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The Lizard musical style features precise four- and five-part vocal harmonies and instrumental mastery, particularly from Conrad Deisler on guitar, on fiddle and mandolin, and Tom Pittman on banjo and dobro. Rounding out the group are Hank Card on rhythm guitar and on bass. Lizard arrangements often include harmonies and instrumental parts that are themselves a spoof of the conventions of bluegrass, country, rock, and pop music. So it's no surprise that the group counts among its influences Frank Zappa, George Jones, Spike Jones, Flatt & Scruggs, Tom Lehrer, and Steve Goodman.
Austin Lounge Lizards Bio - updated June, 2009
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 Bernie Madoff, Roger Clemens, the Octomom, Rush Limbaugh and various villains from Detroit 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 June 12, 2009, 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 … ”
The onset of their fourth decade marks a dramatic new era for the Lizards. The former “boys club” now sports two gifted female musicians. In the summer of 2008, Darcie Deaville joined the group on fiddle, mandolin and vocals. As of January 2009, Julieann Banks assumed bass and vocal duties. They join founding Lizards Hank Card (rhythm guitar, vocals), Tom Pittman (banjo, dobro, vocals) and Conrad Deisler (guitar, mandolin, vocals).
Suddenly, there’s quite a bit of hubbub regarding women in the band. The addition of Julieann and Darcie enables the Lizards to tackle humorous issues from more perspectives than ever. Deaville is a singer, writer, producer, actor, musical director and coach who’s collaborated with artists including Ani Di Franco, Tom Paxton and Ray Wylie Hubbard. Banks, an award-winning vocalist and songwriter, is a 2002 inductee into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. She has fronted her own bands, recorded and performed her own music, and toured with other artists including Percy Sledge.
“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),” says Deaville. “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.”
Banks adds, “We are working on a new album, and I’m super fired-up about being part of the creative process. I’ve found many Lizards’ songs have ‘hidden tracks’ of meaning. The surface is always funny, yes, but if the listener digs deeper, they are rewarded with fascinating veins of literature, history and political science. The opportunity for me to contribute to this band’s complex level of craftsmanship is a thrill and a challenge.”
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 CREATURE 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 Austin Lounge Lizards grew out of the songwriting relationship between = Card and Deisler, who met when they were history majors at Princeton University and started writing songs together in 1976. Eventually Card, an Oklahoman, and Deisler, a Texan, ended up at the University of Texas law school together, where they hooked up in 1980 with banjo and dobro player Pittman, who had the right academic credentials (a degree in philosophy from the University of Georgia). Originally playing Austin and Texas dates while keeping day jobs as varied as bailiff, construction foreman and administrative law judge, band members has been touring internationally since 1987, appearing at festivals and concerts in the United States, Canada and the U.K.
The 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.
Booking Agency: Mike Drudge, Class Act Entertainment, 615.262.6886; www.classactentertainment.com
Media Contact: Jill McGuckin, McGuckin Entertainment PR, 512.217.9404; wwww.mcguckinpr.com
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THE AUSTIN LOUNGE LIZARDS ARE:
Hank Card — guitar, vocals
Card is one of the three founding Lizards. He grew up in Oklahoma City, went to Princeton (not “prison,” as commonly believed), where he met Conrad Deisler, and graduated from the University of Texas School of Law. Card is one of the main songwriters of the Lizards, unless you don’t like their songs, in which case he is not.
Tom Pittman — banjo, dobro, vocals
Pittman, another founding Lizard, grew up in Georgia and North Carolina to the extent that he grew up at all. After playing in several unsuccessful bands there, he moved to Austin in 1974 to play in several other unsuccessful bands. In 1978, he joined forces with Corad Deisler in an unsuccessful C&W band, and in their spare time (of which there was plenty) they started playing for fun with Hank Card. After winning the Kerrville Bluegrass Band Contest in 1983, they began to realize that success could no longer be avoided.
Conrad Deisler — guitar, mandolin, vocals
Deisler has been monkeying around with music and electronics since the first grade. One of his earliest memories involves singing along with his mother’s Electrolux vacuum cleaner. His first paying gig came in eighth grade. In 1974, he woke up at the Union Grove Fiddlers’ Convention in North Carolina. Since then, he has been devoted to bluegrass and (real) country music. Influences include George Jones and Spike Jones, Frank Zappa and John Hartford, and Bela Bartok and Emmylou Harris.
Darcie Deaville — fiddle, mandolin, vocals
Starting at 16 as a street performer in Toronto, Deaville is an accomplished actor, singer, writer, producer, musical director and coach. She’s collaborated with artists including Ani Di Franco, Tom Paxton, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Eliza Gilkyson. Darcie’s toured from the Yukon to the Yucatan and throughout Europe. “Woody Sez” is her current part time project with her NYC-based theater troupe. In 2007, she released her fifth CD, LIVIN’ ON THE LUCKY SIDE.
Bruce Jones — bass, vocals
The newest Lizard is Bruce Jones, a Texas songwriter who spent 16 years playing bass with Omar and the Howlers. This involved a lot of bad behavior, close calls and lucky breaks, including an album on CBS records and tours around North America and Europe with artists including Stevie Ray Vaughan, the Fabulous Thunderbirds and Johnny Winter. In 2004, he released his first album of original songs, including “Fight Like a Girl,” which won Second Place in the Austin Songwriter’s Group Songwriting Contest in the "Rock" category. In 2007 he collaborated with Emily Kaitz on an album called "Monotoneland". In 2008 he released another album of original songs called "Rough Tough Game". This album featured a song called "I Miss You", which won First Place that year in the "Singer-Songwriter" category of the ASG song contest.
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