most folks on this board probably don't know who he is, but for those who do, he's a legend. i just got a horrible phonecall about the untimely passing of one of punk rock's greatest heros. may The Big Boys live in your hearts as one of the greatest Texas bands of all time. http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~edge/idle_time/bigboys/ http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2005-08-19/music_feature.html
Holy ****! This guy played at Rudyard's about a month ago with the Slurpees! He seemed fine too. Put on a decent show, etc.,.
i still don't have details on the official cause, but this is from the austin american-statesman. man... Randy "Biscuit" Turner Big Boys singer put funk in punk Musician found dead in South Austin home; police investigating. By Joshunda Sanders, Joe Gross AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Friday, August 19, 2005 Beloved punk icon Randy "Biscuit" Turner was found dead in his home Thursday afternoon, the same day a feature story about him appeared in the The Austin Chronicle. Marc Savlov, a Chronicle reporter who wrote the cover story about Turner, told a group of neighbors who stood outside of Turner's South Austin home that he was the person who went to house, looked inside and called police. "I opened the door, and it was dead silent," he said, his hand shaking as he held his cell phone. He said he had just come from giving a statement to police. Police investigators at the scene did not release details about Turner's death Thursday night. Investigators from the Travis County medical examiner's office did not return calls. Kevin Buchman, an Austin police spokesman, would not confirm the identity of the body Thursday night. He said it was not being considered a suspicious death. Nationally, Turner was best known as the frontman for punk-funk pioneers the Big Boys. With the Big Boys, Turner subverted the rapidly entrenching dogmas of American hardcore punk in the late 1970s and early '80s with humor, eclectic songwriting and outrageous costumes. With guitarist Tim Kerr, bassist Chris Gates and drummer Rey Washam, the Big Boys, which lasted from 1978 to 1984, became known for explosive and funky live shows. They slowed down punk tempos to allow for syncopated rhythms and played with nonpunk bands such as the Washington, D.C., go-go act Trouble Funk. The Big Boys can be seen as a direct precursor to funky rock acts such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Fishbone. The band's encouragement of audience participation made them iconic punk rockers. "It's hard to overstate how huge they were in Austin," Butthole Surfers drummer King Coffey said Thursday evening. "They weren't just a punk band. A really wide spectrum of people would check out the shows. It was due in a large part to Biscuit. Everyone in the crowd would be dancing and having so much fun, and Biscuit was like the ringleader of this band that would sometimes have a full horn section on stage. The band's motto was 'fun, fun, fun,' and that was Biscuit to a T. "People like Biscuit created an amazing community here," Coffey continued. "The Big Boys were the heart and soul of it, and he was the heart and soul of the Big Boys. He meant so much to the music scene here in Texas and to punks throughout the U.S." Influential punk rockers such as Coffey, Minor Threat and Fugazi frontman Ian MacKaye, and producer Steve Albini paid tribute to the Big Boys in essays included in the band's two anthology CDs, "The Skinny Elvis" and "The Fat Elvis." The East North Loop record store Sound on Sound is named after a Big Boys song. Turner went on to sing with Cargo Cult, Swine King and was working on new projects, including visual art. Neighbors said that Turner was an artistic, off-beat personality who often retreated into his house for days to work on visual art. His neighbors gathered at the corner where his house was and reminisced about the Austin Music Hall of Fame inductee that they knew as a character who took pride in the tree full of plastic blue bottles in his yard, being quirky and creating art. "He brought such a touch of humor and life to the block," said Robert Goyer, 46, who lives across the street. "He's irreplaceable." Goyer said Turner would do things like paint snakes on the road. Last year, he hosted an open house where everything in the house was orange — right down to the Cheetos and soda. Other neighbors said that he would offer to watch their animals when they were away. Goyer said that Turner had been looking forward to an art show in Nacogdoches and was excited about the Chronicle article. "It's my world, and sometimes I retreat to it knowing full well that beyond that front door right there is horror and destruction and death and mayhem," Turner said in the Aug. 19 cover story. "But I know I can't control any of that, and so this little world that I've created here, well, I can barely control that, too, but it's much more fun."
Oh man. The Big Boys are one of my favorite bands ever. They were everything punk and everything Texas. Randy had an art show in Nacogdoches recently put together by some of my friends a couple of months ago. He was supposed to come back next month for a talent show/party. This is too much.
I can't stand to see this thread fade away... HISTORY We all talk about world peace But then war comes again Dr. King and the Kennedy's Murder takes another friend Korea, 'Nam, El Salvador The name is never the same Laser guns and germ warfare New toys but the same old game History repeats itself And people are starving everyday The poor and sick are going uncured While Mr. Big's huge bank account Lets him rest so assured The 1920s and the 1950s No one was singin' the blues Depression came and took it away You're always paying dues History repeats itself And punk rock's not so far removed From Little Richard or the early Stones Look around and see how much And just how little we've grown Sometimes the scene's so very good Sometimes there's nothing to do The past's a circle going round and round The future's up to you
Here's an mp3 of him recently singing with the slurpees http://slurpitron.web.aplus.net/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/letsplaygod.mp3
Hehe, I was a bit too young for that place. I didn't really start getting out to see bands until '88 or so. Then it was mostly the Axiom.
Yeah, I was 15 living out in the suburbs listening to Fun House show on the radio. I remember Chuck Roast announcing how every band would be at Cabaret Voltaire (usually the Party Owls) while playing Nurse with Wound.
i met that dude a few times. i saw the big boys, and everyone else in those days. man, i was so messed up most of the time i hardly remember it.
This sucks. Whenever people b****ed about punk being simplistic, I'd always whip our JFA's "Untitled" or Big Boys "Lullabies Help the Brain Grow". Love that record (esp. "Sound on Sound"). The garage band I mentioned in another thread did covers of "We Got Your Money" and "We're Not In It to Lose". the gary and Mr. Meowgi, there's a good chance we crossed paths in the mid to late '80's. Saw a ton of shows at Cab Voltaire and the Axiom.
we all crossed paths... i just got home from biscuit's wake. very little sadness, actually. man, that was weird. anyway, cause of death was natural. a rupture in his stomach(?) allowed some toxins (non-drug-related) to enter into his bloodstream resulting in cardiac arrest. i just hung out with the greatest crowd of oldschoolers imaginable. more later. (MR.MEOWGI: i sent you an email earlier through this site. did you get it?)
Did any of y'all used to hang out at the Island or Joe Star's Omni ? Back in the day...geez I was a kid with a learners permit taking my parents oldmobile when they went away on long weekends to drive "friends" from suburbia to see shows. The friends went away, but I still remember really great shows by X, the Blasters, Redd Kross, The Haskells, The Volumatix, The Judys, the Explosives, The Plimsouls, The Butthole Surfers, The Psychedelic Furs, Really Red, The Ramones, The Dicks, The Big Boys, and etc. I guess that was 82,83, mostly, some 84. I remember this really great feeling that something was happening. Maybe it wasn't, but it felt like a movement of art and culture. That sort of died, later. .
I used to love KPFT back in the day. There were some crazy shows on Saturday nights when I was a kid. Art Nouveau and Freddy Snakeskin, Mr Kamikaze and Mr DNA and of course Funhouse. Didn't Chuck Roast own Vinyl Edge Records?
to the best of my knowledge, chuck still owns vinyl edge. the funhouse show changed my life forever. i can literally say that show had about as much influence on the direction my life has gone as anything just shy of my parents. the island was a cool club (now the crown and anchor.) do you remember seeing shows at studio 29 (scratch acid!) on 29th st. (now Texas french bread?) it was across the street from dirty sally's (now piccolo.) on wed. nights dirty sally's (a gay club) had $1 hotdogs (they, of course, called "weenies") and cheap pitchers of beer (rolling rock?) all the punks/new wavers from studio 29 would all migrate across the street for one of the most insane "mixers" imaginable. man, that was awesome. long before the days of "gay-bashing," in houston, austin was just throwin' everyone into the pot for a great party. ...those were the days...
a friend of mine found this yesterday. it was a letter to the editor of the austin chronicle dated august 17, 2001: Butterflies, Glitter, and Dust Editor: We turn into glitter, we turn into dust, we turn into butterflies and float away with the wind. And in turning back for one last glimpse, we see the smiley faces of our friends glowing in the sun. They wave goodbye like pals at the leaving train. Through this love, we know our journeys will be magic and endless. It's not so bad in the clouds. Randy J. "Biscuit" Turner
