confessions of a nasal mist addict

Nate, resident music programmer @ Joe’s turned me on to Bob Schneider. Embarrassed as a former Austinite and proud promoter of the same city I was happily surprised to learn Austin is where Bob calls home. And me thinks it safe to say Bob’s a near perfect embodiment of that which is Austin(tatious.)

“Lonely Creatures” is the latest from this Ypsilanti, Michigan native by way of Germany who now calls Austin home.  It’s an assortment of love songs in a mix of mambo, rock, blues with a wee bit of Americana brewing in the background.  The diversity of musical style is like swimming in the kiddie pool.  His brilliant wordsmithing (“…you’re the color of the colored part of the Wizard of Oz movie.”), multi-instrumentality (keyboards, guitar, trumpet) and his art (uh-oh; is there a card missing from Bob’s deck?) is more akin to a deep dive on the Titanic.  You can nosh on them all and hear Bob DJ every tune on the CD on his web site ; or save some energy and Blackle him.

When-if you do, you’ll find more about the madness behind the man and his band. As far the band, well…they’re another layer of entertainment giving you more bang for you live music buck that’s worth more than any Ticketmaster(bation) processing fee. It’s a classic guitar, bass, drum combo that gets juiced up by a multi-instrumentalist with a mean accordion & trumpet and dance moves that remind me of Madness, a sound guy plays steel drums on one tune and the bassist…f’get about it.  A red head named Harmoni Kelly.  ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?  I’m ready…

Nope, and she’s great at doing the bass players job of bridging the beat from the drummer to the rest of the madness that swirling around on Bob’s stage like a west Texas tornado.  I kid you not; Bob live is an absolute must, a veritable cornucopia of aural and visual sensory overload that will put your brain on eleven.  This is Austin at it’s near best.  Creative, quirky, irreverent and “…it’s got a good beat Dick, and I can dance to it…”   Where’s Dick Clark when we need him?

Bob dances to the beat of his own drum, he’s done his time in rehab and he’s done his time between the legs of Sandra Bullock (you can find about four of his tunes on four of her movies).  Bob’s a proponent of free speech — the first song he wrote is entitled “Pussy Fever,” he records all his live performances and sells the CD’s after the gig, he has a law degree and has been dropped from two labels.  FAYM.  Head vs. Heart = Bicycle vs. Car