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Romancing
Medusa (The Band)
Romancing Medusa
was a band started by Bourland, Crosby and Maynard. Mark Maynard
and Bourland have been in four band together: Gunge Bucket, Goove Hole,
The Texas
Philistines and Romancing Medusa. After being fired from The Texas
Philistines shortly
following the Vitual Noise gig in May of
1995, Bourland took an official hiatus from the live music scene in
Austin. As fate would have it, this turned into an extended absense.
Bourland resurfaced in 1999 with Romancing Medusa.
Here's the short story: Bourland
went over to Maynard's house one day in 1998 and who was there but none
other than Paul Crosby. It was then that Bourland and Crosby hatched
the idea of making movies (See Romancing
Medusa The Series). As
Bourland and Crosby started making movies and they happened to sit down
with two accoustics to jam for a bit one day. Well, as they had from
the first day they met, Crosby and Bourland enjoyed the creative
exchange and brought Maynard in on drums.
Originally
the three just jammed, but when one of Bourland's oldest and dearest
friends decided to play match maker introducing Bourland to Ronna
Braselton, well lets just say Ronna sang and Bourland knew just what to
do. Nope, he didn't ask Ronna out on a date. Bourland asked Ronna to
come audition for the band. Ronna came over, sang one song with the
band; Crosby and Maynard's reaction? "Ummmm, dude, she wants to be in
OUR band? How the heck did you pull this off Bourland? She's amazing!"
With that the band was formed.
Romancing
Medusa started rehearsing and performing live. The band lasted all of
about 8 months. After failing to be selected for SXSW, Maynard quit.
The movie, Barefoot on Broken Dreams,
was more true of Bourland's creative life than he knew at the time. The
movie was a disaster, but that's long story that will soon be told, but
not now. Anyhoo, Romancing Medusa was the most fun Bourland ever had
playing music. Here are several videos produced by Dave Prewitt from a
gig at Babe's on 6th Street, yet another cool Austin live music venue
that bit the dust.
 Live Performance for CapZeyeZ at
Babe's on 6th Street: December 1999
A big thanks to Dave Prewitt at CapZeyeZ/Rawtime
for recording this show and for all the great work he has done
recording many many Austin and touring bands. Dave is just another one
of those people that make Austin such a great place to live and play
music.
- Romancing
Medusa The Band (Bourland-guitar; Mark
Maynard-drums; Paul Crosby-bass; Ronna Braselton-vocals)
Interesting to
note, at the time of the Babe's gigs, Bourland was designing
microchips, playing in a band, filming Barefoot on Broken Dreams, and oh
yeah, he thought he could start his own chip design company too! Talk
about hectic! Whoa! Bourland's week for the Month of December, 1999
went something like this:
- Monday-Wednesday: Integrated circuit design
- Monday night: Band rerearsal
- Tuesday nights: Gig at Babe's on 6th Street
- Wednesday Nights: Rehearsals for Barefoot on Broken Dreams
- Thursday-Sunday: Production on Barefoot on Broken Dreams
- Sunday nights: Band rerearsal
Is it any wonder
that Bourland burned out and was forced to take another hiatus?
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