Rumbles and Rants
Band changes in the wind and new music
When it comes to band lineup changes, sometimes they're immediately public, and other times, they bubble up quietly from the underground and we don't find out until months later.
A fairly public change went down with Wichita Falls punk/emo band Basics recently, with the band members revealing via social media that drummer Maycen Miser has left the group. Garry Walden has also departed to focus on his other projects, and the remaining members, Austin Rupe, and Trevor Teague, have announced Jonathan “Jono” Hardman as their new drummer. We’re told the band name will remain Basics.
Miser is also working on a new musical project, and we were lucky to hear about it at an early stage.
Maycen’s new musical project will include former members of Tate & the Bedwetters and Dogmouth, plus some not-so-familiar names on our scene. Miser says the new lineup will include Ethan Cole on bass, Sam Franklin on guitar, Zach Cunningham on keys, Tate Faulkenberry on drums, vocalist Riley Southby, and Miser himself will be putting down the sticks and picking up the guitar again. Over a Progress Pizza lunch at Wichita Falls Brewing Company, Maycen told us the name of the group will be Open.
A split we were very sorry to hear about went down in a far less public manner this past February. It took months before the news bubbled up to TheFUSE that Ron Weaver is no longer a member of Better Strangers, which started as a three-piece, became a four-piece when Weaver joined, and is now back to a three-piece act. Better Strangers’ frontman and songwriter Greg Casillas tells us the group will continue on in its original power trio configuration. Weaver remains lead guitarist with his other group, Strange Lucy.
In rosier news, there’s new streaming Texoma music out there from bands like Downtown Royalty and Blank Labels, among others. We’ll have more to say about that in our first ever Black Friday Red River Playlist, just days away. If we haven’t featured your Texoma streaming music yet, drop us a note on Facebook or Instagram, or leave a comment below.
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