Artist description The love child of Kurt Cobain and Lucinda Williams

Music Style Adult Alternative

Musical Influences Nirvana, Steve Earle, James McMurtry, The Beatles, Son Volt, Slash, Black Flag, Guns N Roses, Metallica, Bob Dylan

Similar Artists Wilco, Bob Mould, Sugar, Mark Lanegan, Lou Reed

Artist History I was born 2-26-77 in Liberty, Texas to a Cajun-Italian father and a Japanese mother. We lived on seven acres of land outside of Liberty (pop. 2000) while my hip parents tried out the East Texas version of Walden. After about 10 years they realized that Thoreau probably didn't have to deal with The Klan as neighbors, cottonmouth snakes, and mosquitoes the size of economy cars, so in 1984 we moved to Westlake Hills, an affluent suburb of Austin. Having been born with cerebral palsy left me with a moderate limp, which immediately put me at the mercy of 60 3rd graders, who left the kids in the wheelchairs alone but because I was ambulatory I was considered a fat and easy target. This constant peer warfare supplied me with an early, almost innate sense of angst and I began to gravitate towards music as an escape, as I only had one friend named Dustin Gardner. The first time that I heard Guns N Roses' "Sweet Child O Mine" on the radio when I was ten made me see that I was put on this earth to play guitar and piss people off. I spent the rest of my preadolescence listening to GNR, Motley Crue and Metallica until 1991 when I bought Nevermind, by Nirvana, which taught me that loud rock music does not have to be about sexual prowess or the devil and that anyone with a guitar, a loud amp, and something to say could make music. Hence I realized I might actually BE ABLE to play guitar and piss people off, and maybe even make them think. I spent high school listening to Nirvana, Sugar, Black Flag, Sex Pistols, Uncle Tupelo, James McMurtry and a slew of other eclectic artists. My friend Tish Hinojosa gave me a Takamine acoustic guitar so most of high school I was writing intitmate, hyperpersonal songs in my bedroom but I couldn't find anyone who was as passionate about music as I was until my senior year when I met this kid named Evan Pickrel. Evan played drums and so we eschewed the traditional high school kegger circuit and decided to do a one-off studio project called Missing Ingredient, named after one episode of Quentin Tarantino's ensemble piece "Four Rooms." We then booked some time in a studio and recorded a three-song demo, I played guitar and sang and Evan played bass and drums. It was kind of like a two man Foo Fighters. I didn't expect anything to become of it but for the hell of it I gave a copy to a club booker who specialized in new bands. In the meantime I graduated from High School in May of 1996 and by August I was preparing to attend UT Austin when I get a surprise phone call from said booking agent. He said he had ahad hh had an open date in February of 1997 at this awesome little dive called The Hole In The Wall. The problem was, I had no band. Evan was still in high school. So I hooked up with my old buddy Dustin Gardner from elementary school, found a rhythm section in the local weekly, and all of a sudden Missing Ingredient was a real band. We played our first gig on 2-20-97 and our swan song was opening up for James McMurtry in April of 2000. In our 3 year history we became fairly well-known in Austin and our biggest break came when we headlined the legendary now-defunct Liberty Lunch. Also, while temping at a stupid office job, I met this hip redneck drummer named Dirk Reel from Lubbock. Based on his age (44) and his accent I just thought that he was a dreaded "weekend warrior" until we went out to lunch and I discovered that he shared the same catholic tastes in music that I did and had been playing drums for longer than I had been alive. We jammed once, it sounded better than ever, so I sacked our drummer and he signed on. Best decision I ever made. We put out a CD called Consolation Prize which got a good review, decent airplay and sold well. It also caught the attention of an agent, who had witnessed the fact that Missing Ingredient basically consisted of me and Dirk, with a revolving door of other members. So, in 2001, I jumped ship and took Dirk with me, and we went it alone. That pretty much brings us up to date.

Group Members Mike Dubose-Lead vocals, rhythm and lead guitar Dirk Reel- Drums Lisa Wickware- Bass Carrie Clark- Lead and rhythm guitars, backing vocals, keyboards Al Gill- Guitars

Instruments male and female vocals, guitars, drums, cello, keyboards, bass

Albums To Be Announced

Press Reviews http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2000-02-04/music_recviews5.html

Location Austin, Texas - USA

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