SKYROCKET! the feature film

Monday, March 31, 2008

HOW TO HAVE FUN AT A LANDFILL

Just add women with good teeth.

photo courtesy of Pam Blaine, the cute one on the right.

All too frequently our work leads us to strange places. This photo was in fact taken last Saturday night at a landfill just outside the Austin city limits. In true Austin fashion, though, it's not just a landfill. It's also an eco-preserve, exotic game ranch and special event facility. Fashionable-looking people attended, willingly danced to our music, and said they didn't smell anything weird. We had a glamorous 2,000 square-foot luxury cabin all to ourselves as a green room. What band wouldn't want that?

Sunday, March 30, 2008

how i ended up in the world's greatest band. by: johnny

in the summer of 1988, i was 19 and i lived in houston. i was the singer of an odd musical project that was started by some jazz and funk musicians called, stranger. the band was only around about 4 months. anyway, we played a gig one night at houston's famed underground club, the axiom. that's where i met benjamin hotchkiss. he still remembers what i was wearing... a madonna "who's that girl" 1986 tour tank top and clown pants. really. maybe he asked me to light his cigarette or something. i don't know.
in the fall of 1988, i started a band called, panjandrum. the original line-up featured a keyboard player named, cliff tipton. cliff was the soundman for a group called, ezra charles and the works. through hanging out at the ezra charles shows, i met their very nice and very good drummer, darin murphy. i don't remember meeting darin, i just knew him. i can't remember if i saw darin's group, manic pop thrill before i met him through cliff, or after. i remember seeing manic pop thrill, at least once, at zelda's (fitzgerald's) in houston. their bass player was a very handsome and nice man named, mike belile. i don't remember meeting mike either, i just know that i liked him.
in 1991, just before i made the move to austin, some of my friends that went to rice university would go to the gingerman (on thursdays, i think) to see trish and darin. i went and i loved it. they were so funny and made such a beautiful sound together. i don't remember meeting trish either. i know i saw them at the pig and whistle and this place called the black forest tavern. they had a great scene going on and i always had fun at a trish and darin show.

in the fall of '91, i moved to austin and started playing around town with a girl named, michelle solberg. sometime in the spring of '92, i was trying to put a new band together and michelle suggested a guitar player. her friend, paul english. i remember meeting paul. he came over and i think i showed him some videos and played him some songs i had just recorded. we didn't end up playing together, but remember seeing him around. benjamin was in austin by then as well. he was in a very popular band then called, the duckhills. they were great.

over the next few years, touring regionally, we would all cross paths. darin moved to austin sometime in '94 and i ended up playing in his band, grover dill, for a while. then trish moved to austin. then mike moved to austin...... i don't remember meeting kyle either. i do remember being in the music lab (a rehearsal complex in austin) parking lot, smoking a cigarrette one day when kyle drove up blaring paul mcartney & wings, "1984". he stopped and stuck his head out the window and excitedly screamed out, "don't you think wings is the greatest band in the world?!?!" i knew we would be great friends after that.

then, one night in 2001, i was at the hole in the wall and i saw darin, benjamin, kyle, paul and mike loading in equipment. i ran up and said hello and asked what they were gonna be doing. darin said, "we're the k-tel hit machine. we're playing a.m. hits from the 70's. you're gonna love it.". and man, i fucking did! i went nuts! i realized they didn't have a keyboard player and suggested they could use me and my rhodes. eventually, darin asked me to play for a gig they had on valentine's day 2002 at antone's. i said yes. BOOM! here i am.

benjamin and the bride

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Saturday, March 29, 2008

FROM PHOTOG FATALE ASHLEY GARMON'S BLOG



A few words about Skyrocket.

I don't know how you might feel about wedding bands. But whatever that may be, you would have to rethink everything once you saw Skyrocket
play a wedding reception. This is truly a fantastic collaboration of very talented individuals. The energy they bring to an event is unlike anything I've ever seen - and as you know, I've seen more than my fair share of weddings. Beverly and I recently shot a wedding that they played and got these fun fun shots.

You'd just have to see it to believe it. But they never EVER disappoint.

I heart them.

Ashley Garmon





Thursday, March 20, 2008

MEET THE BAND



Hotchkiss took this.



Paul took this.




Johnny Goudie painted this


and this...





Darin can do this....


and Trish baked this. It's a cake in a bag.



This was Kyle...


and this, this was Mike.