GO: sure

BV: how did you really get started in music?

GO: um, (takes a bite of a sandwich), well when I was a teenager, in junior high, I bought a guitar from a pawn shop, and just started kinda learning stuff from ear and just kinda listening to records that I really liked and just trying to pick out what was going on with the guitar, and just kinda figured it out by ear, and from there it was a pretty short leap within probably two years I was trying to write songs; put together my first band when I was like 14, 15, it was all guys I went to junior high school with and I just kinda went from there, just like one band would fall apart, and start another band, you know, played people's parties, lofts, and stuff, just kinda wherever you can play for people, and then you know by the time I had finished high school I had been in several bands, and that’s when I met Jack Yarber, that’s when we started The Gamblers stuff (flips record).

BV: So after The Gamblers is that; The Gamblers started up and then you just started The Oblivians after that? (Another great question from the bonehead interviewer man)

GO: yeah, well The Gamblers (takes another bite), Jack and I had a band before The Gamblers that was actually called The Painkillers

BV: okay

GO: and basically just, it was like a lot of the same ideas and stuff, but we just kind of played a lot of shows as The Painkillers and then changed our name again, cha, we probably changed our name three or four times cuz we kept having lineup changes trying to find the right people to play with

BV: yeah (can't I say anything intelligent?)

GO: probably came up with, by the time we turned into The Gamblers we had settled on a name, but even then (customer walks through door, "hey man," customer replies in typical southern joviality: WHATSUP! "Not much"). We had like a fiddle player(?) Greg Easterly, and Rob Thomas was our drummer, and then Jack and I switched off on guitar and organ but we did that for a long time without any bass player or anything, and sometimes Jack would play sax, just kind of whatever struck our fancy. (Helps customer) okay what was that last question?

BV: uh I don't remember.

GO: ha ha ha (rightly so Mr. O)

BV: uhm, we were talking about different lineup changes in the band

GO: eventually it got to the point to where everybody had kinda was thinking about getting real jobs and stuff rob moved off to college in Louisiana, and Greg Easterly eventually moved down there too and got married so kind of our band was kind of disintegrating and then Eric Friedl moved to Memphis and started working over at Shangri-la (reeeaaalllyy good record shop) and we got to be friends with him and we started rehearsing as a three piece with him, just kinda jammin around and that seemed to work pretty good, then that kind of turned into The Oblivians and started doing that for a while, then that went on that way for a few years when that fell apart we started doing The Gamblers thing again

BV: I remember that, it was around '99 '98 something like that?

GO: yeah, that was right around when The Oblivians stopped we just thought well we'll try The Gamblers thing again

BV: uhm did you accomplish everything you wanted to accomplish with The Oblivians?

GO: yeah pretty much, yeah I felt like we were kinda at a dead end and I didn't really know what else to do with it, our last record (chews and swallows his now cold lunch) up until the last record it had been kind of a thing where we all wrote songs, we all sang songs, we all played tons on guitar, we would rotate (customer leaves) CIAO! See ya man! but then for the last record, nobody had any songs, like I had some songs I was gonna use for a solo record, it would be like an all gospel thing, but nobody else had any songs so we wound up doing all that stuff as an oblivians record, I mean it was a good record, but it was kinda like it wasn't really Oblivians territory, so we just kind of felt like the other guys didn't have any songs and it just wasn't chugging along anymore so we just quit

BV: alright what are your current projects now, what kinda stuff are you workin' on now?

GO: well, I’m doing the Reigning Sound and I’ve been doing a lot of production work with other bands

BV: anybody in particular?

GO: Mr. Airplane Man, The Cuts, The Porch Ghouls, done some other stuff

BV: The Cuts are great by the way

GO: oh yeah that’s great, its a super record, it a great summertime record, but uh, other bands...just kind of anybody who's interested is somebody I kinda dig, you know who'd be kind of interesting to do.

BV: Where do you work out of, your own studio, or is there a studio you use?

GO: I have some recording equipment, but usually I do em over at Easley studio, there was a, well I did this Detroit Cobras stuff, but I did that up in Detroit in a studio up there, but yeah it's been kind of a fun thing to, you know, be involved with other groups peripherally, and not have to be in the band, you know, with the deadly snakes, I did that for a while, I produced their first record, the second record they asked me to join up and be in the band so I produced it and was on it and that wasn't as fun, I mean it was a good record, but it wasn't as fun for me because I wasn't removed because I had to be in the, you know, the soap opera of being in a band as well.

BV: Is there anybody right now we should keep an eye on? In your opinion.

GO: Uh, lets see, yeah, The Cuts (laughs), and Mr. Airplane Man, I feel like both of them will probably jump to bigger labels soon, I think they'll be popular, I mean I could be wrong

BV: they sound good enough

GO: yeah

BV: what about any Japanese bands, anything you're into as far as Japanese bands go?

GO: uhm, I’m trying to think... some of the guys from Teengenerate are really into powerpop and they've had several bands um, there was Fifi, had a band on the side, I can't remember what the name of it was, but it was all powerpop, I can't remember the name of it, but yeah I’ve heard a lot of good Japanese stuff, I haven't heard anything recently that really blew me away, that's within like the past six months, but I haven’t heard a lot of the new Japanese stuff though.

BV: Tell me about Legba.

GO: Mmm, the record store?

BV: yeah

GO: yeah, well me and my wife started it about nine months ago, between touring and working with bands and stuff i had been picking up work here and there washing dishes, or cooking, or whatever and just thought it would be nice to have my own store so that when I’m not here I can hire a friend to work here and when I’m in town I don't have to look for work every six months or whatever. Yeah it’s mainly used records but some new stuff, new cd's and new Lp's.

BV: well it seems like it's doing pretty good, people come in

GO: yeah, we get pretty good foot traffic during the day, and we've only been open like I said for about nine months, but we've gotten some good write-ups in the local papers and stuff and our business has increased a lot in the past four or five months, it's been really good.

BV: what made you think to name it Legba?

GO: well I was kinda pressed at the last minute for a for a name for the store, and the whole idea behind the store was to get a lot of decent used stuff and turn people on to things that they'd never heard before, and Legba represents a kind of opening of doors and channels, and if you want to talk to any of the other Haitian spirits, you have to go through him, he was kind of like an intermediary, uh yeah it just kind of seemed appropriate, also I was sitting on my couch and this friend of ours had painted a painting for us and it was called Legba at the crossroads it was on one side of the couch, and on the other side of the couch was a Haitian VeVe(sp), but then it just occurred to me that Legba would be a good name

BV: it's funny, everything I’ve ever read about Legba he's either considered a trickster, or a teacher of wisdom

GO: mmm-hmm

BV: so do you consider yourself a trickster or a teacher of wisdom?

GO: (Laughing) both! I think both are pretty appropriate for what we do here, but yeah I’m trying to share information with people who are interested you know

BV: yeah, I thought it was pretty ironic that you named it that, I just did a big paper on the crossroads for a folklore class and he's all in there

GO: oh yeah

BV: so I thought it was pretty cool that you called the store that, when I thought about it more I was like yeah to the people who don't really understand what he's trying to do, he's kind of a trickster

GO: yeah

BV: but the people that do, he' a teacher of wisdom (didn’t we already go over this?)

GO: yeah, it goes both ways (laughing, probably at me)

BV: what have you been listening to lately, whets your thing right now?

GO: hum, I really, to be honest, except for the few things that jump out at me I listen to old music, I really don't listen to a lot of modern stuff

BV: so there’s nothing in particular you listen to a whole lot?

GO: there are a few things I always listen to a lot, that are just kind of staples that, I don't know, I just listen to a lot, Dan Penn's Nobody’s Fool album, that’s one that I listen to a lot, that Reckless Eric’s Donovan of Trash, um, and Sympathy put out this thing a couple of months back that was Roky Ericson demos that was from the late seventies, and early eighties, I been listening to that a lot and the Sir Doug’s honky blues album, been listening to that a lot lately, but that’s, I think if there's anything else, oh, I found this album from Texas, from like '78, '79, a band called The Rokker R-O-K-K-E-R and it's like a late seventies punk record, I’ve been listening to that a lot, it's pretty decent for like Austin punk, you know it's pretty early for that kind of stuff.

BV: Any advice for the kid making noise in his garage?

GO: um, forget about shock value and latch onto some good melodies, you know that’s where it's at, be it punk or pop, or new wave, country; melodies and good hooks make any music good, that’s what it's all about, so you know, whether its fast it doesn't matter, whether it's slow it doesn't matter, but if you've got a good melody...it takes a lot for people to realize that cuz sometimes you think, oh man if could just be heavy that would be it, but that’s not it, there's tons of heavy music out there that’s heavy as all get out that just sounds like shit

BV: okay, (lots of mumbling, not making sense. I obviously wasn't paying attention) what is probably your favorite quote of all time, by anybody?

GO: mm. a good quote by Keith Richards, which he probably stole from somebody else, all good quotes come from somebody else, the people they're attributed to never said them, or if they said them they stole them from someone else. Keith said: "if you're not trying to be somebody," he was referring to people copying Chuck Berry riffs, and stuff he did, and trying to imitate other people," if you're not trying to be somebody you'll never be anybody," so like you know, everybody starts off trying to imitate somebody.

BV: What would you want the lasting contribution of Greg Cartwright to be?

GO: a couple of good records to find at a yard sale. (Starts laughing) you know, that’s about it.

BV: that’s all you need!

I am such a crack head, seriously.

-Brigham Vicious Summer 2003