The Obvious
The best band I was ever in, and it
was stiill pretty pathetic anyway, but not because there wasn't any
talent in the band.
Kevin Brueseke, the drummer, was one
of the legendary Roosevelt High School punk rock drummers. He was an
original member of the Camaros, and therefore
an almost mythical figure on the New Wave scene in St. Louis.
Chuck DeClue, the lead vocalist, was
a founding member of the Retros, another seminal
St. Louis punk band, and exuded rocker cool from every pore in his body.
We all thought he was so old because he was 25 when he was in this band.
He wrote extremely cool songs.
Alex Mutrux, the lead guitarist, was a direct descendent
of the clan that started Gaslight Square, which was the apex of cool
in St. Louis during the late Beatnick and early hippie era. Before the
Obvious (and the Oui-Oui Twins) he was in the scandalous band Surgery.
He was also an awesome guitarist with more than a hint of heavy metal
chops and country cool to his style.
This band rose immediately from the sperm-soaked ashes
of the Oui-Oui Twins, which was a band I had
with Alex, Kevin and my brother Gus that could have never lasted because
it was too cool to exist, what with two beautiful teenaged girls wailing
in front of everybody and not giving a shit about how awful it all was
in perfect punk abandon.
We played around town a little. We did some interesting
covers, like "We love you" by the Pschedelic Furs and some
cuts from "We're only in it for the money" by the Mothers
of Invention.
We also did an 8mm movie the same length as our song
"Surf's Up, Gang", which a kind of Tube-Trip inspired precursor
to MTV rock videos.
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