Lawrence.com

Posted by Tom King September 22, 2004 at 3:10 p.m.

Zoeller on Henson

[Doris Henson][1]: Michael Walker, trombone and melodica. Jamie Zoeller, guitar (second from left in [this photo][1]) Matthew Dunehoo, vocals and guitar Wes Gartner, drums Byron Collum, bassWhite Elephant, 2003 Pacific Rock Recordings; recorded and mixed at West End Studios, Kansas City.Give Me All Your Money, 2004 DeSoto Records; recorded and mixed at West End Studios, Kansas City: Duane Trower, engineer, and John Hulston (Anodyne Records), assistant engineer. Release date 1/24/05.1976 Fender Mustang"Jamie's a wild man onstage," recalls a Lawrence rocker who attended the Doris Henson show at the Jackpot Saloon a few months ago. "They're wound-up Midwesterners, throwing down hard. They sound more glam than they look."Zoeller: We just try to get everyone involved; trying to get a party going.Do you get down onstage?Zoeller: I feel it. I like to move around.Say a few words about the electric guitar and electric guitar players.Zoeller: "Nevermind" was the big one. John Greenwood was a huge inspiration; Thurston Moore, Jimi Hendrix and Television. I'm trying to learn how to play the guitar now. For years I was making sounds-now, I'm learning to play.Doris the FetusZoeller: I started a band in high school called Nymb-stupid name. We put out six CDs-six releases on six tiny Midwestern labels. I worked at Starbucks. Then I moved here."Matt wrote "White Elephant" before Doris Henson formed when he was still in the Lawrence outfit Proudentall. :Matt and Mike knew one another in high school and were in a side project with Byron when he was in Giant's Chair:He [Matt] wasn't introduced to Wes until he sought out a drummer. Jamie was a friend of a friend. When Jamie moved from Chicago to Kansas City, the friend suggested the two collaborate musically. Thus Doris Henson was born with ready-made material." Maygun Metzger, White Noise: An Interview with Doris Henson; DanderCroft Sept. 2004.Zoeller: Matt showed up at the bar one night. He had a Nymb CD--I thought he was going to make fun of me. He said he wanted me to play guitar with his band-they were rehearsing the next day and he wanted me to come. He sat there talking about it for a couple of hours. He wasn't pushy, but he kept to the topic. He said Wes would pick me up at noon the next day. I almost didn't go, but he [Matt] seemed so sure.Where did the name [Doris Henson] come from?Zoeller: It's Matt's great aunt, or some relative. He thought it was a cool name--cool enough for a band.Red LipstickThings written and spoken about Doris Henson often refer to glam rock. What is glam? Most glam historians agree that glam rock ("glamour rock"-an arty, gender-bent expression of the Sexual Revolution), was a British invention of the early to mid-1970s: Hunky Dory; Ziggy Stardust and Electric Warrior define the genre. But there was also Slade, maybe Hoople, Sweet-but not Suzi Quatro--and early Roxy Music. American glam was probably Kiss and Lou Reed--but what about Todd Rundgren? Or Sparks? Was Alice Cooper glam, or The New York Dolls?Zoeller: I'd say Bowie, Iggy Pop, T.Rex: I really don't know that much about it.Iggy Pop? because of the cover of "Raw Power"? He looked glam then, but that wasn't glam music.Zoeller: So what?So what's glam about Doris Henson?Zoeller: Well, behind the scenes it's very glamorous. Maybe it's our attitude. I think the glam tag came after Matt mentioned some influences in an interview: Bowie and Eno and those guys. We don't dress glam--Wes is the only guy who wears makeup but he wears it under his clothing.Business MusicZoeller: You could say "White Elephant" was a self-released album--we were the first band on a tiny label in L.A. (Pacific Rock Recordings).And the challenge of the sophomore release?Zoeller: We're taking a whole new look at it. More and more, we consider the next album [Give Me All Your Money] to be our first album. There's talk of recording next summer in D.C. with J. Robbins-we're already working on songs for that. We've had encouraging feedback on Desoto from other bands.DeSoto Records is a musicians' label-a label which treats its artists well (see also Fripp's Discipline Global Music). DeSoto artists include Burning Airlines, Shiner, Dismemberment Plan, Channels and Maritime. Doris Henson got the same deal as everyone else: a 50/50 split on a handshake.How are the songs made?Zoeller: Matt writes the lyrics. He'll play something, sometimes with bass and drum parts already written, and we all take it from there. I generally write my own guitar parts.What do you contribute to the process?Zoeller: My function is to mess with it, to throw everything off. If they're all stuck on four, I'll write my part in three or five, just to mix it up.Try to describe the Henson sound.Zoeller: It's hard to describe our sound:repetition:repetition of a theme or multiple themes in one song; a lot of stop and go. It's rock and roll.Can you liken the Henson sound to anything out there?Zoeller: Anything now? No.What's new on the new album?Zoeller: Horns on every song; a bigger sound; and a broader view, not as introspective as "White Elephant".He's a PigZoeller's Top Three for Labor Day 2004: * My co-workers and customers [at the [Bourgeois Pig][2]] will tell you I've been playing the new Air album lately. * The first Stone Roses. * Here Come the Warm Jets.Add up the demands of Doris Henson, a day job, and a (Rick) Jamesian social calendar, and it's hard to believe Zoeller is also the starting pitcher and spiritual tyrant of the Bourgeois Pigs, a formidable presence in the [Lawrence Downtown Kickball League][3]. On the field at South Park, the Pigs wear lingerie-pink T-shirts. Zoeller is notorious for sleazy psych-tactics: synchronized flatulence ("Round the Bases"), wardrobe malfunctions and team stare-downs. During kickball season, Zoeller's antics are the talk of downtown, earning him comparisons to Caligula, Bobby Knight and Diana Ross.Doris Pops OutZoeller: People in Kansas City are so supportive of their local music scene. They're excited for each other-half of the audience is members of KC bands. We had great response at the Hurricane last Saturday night. There were a lot of people there-we were amazed at that-and everyone really seemed to like it. Chris Tolle [The Belles] said we were the Kings of Kansas City. It felt great.Doris Henson returns to the Jackpot in Lawrence on [Thursday, October 7th][4]. San Francisco's Roma 79 opens the show at 10 PM. The bands then tour together to St. Louis the following night-the Rocket Bar--then to Champaign the 9th, Chicago on the 10th, wrapping up in Iowa City on October 11th.How many tours has Doris Henson made?Zoeller: We've done three self-booked tours, two of which were 3-week runs. They've all been hard-we're pretty much unknown outside of Kansas City. After five or ten bad shows in a row-like a Mom & Pop record store in southern New Mexico on a Wednesday night-nerves get tight. In hindsight, they've been fun, but financially rotten.On tour, in that van, who's the smelliest Henson?Zoeller: Byron. He's a vegetarian, and vegetarians have a definite:well, you know. We get along very well, considering our differences.DanderCroft: a well-made quarterly by John Bersuch, "covering the many aspects or "scenes" of Kansas City music". Lethald00@aol.com; Attn. DanderCroft 13313 A South71 Hwy. Grandview, Mo. 64030 [1]: http://www2.lawrence.com/bands/doris_henson/ [2]: http://www2.lawrence.com/places/the_b... [3]: http://www2.lawrence.com/news/2004/au... [4]: http://www2.lawrence.com/events/2004/oct/07/7058/