Rubber Rodeo was a Boston-based band active in the 1980s. The band fused Roxy Music

Roxy Music

Roxy Music was a British art rock band formed in 1971 by Bryan Ferry, who became the group's lead vocalist and chief songwriter, and bassist Graham Simpson. The other members are Phil Manzanera , Andy Mackay and Paul Thompson . Former members include Brian Eno , and Eddie Jobson...

-influenced new wave

New Wave music

New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...

 music with country and western influences, and dressed in 1950's-vintage country & western clothing. Their 1984 release "Anywhere With You" reached #86 on the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

.

Foundation and early years (1980-83)

Rubber Rodeo was founded in Rhode Island in 1980, and initially consisted of Bob Holmes (vocals, guitars), Trish Milliken (vocals, keyboards), Gary Leib

Gary Leib

Gary Leib is an American underground cartoonist, animator, and musician. Best known for the comic book Idiotland , Leib's work has also appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Musician Magazine, The New York Observer, RAW, BLAB! and as weekly...

 (synthesisers), Eddie Stern (pedal steel), Doug Allen

Doug Allen

Doug Allen is an American underground cartoonist, illustrator, and musician. Best known for his long-running comic strip Steven, Allen has over the years collaborated with long-time friend Gary Leib on music, animation, fine art, and comics, including the two-man Fantagraphics anthology...

 (bass) and Bob's brother Barc Holmes (drums). Almost all were students at the Rhode Island School of Design

Rhode Island School of Design

Rhode Island School of Design is a fine arts and design college located in Providence, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1877. Located at the base of College Hill, the RISD campus is contiguous with the Brown University campus. The two institutions share social, academic, and community resources and...

, and lead singers Holmes and Milliken were also romantically involved. Bob Holmes later described the band as "a cross between Gene Autry

Gene Autry

Orvon Grover Autry , better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s...

 and Devo

Devo

Devo is an American band formed in 1973 consisting of members from Kent and Akron, Ohio. The classic line-up of the band includes two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs and the Casales . The band had a #14 Billboard chart hit in 1980 with the single "Whip It", and has maintained a cult...

". Others noted that when Milliken was singing, Rubber Rodeo sounded something like a countrified Blondie

Blondie (band)

Blondie is an American rock band, founded by singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. The band was a pioneer in the early American New Wave and punk scenes of the mid-1970s...

.

Most of the band's material consisted of original songs composed by Bob Holmes, or by the team of Holmes and Milliken. However, the group also recorded takes on country and western classics such as Ennio Morricone

Ennio Morricone

Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI, , is an Italian composer and conductor, who wrote music to more than 500 motion pictures and television series, in a career lasting over 50 years. His scores have been included in over 20 award-winning films as well as several symphonic and choral pieces...

's "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" and the Patsy Cline

Patsy Cline

Patsy Cline , born Virginia Patterson Hensley in Gore, Virginia, was an American country music singer who enjoyed pop music crossover success during the era of the Nashville sound in the early 1960s...

 standard "Walkin' After Midnight

Walkin' After Midnight

"Walkin' After Midnight" is a song by written by Alan Block and Donn Hecht and originally recorded by American country music artist Patsy Cline. The song was originally given to pop singer Kay Starr; however, it was rejected by her record label. The song was left unused until Hecht rediscovered the...

". As well, their first independently released single was a cover of Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton

Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...

's "Jolene" in 1981. Shortly after this single was released, pedal steel guitarist Stern left the band, to be replaced by Mark Tomeo.

Scenic Views (1984)

After two independent EP releases, on Eat Records, in 1982 and 1983, the band recorded their full-length debut Scenic Views (1984) for Mercury Records

Mercury Records

Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...

. The sessions were not without tension: producer Hugh Jones used a Linn drum machine

Drum machine

A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums or other percussion instruments. They are used in a variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music...

 rather than letting Barc Holmes play, and bassist Allen played only on a portion of the track "Walkin' After Midnight" before being let go by the band. Former Rubber Rodeo producer John Doelp took over on bass for the remainder of the sessions, and was credited with "bass and musical direction" on the final release, although he was not an official member of the group. After the album was made, bassist Hal Cragin was added to the line-up for live work; he also appears as bassist and band member in the videos shot for the Scenic Views album.

Despite the difficulties in making the record, Scenic Views was a moderately successful release. The LP's first single "The Hardest Thing" failed to chart, but the video received significant MTV

MTV

MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

 airplay. The album's second video "Anywhere With You" also received MTV play, and the "Anywhere With You" single was a minor hit in the US, reaching no. 86 on the US Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 singles chart.

Later in 1984, the band picked up a Grammy nomination for a long-form video they made for Scenic Views. The video was produced by Second Story Television and written and directed by David Greenberg. The video release also included the music video for their early Eat Records single, "How The West Was Won".

Heartbreak Highway (1986)

Before recording their follow-up album, the band's line-up was reshuffled again. Tomeo departed, to be replaced by Ray Gantek on pedal steel and dobro.

The band's second album, 1986's Heartbreak Highway, was produced by Ken Scott

Ken Scott

Ken Scott is an English record producer and recording engineer.-Career:Scott started at the age of 16 working in the tape library at Abbey Road Studios. He became a recording engineer working with such acts as The Beatles, Jeff Beck, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones and Procol Harum...

, who had previously produced albums by David Bowie

David Bowie

David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...

 and Devo

Devo

Devo is an American band formed in 1973 consisting of members from Kent and Akron, Ohio. The classic line-up of the band includes two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs and the Casales . The band had a #14 Billboard chart hit in 1980 with the single "Whip It", and has maintained a cult...

. However, the album was not a commercial success and the band was subsequently dropped by their label. Nevertheless, the group soldiered on for a while, with Reeves Gabrels

Reeves Gabrels

Reeves Gabrels is an American guitarist, known for virtuosity, versatility, and originality. His compositions and improvisations defy genre and "explore sonic extremes with a great, adaptive intuition for what each song needs most."...

 taking over from Gantek as Rubber Rodeo's steel guitarist.

Break-up and aftermath

The band split up by the end of the 1980s, with their final recording appearing on a 1991 tribute album honouring Duplex Planet

Duplex Planet

The Duplex Planet is a zine edited and published by David Greenberger since 1979. It contains transcriptions of his interviews with elderly residents at a Boston, Massachusetts, United States, nursing home.-Adaptations:...

 poetry naif Ernest Noyes Brookings. Holmes and Milliken's marriage also came to an end in the 1990s.

Bob Holmes (not to be confused with the similarly named guitarist from the Boston band Til Tuesday) went on to a successful production career for artists ranging from David Bowie

David Bowie

David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...

 to Nils Lofgren

Nils Lofgren

Nils Hilmer Lofgren is an American rock music recording artist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist...

 and now produces multi-media in New York City. Both Doug Allen

Doug Allen

Doug Allen is an American underground cartoonist, illustrator, and musician. Best known for his long-running comic strip Steven, Allen has over the years collaborated with long-time friend Gary Leib on music, animation, fine art, and comics, including the two-man Fantagraphics anthology...

 and Gary Leib

Gary Leib

Gary Leib is an American underground cartoonist, animator, and musician. Best known for the comic book Idiotland , Leib's work has also appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Musician Magazine, The New York Observer, RAW, BLAB! and as weekly...

, meanwhile, drew upon their art school backgrounds and became noted cartoonists. Elsewhere, Reeves Gabrels moved to London and joined David Bowie's band Tin Machine

Tin Machine

Tin Machine was a hard rock band formed in 1988, famous for being fronted by singer David Bowie. The group recorded two studio albums before dissolving in 1992, when Bowie returned to his solo career...

; and Tomeo, Cragin, and Gantek all carved out careers as notable session musicians. Rubber Rodeo did get back together to record a third album sometime in the 1990s, but it has never seen release.

In November 2007, Gary Lieb was interviewed for the Alternative Classix podcast, where he discussed Rubber Rodeo's history and legacy.

Albums

EPs

• Rubber Rodeo (1982 Eat Records)

1. "The Theme for Rubber Rodeo" (1:35)
2. "Jolene" (4:17)
3. "Slippin' Away" (4:08)
4. "How the West Was Won" (3:26)
5. "Tublin' Tumbleweeds" (2:36)
6. "True Confessions" (2:58)

• She Had to Go... (1982 Eat Records)

1. "She Had to Go..." (5:11)
2. "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" (2:44)
3. "Forbidden Valley" (3:59)

LPs

• Scenic Views (1984 Eat Records)

1. "Need You, Need Me" (4:39)
2. "Slow Me Down" (3:31)
3. "Anywhere With You" (4:40)
4. "Walking After Midnight" (3:56)
5. "City of God" (5:13)
6. "The Hardest Thing" (3:15)
7. "House of Pain" (4:45)
8. "Mess o' Me" (5:03)
9. "Before I Go Away (5:57)
10. "Woman of Straw" (4:20)*

• Heartbreak Highway (1986 Mercury Records)

1. "Heartbreak Highway" (4:33)
2. "If You're Ever Alone" (4:10)
3. "Everybody's Talkin'" (3:40)
4. "Souvenir" (3:48)
5. "The Civil War" (4:14)
6. "Deadtown" (4:43)
7. "When Words Collide" (4:13)
8. "Look Who's Back" (4:11)
9. "Maybe Next Year" (4:28)

-*on CD and cassette releases

Singles

• "Jolene" (1981)
• "She Had To Go" (1982)
• "The Hardest Thing" (1984)
• "Anywhere With You" (1984)
• "Everybody's Talkin'" (1986)
• "Souvenir" (1986)