Never Say Never
Ex-Toadie Todd Lewis is back in the music business with the Burden Brothers.
When Fort Worth's The Toadies called it quits last summer, the last thing founder Todd Lewis wanted to do was turn around and jump right back into the music business. Weary and more than slightly burned around the edges, Lewis couldn't stomach the notion of throwing himself back on the music business altar. "Part of me didn't want to think of doing music at all," he admitted. But music is what Lewis knows, what he breathes and, ultimately, what he does. So he turned his attention to a side project he had started about a year ago with Taz Bentley, former drummer for Reverend Horton Heat and Tenderloin. "I had kind of wanted to do something heavy and metal and stupid and dumb," he said. "So we did something on the fly, just for kicks. When The Toadies broke up, we got together again and the metal part went out the window." However, doing it just for kicks remained high on the list of priorities. Bentley, who pounds the skins for Izzy Stradlin and the Ju Ju Hounds, found so much common ground with Lewis that a new project together seemed a natural fit. Dubbing it the Burden Brothers, a name Lewis spotted on the side of a warehouse between Dallas and Fort Worth, the two men found themselves doing exactly what they'd sworn they wouldn't do again. "When I was in Horton, Todd and I did a wee bit of touring together, way back when," Bentley said. "After that, we'd bump into each other here and there. We're both of the same mindset. We've both worked with the exact same [record] label, and we're on the same plane in regards to everything about the music industry." That includes knowing enough of the industry to realize that the price of success includes loss of creative control and freedom to explore new sounds. Bentley said that if it weren't for Lewis, he couldn't see himself back on stage. "Most of what we do with Izzy is all studio stuff, so that's totally different," said Bentley, who has been in the band since 1995, along with Duff McKagan, who was in Guns N' Roses with Stradlin, and Rick Richards, formerly of the Georgia Satellites. "That's the extent of it. We just finished up an e.p. We go into the studio, put some stuff down, it's good, that's it." Working with Lewis, however, was something different. It allowed Bentley to return to his first love, one he had all but resigned himself to leaving behind. "I abandoned the whole music thing because, no matter what you do, if you're passionate about it, eventually you realize how many sacrifices you have to make to get to the plateau that everyone wants to be at," he said. "I got to a point where I'm thinking, if it's not fun for me anymore, I shouldn't be doing it. If I'm not getting anything out of it, what can anyone else be getting out of it? "Nothing fresh and inspiring has made me want to get out there until Todd and I started talking." Talk turned to music overnight, and the two men began collaborating on sounds that had been lying dormant in their minds. "Part of what I dig is that we're shooting off in any direction that we feel right about," Lewis said. "It's been a breeze working with Taz. It's a joy. That's how I felt with The Toadies [at first], but then there's so much outside pressure. ... Right now I just want to communicate with an audience." Their first chance to do that came in November, when they played as part of the North Texas New Music Festival, and again in March, when they played an unannounced warm-up show at The Wreck Room --basically a rehearsal for their showcase at SXSW in Austin. But both men emphasize that, while they want to get their music to the masses, they're not willing to settle for the conventional and well-beaten musical road to success. "When you're reaching for the brass ring, you're usually bending over," said Lewis. "Both of us have had enough experience with the 'industry,' the 'business' -- that's not what this is about. I wouldn't say no to [a record deal] eventually, but I'm not into that right now. I want this to grow before I commit to anything." In order to maintain creative and business control, Burden Brothers has formed a unique partnership with Dallas' Last Beat Records, creating an online record label and trying an entirely new approach. "Basically, on our website, every month you can get songs and some junk," said Lewis, explaining that the "junk" will include everything from stickers to t-shirts. "We're printing up a limited number of packages each month, and when those are gone, they're gone forever. We'll put out one brand new song every month, along with a shirt or a hat or something cool. "Then people can sample it on our web site, and if they like it, send us money for a package. After 10 months or a year, we'll have enough [music] to release a whole album." Visitors to the site already can find the band's first two recorded tracks, "Hang Your Head" and "Your Fault," both of which were included on volume five of the Buzz-Oven sampler series. The sound is aggressively tuneful, and the energy is unmistakable. "I've had more chances than Todd to see a product get done quickly," said Bentley, an observation reinforced by the six years that passed between the release of The Toadies' debut and sophomore efforts. "It's pretty exciting. We hop in the studio, kick out a couple of songs, mix 'em and put 'em out. The main thing is to get [the songs] immediately to the kids." Although the Burden Brothers is Lewis and Bentley at the core, it's also a band. Performances to date have featured Pinkston's Josh Dougherty and Baboon's Mark Hughes and Mike Rudnicki. The supporting cast can change from one show to the next. "We'll have a revolving cast of players," said Lewis. "That's a lot more involved, but it's also really cool. Taz has introduced me to some of the Guns N' Roses guys, and we'd like to drag them into it at some point. "Taz and I write the songs, but we bring people in to flesh out the sound. By keeping the sound undefined, we can bring in people to do whatever we want." Mostly what they want to do right now is generate enough of a local buzz to build a bona fide following, then be able to start touring. They've enlisted "Street Teams" of fans and volunteers to pass out information and goodie packages. So far, the enthusiasm about the Burden Brothers has surprised both men, who marvel that people in other states have already caught wind of the new sound. It reinforces their notion that bands can succeed without the deep pockets -- and strings -- of a record label. "What I hope to do is make people aware of the band without using the regular channels. I want to be able to create a demand without any backing," Lewis explained. "Right now, you can't get your music played unless some radio exec tells [the d.j.] to play it, so everything sounds the same. There's a good number of people that doesn't sit well with, and they're the ones who will create a demand for other types of music. The more generic and one-dimensional radio gets, the more people will look for other things." They're clearly having fun with the experiment, and there's enough talent and business acumen between the two that it's unlikely the Burden Brothers will stay an unknown start-up for long. "We'll probably end up going for it at some point," acknowledged Bentley. "I'm not in a hurry to get out on the road and miss all the things I missed during 10 years of touring, but if it's successful enough, we'll absolutely do that. Right now, I'm just enjoying being here at this moment. It's the ideal situation. You don't get that very often." And Lewis adds that fans could well have just as much fun listening as they're having playing. "We've been rehearsing our asses off, so we're getting pretty tight. I don't think it's going to suck too bad."
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