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“Fools are my theme/Let satire be my song …”
— Lord Byron
Larry McMurtry once noted, “Being a writer and a Texan is an amusing fate, one that gets funnier as one’s sense of humor darkens. In times like these, it borders on the macabre.”
McMurtry wrote those words in the late Sixties, but he could have been speaking for the Austin Lounge Lizards four decades later. Since the group’s founding in 1980, a shifting ensemble of Lizards has enjoyed what the military folks call a “target-rich environment.” Fools, pompous fatheads, hypocrites and self-important blowhards have never been in short supply in the Lone Star State and, armed with sprightly bluegrass melodies and a rapier-sharp lyrical sting, the band has enjoyed a virtual shooting gallery of satirical opportunities.
And in an era in which the latest Ponzi scheme, Glenn Beck, and various villains from BP to Wall Street to Washington, D.C., all compete for space in the 24-hour news cycle, the national pickings are better than ever.
The Lizards’ latest single, the Lindsay Eck-penned “Too Big To Fail” (available as an iTunes download), speaks in black-humored fashion of the cynical excesses of the new Gilded Age:
“I wanna fight where I can’t get hurt
Somebody else gets covered with dirt
While I never scuff the French cuffs of my shirt
or my hankie
I wanna get what the rich guys get
I wanna chef and a corporate jet
And a house in the Hamptons
if it doesn’t upset Ben Bernanke … ”
Based in Austin, Texas, the Lizards have honed their music into a wicked-funny art form. They’ve delighted audiences from Texas to Trafalgar Square with their inventive style of satirical folk, country and bluegrass. Trademarks of a Lizards song are highly literate, sharply pointed lyrics that poke fun at politics, love, religion and the culture in general. Combined with superb musicianship that features precise four- and five-part vocal harmonies and instrumental mastery, the band’s songs are as melodically infectious as they are lyrically prescient.
Given their free-ranging eclecticism and natural irreverence, it’s no surprise that the group counts among its influences Frank Zappa, George Jones, Spike Jones, Flatt & Scruggs, Tom Lehrer and Steve Goodman. Album and song titles like CREATURES FROM THE BLACK SALOON, “Shallow End of the Gene Pool,” “Teenage Immigrant Welfare Mothers On Drugs,” “Jesus Loves Me (But He Can’t Stand You)” and NEVER AN ADULT MOMENT all point to the Lizards’ love of wordplay and topical relevance.
The Lizards got their start in 1976, when Hank Card and Conrad Deisler, both history majors at Princeton University, started writing songs together. After graduating from Princeton both Hank, an Oklahoman, and Conrad, a Texan, ended up at the University of Texas in Austin, where they met up in 1980 with banjo and dobro player Tom Pittman, who had the right academic credentials (a degree in philosophy from the University of Georgia).
With the help of a series of talented fellow players, the band began playing Austin and Texas dates. Before long the Lizards had built a large and devoted fan base while keeping day jobs as varied as bailiff, construction foreman and administrative law judge. As Tom has said: “Success became unavoidable.” As early as 1987 they began appearing at festivals and concerts in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, a schedule that continues today.
As the band enters the second decade of the twenty-first century, Hank, Tom and Conrad are joined by the newest “Austin Lounge Lizards”, Darcie Deaville (fiddle, mandolin and vocals) and Bruce Jones (electric bass and vocals).
Darcie joined the group in 2008, bringing a fresh, female perspective to the formerly all-male ensemble. “There’s not another boy band out there that would have welcomed girls into its posse with the appreciation like the founding Lizards (and even the band’s fans),” she says. “The Lizards’ songs and their take on the human condition has given me new insight on how important it is to laugh at ourselves and life’s absurdities.”
Bruce came into the band in December, 2009. "I'm just jazzed about being on the show," he says.
The Austin Lounge Lizards are five-time award winners at the prestigious Austin Music Awards, and their version of the Irving Berlin’s “C-U-B-A” was used in the Michael Moore film Sicko. The band has been featured by NPR’s “Morning Edition” and on the radio programs “Mountain Stage” and “E-Town.” THE DRUGS I NEED (released in 2006) is the Lizards’ 10th album and their second on the Houston-based Blue Corn Music label.
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