Pogues, Johnny Cash, Gram Parsons, and Tom Waits. Brian said early on he wanted to be in a pretty country band that could play hardcore shows and piss off the punk rockers. However, much to his surprise, most of them liked it.
Having no formal musical training and very little band experience, Ben and Brian were forced to keep the songs simple and straightforward. Most of the early songs were very slow, taking cues from bands like Ida and Calexico, which were big influences at the time. The band decided to record some songs in Brian's dad's attic with newly recruited members Roy Berry (drums) and John C. Stubblefield (bass). The band self-released these sessions on a 12" that went out of press almost immediately. It was those sessions that became known as "the Attic Tapes", and was later released on CD by Soul is Cheap Records. Around the same time Lucero recorded a 7" record for Landmark Records in Arkansas. The record included a cover of Jawbreaker's "Kiss the Bottle", a song that summed up what the band were doing (playing punk rock songs in a southern rock kinda way) and put the songs in perspective for people who were unfamiliar with country rock.
The band started playing out, anywhere in town as often as they could, sometimes several times a week, opening for prominent national artists such as The Drive by Truckers, The Dirty Three, Alex Chilton, Otha Turner, and the North Mississippi Allstars. It was the band's friendship with Luther and Cody Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars that led to the recording of their first proper CD. Over the course of a full year, Lucero would record for a few days here and a few days there, having both Luther and Cody add some guitar to the records. Madjack Records, a brand new local Memphis label, released the record in December 2000.
2001 marked the start of the Lucero tour saga. The band bought a van and started playing out of town. In the spring of 2002 Lucero headed out on the road for their first US tour, supporting the North Mississippi Allstars. They seemed to like the road and by the end of 2002, the band had played over 200 shows. Damn. Lucero's second full-length CD, "Tennessee", was released in August 2002. For their record release show, the band chose to play a familiar venue, the Young Ave. Deli in their hometown of Memphis with a capacity of 200. Lucero had almost 700 people in attendance.
The relentless touring also took its toll. Brian Venable decided to quit for a multitude of reasons including too much traveling, too many bars, and too much business talk. There is plenty of stuff in this game not to like, and Brian couldn't ignore it quite as well as the rest of the band. Steve Selvidge filled in on guitar for the first months of 2003, but by the time Lucero played the SXSW festival in Austin, they'd found a permanent replacement in Todd Gill. Todd moved into the band's warehouse in Memphis and learned all 50 songs. Elvis used to take Karate lessons in that same warehouse and, as the new guy, Todd got the room with the metal gym-lockers in it.
It was also during this time that Lucero started talking to Tiger Style Records in New York. The band found camaraderie in the label and their hard-drinking employees, and agreed to release their third full-length record with them. Recorded in May of 2003, "That Much Further West" was recorded by the band in the warehouse, and represents the best of what can happen when punk rockers take chances and go country. While the original musical influences on the band are still there, other ideas have become more and more important. Imagine a cross between the Pogues, the Replacements, Jawbreaker, Tom Waits, Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen, the Band, Neil Young, and Wilco. The new record is scheduled for release in Fall of 2003, while the band is scheduled to tour until the next Armageddon. A live show is something not to be missed, trust us. Be sure to ask Ben about Jon from the Love Scene and DC, it's a great story.
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