Brave Combo

Brave Combo is a

In a 1995 feature in The Santa Fe New Mexican, band cofounder Carl Finch described Brave Combo's influence as a polka band with rock styles as an earnest way to escape an increasingly corporate cultural landscape, lamenting-^[3]

'Rock had been removed from the common people' he said 'and musically I wanted what I do to have depth, I started listening to polka and ethnic records I'd find at Target six for $5 — nothing could beat that. At first, I’d just buy whatever covers looked strangest but after a while I’d do research and find out what was good.' Among the best, he soon discovered, were names like Larry Chesky and his big band polka sound, Norwegian accordion virtuoso Andrew Walter (“exciting intense” is Finch’s assessment), and Eddie Blazonczyk, the “Godfather” of Chicago’s Polish community. 'All this came out of a sense of desperation'.

Brave Combo had its website at brave.com/bo, a

In naming Denton, Texas, the "Best Music Scene" for 2008, Paste magazine cited Brave Combo as the "Grand Pooh-Bah of Denton bands" and said that "Brave Combo, is in many ways the template from which all the rest are cut: eclectic and artistically ambitious, with a high degree of musicianship and a strong DIY ethic."^[8]

Media appearances

• 

  The band made a short appearance, as animated figures, on the March 21, 2004, episode of The Simpsons ("Co-Dependents' Day").^[6] Series creator Matt Groening is a fan of the band and they appeared on the show at his personal request.^[9][10][11] In the episode, the band played a new original song called "Fill The Stein" and their version of "The Simpsons Theme" played over the closing credits.^[12]
• Finch and other band members made cameo appearances in
  David Byrne's 1986 movie True Stories
  , set in fictional Virgil, Texas. Finch can be spotted in the fashion show sporting a brick-patterned suit and in the parade leading the all-accordion marching band. (In real life, Brave Combo was David Byrne's wedding band.)
• They appear in the 1986 Hank Wangford Channel 4 television series The A to Z of C & W singing the Hank Williams song "Cold, Cold Heart".
• They contributed two songs to the Gumby album, released in 1989.
• Their song "Busy Office Rhumba" was used as the theme for the 1993 Fox television series Bakersfield P.D.^[13]
• They appear as a wedding band in the 1995 feature film Late Bloomers.
• In 2000, they appeared on the national telecast of the MDA Labor Day Telethon with Jerry Lewis dancing along to the music.^[14]
• They wrote and performed the theme song for the 2005 series "ESPN Bowling Night".
• The opening theme and other music for the 2008
  PBS animated series Click and Clack's As the Wrench Turns were produced by Carl Finch and composed, arranged, and performed by Finch and Brave Combo.^[15][16]
• Their live music video, "The Denton Polka", appears on the Bohemia Rising DVD Compilation (released in 2009), a collection of documentary shorts directed by Christopher Largen exploring rebellion and resistance to corporate demolition in their hometown of Denton, Texas.
• Included in
  Street News Service, Dylan acknowledged the influence of Brave Combo: "This version comes from a band called Brave Combo. Somebody sent their record to us for our radio show. They’re a regional band out of Texas that takes regular songs and changes the way you think about them. You oughta hear their version of 'Hey Jude'."^[17]
• They were featured on Bowling for Soup's album Sorry for Partyin', playing a polka version of Bowling For Soup's song "Belgium".
• The
  The Chicken Dance". The episode debuted August 1, 2012, on Comedy Central.^[18][19]

• Carl Finch – guitar, keyboards, accordion (born November 29, 1951, Texarkana, Arkansas) (1979–present)
• Lyle Atkinson – bass guitar, tuba (born October 23, 1953,
  Minneapolis, Minnesota
  ) (1979–1985, 2015–present)
• Danny O'Brien – trumpet (born July 12, 1966, Lakenheath, England) (1993–present)
• Alan Emert – drums (born May 5, 1965) (1997–2008, 2010–present)
• Robert Hokamp – guitar,
  lap steel, cornet (2015–present) *^[20]

• Jeffrey Barnes – saxophones, clarinet, flute, harmonica, penny whistles (born July 27, 1951, Fremont, Ohio) (1983–2015)
• Ginny Mac – accordion (2011–2013)
• Tim Walsh – saxophone, flute, clarinet (born c.1952) (1979–1983)
• Dave Cameron – drums (born c.1958) (1979–1983)
• Cenobio "Bubba" Hernandez – bass guitar (born November 30, 1958, San Antonio, Texas) (1985–2007)
• Phil Hernandez – drums (born February 5, 1971, Buffalo, New York) (1992 – ?)
• Mitch Marine – drums (born c.1956) (1983–1992)
• Joe Cripps – percussion (born January 5, 1965,
  Little Rock, Arkansas
  ) (1992–1999), some subsequent performances
• Greg Beck – drums (1996–1997)
• Paul Stivitts – drums (born 1971) NYC
• Ann Marie Harrop – bass guitar (2007–2009)
• Little Jack Melody – bass guitar (2009–2014)
• Arjuna Contreras – drums (born August 11, 1974, Kenosha, Wisconsin) (2008–2010)
• Bill Tomlin – drums (born September 28, 1948)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Brave Combo.

• Official website
• Bohemia Rising: The Story of Fry Street
• Brave Combo at
  IMDb
• Brave Combo discography at Discogs
• Brave Combo collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive