STREET BEAT

STREET BEAT

This Month has Two Features: Flintlock ---- Milhouse <Click on the Links!

LOCAL FEATURE

by Ernie Thomas

A lot of folks think of N.W Indiana’s Flintlock as a bluegrass band and they truly are one of the very best in the Midwest, when it comes to pickin’ that sprightly mountain music born in the hills of Kentucky.

But to limit them to that single category would be a disservice to the fine quintet founded six years ago by guitarist/vocalist Rick Carter, a transplant from Chattanooga, Tennessee who became a Hoosier 22 years ago.

“I call what we do ‘Americana Music’. We do blues, folk music, country, a heavy dose of bluegrass, and even a little cajun music,” surmised Carter. They even cover a few American standards like Ira Gershwin’s “Summertime.”

A third generation player, Carter learned to pick guitar at the feet of his grandfather almost before he could walk. His own daddy had played in bands prior to becoming a Baptist Minister. Carter’s own first live performances were at his father’s worship services. Once old enough to play bars, he formed a Southern Rock combo that tore up Tennessee clubs with rip-roaring covers by Skynyrd, Hatchet and others.

Only Carter remains from the quartet originally called Flint Rock, but who became known as Flintlock after a local promoter printed hundreds of flyers with a typo to advertise the band’s first live performance. “That was our first band gig, so we figured what the heck, Flintlock is as a good a name as Flint Rock,” laughed Carter.

Carter proudly notes original member, Dan Patton, now plays at the Grand Ole Opry every Saturday night with the Billy Walker band.

The current crop of players who saddle up on with Carter on stage are –– Gabe Janky (dobro/banjo), Bobby Davis (stand-up bass), Dane Schuyler (fiddle/vocals) and Annie Kincaid (fiddle).

“Bluegrass music is sort of a social thing. There’s a lot jamming and sitting in at festivals,” said Carter. “That’s how I met Bobby. That’s how I got to know Dane a few years earlier and Gabe too. I’d been acquainted with Annie for about six years and was happy when she joined us about a year and a half ago. Annie and I also do a duet thing on the side over at Ed & Joe’s in Tinley Park.”

Playing in public since childhood, Kincaid was a member of country music outlaw David Allen Coe’s touring band during the mid-‘80s. She was also a member of Florida’s Piper Roads String Band, a rather hot item in the late-‘70s.

The others have all played in various regional bands. Schuyler previously attained a measure of local fame while rubbing the horse hairs of his bow as a member The Purple Cowboys and the Hobart Mountain Boys.

Flintlock have around 70 active songs in their current songbook and about a dozen of those are original numbers written by Carter.

“We play a lot in spring and summer, but things slow down enough in the winter months, that we try to record a CD around January each year,” said Carter.

Last year’s 13-song set, “All Aboard,” features three Carter originals amid classic covers by Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, Ralph Stanley and others. This January, another batch of covers and originals will get burned to disc for both posterity and for public consumption.

FLINTLOCK perform March 15 @ Amarillo Roadhouse in Schererville, IN ; March 22 @ Shannon’s Landing in Lansing, Il; March 29 @ Ed & Joe’s in Tinley Park, IL

MILHOUSE

by Ernie Thomas

Their name was borrowed from “The Simpsons,” explained bassist and group founder Rik Menconi, who describes himself as the world’s biggest fan of the animated amber-skinned TV stars.

“Milhouse is Bart’s buddy and it sounded like a cool name for a band. There are actually a lot of other bands called ‘Milhouse’ in other parts of the country,” said Menconi, who is fast to add that although fans of his N.W. Indiana-based band generally refer to them simply as Milhouse, the actual name of the group is The Milhouse Experience.

An experience is what this band has been for Menconi, since he formed it nearly three years ago in his Lake of the Four Seasons basement.

“I didn’t even know how to hold a bass, let alone play on,” he laughed. “I just thought being in a band would be fun, so a good friend of mine named Scott Brakebill, who was the original guitarist of Milhouse, taught me to play.” Menconi spent a brief period in a band called Zuzu’s Petals that quickly fell apart.

Hooking back up with Brakebill, he put together the original incarnation of Milhouse. After a few months of basement jamming, the band ventured into the local clubs and began playing jam nights. “We had a guy who was a really great singer, but he just could not front a live band,” he recalled of those early live gigs.

Shortly thereafter, Dyer resident Mark Berry was recruited to the frontman spot. Even though Berry had never before been in a band, he was a seasoned stage pro from years of competitive karaoke singing. “The guy’s a remarkable singer,” said Menconi, who likened his natural singing voice to that of Journey’s Steve Perry

In 1999, while stationed in Memphis during a stint in the military, Berry was singing his heart out at a karaoke bar next door to B.B. King’s Club, when who came out of the audience to compliment him, but the King of the Blues himself. Later that night, Berry wound up jamming on stage with King at his club.

Up until a few months ago, seeing Milhouse live would have been akin to a typical evening tuned in to Q101 or 94.7/The Zone, for their repertoire was predominantly modern alt-rock. Their style as changed considerably since guitarist Mick Zajak of Hammond stepped in to replace Brakebill in the line-up.

“Scott got an offer to join [Pearl Jam tribute band] Even Flow,” explained Menconi on his buddy’s departure. “Mick came to us about four months from the band 10 Daze Late. He is one of those guitarist who can really fly by the seat of his pants.”

Menconi and Zajak have been busy writing original songs since hooking up. “I do the lyrics and Mick does the music,” he explained.

The band has a dozen original songs in various stages of completion and is currently performing three of them –– “Erase Me,” “Somebody Else” and “Long Goodbye” –– which the bassist describes as melodic modern rock in the vein of Creed and Pearl Jam.

Menconi said that Milhouse still gives their audience some of the alt-rock they were known for, like Incubus, Creed and others. But a lion’s share of their current show could best be termed as being “retro.”

Helping them make that change was having Stephen Fields return to the drummer’s slot. “Stephen has played on and off with us for about two years,” said Menconi, who first jammed with him in ZuZu’s Petals. Fields is doing “temp work” with Milhouse while his full time Indianapolis group, Paging Raymond, is on hiatus for a few months.

“Some of the stuff we were doing just didn’t seem to have much impact, so we started quizzing the people at the shows to see what they like best and now we’re doing a lot of old ‘80s dance pop stuff now, like Rick Springfield’s ‘Jessie’s Girl,’ Duran Duran’s ‘Hungry Like The Wolf’ and a really cool medley of song by all those ‘80s hair bands.”

Their “draw appeal” since upgrading and expanding their song list with more dance-friendly party songs has tripled in just a few months. Still the original music bug is biting hard and causing an itch that they must scratch.

“We love what we’re doing[covers], but we also want to see what this band is capable of,” said Menconi. “My goal in the next year is to have a CD of original songs. We’re talking of maybe going into the [recording] studio around September.”

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