Matthew Toplikar was a fixture of the Lawrence music scene for several years from 2005 until he, first, moved to Las Vegas, where he worked for the Las Vegas Sun newspaper and, then, moved to Albuquerque, where he currently works in the film industry. Matt and I met in 2000 from living in the same dormitory. Eventually, we became roommates while going to college, whence came our musical collaboration. Specifically, I created bass lines to songs he had already written, mostly for the purpose of playing gigs. However, in 2008, Matt (vocals and guitar) and I (bass and guitar), along with Taylor White (percussions) and Elijah Dragen (guitar and producer) home-recorded a short album: Shitty Whiskers.
Presently, I am trying to drum up Shitty Whiskers, but, so far, to no avail. However, I was able to locate one recording of Matt and me:
You can appreciate some of Matt’s other songs here and here.
Sick Bird – not to be confused with this band of the same name – was a contemporary bluegrass band headed by Eric Dobbins. Eric Dobbins was an active member of the Lawrence community, participating closely in the running of the downtown Casbah organic grocery store (no longer opened) and founding the art gallery, Wonder Fair. He is now, no doubt, living the dream in Los Angeles.
Matthew Toplikar, hearing that Sick Bird was in need of a bassist, introduced me to Eric. Despite having no experience playing bluegrass, Eric took me on for a handful of gigs before Sick Bird disbanded.
Unfortunately, my contributions to Sick Bird were never recorded. And, once upon a time, some of Sick Bird’s songs were on Facebook (Myspace?), but, alas, they can no longer be found. If I ever come across that music again, I will be sure to upload them here.
Jacob Frese and I are the founders of Brass Buffalo, though Jacob was the heart and soul of the band. We both spent some time in Council Grove Kansas during our formative years, but didn’t interact much because of our age differences. Thus, it wasn’t until a fateful summer when Jacob lived with me that I discovered he was a prolific singer-song writer in the vein of Americana, but with heavy influences from the Mountain Goats. That is also when Jacob discovered I had some bass chops.
Initially, we formed a band under the name ‘Positive Wisdom Serpent’, in which I created bass lines for Jacob’s songs. It did not take long, however, for Jacob to realize I was prolific in my own right, with many novel bass riffs and half written songs. Thus, he began writing guitar parts to my songs, which began making the lineup.
After some reshuffling of the band’s members, Brass Buffalo would come to comprise Daniel Gwartney (banjo), Taylor Ford (guitar and accordion), and Chris Newell (percussion), as well as Jacob and me. And, thus, we rebranded ourselves ‘Brass Buffalo’. Our sound ranged from Americana, country, rock n’ roll, to “I don’t know exactly what to call it” – often with punk undertones. You can hear a live recording of our last show here. I hope to uncover more recordings for your enjoyment.
