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Wild Seeds - I'm Sorry, I Can't Rock You All Night Long: 1984-89

(Aznut Music 2001)

Who were the Wild Seeds?

Read the stories behind the songs

Where are they now?

They came, they saw, they broke up. 

They played, they recorded, they drank beer. 

They wrote songs, they behaved like morons, they were subject to the humiliations of the music business. 

All in all, it was  a pretty good way to spend five years.

 After Wild Seeds called it a day in 1989, Cary Baker wrote in Spin: "Wild Seeds, RIP: US's greatest rock 'n roll band." 

Wild Seeds, from Austin, Texas, were hailed by everyone from Rolling Stone and the Village Voice to Musician, Creem, and People. The band toured extensively around the US, opening for people like Roy Orbison and Los Lobos. Opening for the Seeds were people like the Black Crowes and Ian Moore. By the time the band split up in 1989, they had helped lay the groundwork for the modern Americana sound--rootsy pop, intelligent songwriting, the sound of sincerity getting slapped around. Indeed, the whole indie country movement and No Depression bandwagon of the 90s would have looked and sounded differently without beautiful failures like Wild Seeds. They were one of the weird uncles of modern American music.

 

 

Who Were the Wild Seeds?

Wild Seeds were started in 1984 by music writer Michael Hall, who had scribbled for legendary mag Trouser Press as well as Austin's Austin Chronicle, Third Coast, and the Austin American-Statesman. Hall, an Army brat who attended the University of Texas at Austin, loved garage rock, soul music, country, and blues, and when he saw bands like Gun Club, the Fleshtones, and Dream Syndicate, he knew that he too could write and sing; indeed, that was part of the promise of American music: everyone could do it.

Hall founded Wild Seeds with French Acers (the Norvells), Russell Sanchez (Skank), and Phil Reed, and began writing songs. The band soon made a name for itself playing parties and clubs in the burgeoning post-punk music scene in Austin that also included True Believers, Zeitgeist, Doctors' Mob, Texas Instruments, and Glass Eye. In 1985, with Julia Austin replacing Sanchez on bass, the Seeds released Life is Grand (Life in Soul City), on Aznut Music. The EP was a little pop gem, with chiming guitars, soaring gang vocals, and weird funk chops. Robert Christgau in the Village Voice took note: "This young band plays rock and roll, and their own way too, but damned if I can pin down what way that is." 

The band began touring relentlessly and in 1986 signed with Austin label Jungle Records and put out their first album, Brave, Clean + Reverent. The record, with a new lineup (Hall, Joey Shuffield, Bo Solomon, and Steve McCracken), was rootsier than the first but still kept a pop heart, with songs about everything from falling in love with a transvestite ("Sharlene") to the perils of Gary Cooper worship ("Pure Heart"). Robert Lloyd raved about the album in the LA Weekly: "There is no way around the deadpan brilliance of Hall's songwriting, which describes with rare, unforced wit and a hint of Texas twang the pleasures and particularly the penalties of Life Among the Humans." After more touring, the Seeds drew the attention of indie giant Passport Records.

In late 1987, after Bo Solomon had left the band and Randy Franklin (Standing Waves, F-Systems) and Kris McKay had joined, they released Mud, Lie & Shame on Passport. The album contained the hit, "I'm Sorry, I Can't Rock You All Night Long," which made it into the rotation of a dozen major-market radio stations. The album had sold about 25,000 copies and Passport was primed to release a second single in the spring of 1988 when the label went bankrupt; the album fell with the label. After another year of touring, Wild Seeds split up. It was true--they couldn't rock all night long. But they tried like hell just the same.

 

I'm Sorry, I Can't Rock You All Night Long: 1984-89 - Song Histories

(by Michael Hall)

She Said (Hall)

Mastered from the original tape: dig that analog tremolo.
This was one of Stuart Sullivan's first producing jobs--now
he's a big shot. From Life is Grand (Life in Soul City)
(1985).

Come Outside and Play (Phil Reed)

Phil Reed wrote this with Roky Erickson in mind. Roky
actually heard it once when he stopped by to visit at Mike
Alvarez's home studio, where we were doing a demo. Roky
nodded his head and said, "That sounds pretty good." Then,
after a pause: "Can I borrow a dollar for some ice cream?"
From Life is Grand (Life in Soul City) (1985).

Let's Walk (Hall)

This was done live on KUT's Live Set, an hour-long show
radio show we did in 1985. One reason it sounds so frantic
is we were trying to fit 20 songs into that hour. We made
it.

Sharlene (Hall, Steve Chaney)

A true story, more or less. From Brave, Clean + Reverent
(1986).

Big Mimosa Sky (Hall, Paul Cullum)

Paul and I wrote several songs together. I messed up one of
his lines here, though: "I'll see you lying down beneath a
Big Mimosa Sky" should be "crying." From Brave, Clean +
Reverent.

A Girl Can Tell (Hall)

This was for a 1986 demo that was never released. Brent
Grulke produced it--as I recall he approximated his
live-sound mixing technique: turn everything up as high as
it would go.

Pure Heart (Hall)

This is from our last show, which was done at Liberty Lunch
in 1989. Ed Ward once wrote that the song could be an anthem
for the whole New Sincerity thing, which I took as both an
honor and an insult.

Love Will Make You Weak (Hall)

We used to end the set with this and throw in an abbreviated
version of "Waltz Across Texas" before the guitar meltdown at
the end. From Brave, Clean + Reverent.

Big Moon (Hall, Bo Solomon)

I was hoarse from oversinging when we recorded this. Sounds
vaguely nostalgic. From Brave, Clean + Reverent.

Debi Came Back (Hall)

A version we did for Brave, Clean + Reverent that for some
reason we never finished for that album. This was a scratch
vocal--I don't think I was trying to sound like Dylan.

I'm Sorry, I Can't Rock You All Night Long (Hall, Brent Grulke)

The closest thing we had to a hit. The album it was on, Mud,
Lies & Shame (1988), sold 25,000 copies based on the radio
play for this song. I talked to a bunch of 30- and
40-something radio station program directors, and several
told me how much their wives got a kick out of the title.

You Will Be Married to a Jealous Man (Hall)

I wrote this for my girlfriend and recited it on her
answering machine. From Mud, Lies & Shame.

Long Gone Train (Hall)

First there was "Gone Dead Train" by Randy Newman, then came
"Long Gone Dead," by Rank and File. This was the obvious
next step in pop songwriting evolution. From Mud, Lies &
Shame.

Like a Fall (Hall, Solomon)

Howard Benson, who produced Mud, Lies & Shame, played most
of the keyboards on the album, but not the piano here. When
Bo Solomon heard the stiff solo he jokingly said, "Howard
really worked hard on that one." I said, "Uh, Bo, I played
that." Bo laughed and said he was sorry. I laughed too--it's
pretty plunky.

If I Were a Storm (Hall, Joey Shuffield, Solomon, Paul Swift)

Bo left the band after we recorded Mud, Lies & Shame but
before we mixed it. This was the one song that hadn't come
together--it needed a guitar part. So Randy and I went to LA
and he came up with one.

All This Time (Hall, Cullum)

A real show-stopper for us live--Kris would get tears in her
eyes when she sang it. I love Bo's solo--very late-night
sounding. From Mud, Lies & Shame.

This Little Town (Swift)

Paul Swift wrote some great songs, and then he joined the
Army. From an unreleased 1989 demo.

Leaving Egypt (Hall)

AIDS allegory. I slowed it down on my first solo album. From
that same demo.

I'm Gonna Get Drunk with a Good Friend of Mine (Hall)

I wrote this on several all-night drives on a west coast
tour. Sleep was the main enemy, or so it seemed at the time.
From our last show, at Liberty Lunch in 1989.

I Wanna Watch You Age (Hall)

First song of that final show. Someone asks me to play it at
their wedding every couple of years.

What they did after Wild Seeds broke up

French Acers moved to Dallas and played with both the Potatoes and Cowboys and Indians.

Julia Austin played in the Horsies, who released two albums--Touch Me Columbus and Trouble Down South. She lives in Austin where she is associate publisher of the Texas Observer.

Steve Chaney is a bon vivant and living legend living in Austin.

Randy Franklin played in a bunch of bands, including the Lollygaggers,the Randy Franklin Band, and the Woodpeckers. He runs Yard Dog Folk Art Gallery in Austin.

Michael Hall just released his eighth album, The Song He Was Listening to When He Died. He lives in Austin where he writes for Texas Monthly magazine.

Kris McKay released two albums, What Love Endures and Things that Show. She lives in Los Angeles. 

Phil Reed moved to New York and played in Wild Blue Yonder and Slander Donna. He lives in Austin, where he is an architect.

Russell Sanchez also moved to New York and played in Wild Blue Yonder and Slander Donna. Now he is a teacher of young medical students in San Antonio.

Joey Shuffield played in Big Car and now plays in Fastball, who have sold millions of albums. He lives in Austin, where he is a rock star and still a nice guy.

Bo Solomon moved to St. Louis and then to Columbia, Missouri. 

Paul Swift spent seven-and-a-half years in the Army and now lives in La Crescent, Minnesota.