THE ABSURD have TOADIES, covered
The Absurd Possum Kingdom is available on Bandcamp, Spotify, Bent Knee Records.
by Walter Price
My history with Toadies’ picturesque 1994 LP “Rubberneck” is as deeply rooted as any fan who gave it time to sink in. Vocalist Todd Lewis certainly had a ton of twisty youth experiences to try and explain away. Religion, local folklore, shadowy thought processes, and, possibly, vampires all come to life in this masterclass album. But to most, the single that got the juices flowing, albeit briefly in most cases, was the based on true events track (allegedly), “Possum Kingdom”.
Firstly, Possum Kingdom is a real place just West of Fort Worth Texas. And it was the actual stomping grounds for Lewis and his family. “In my teens and, I guess, my 20s, I would go to Possum Kingdom Lake where my family has some land and it was just really cool and creepy and just a really interesting place. Names like Hell’s Gate and Devil’s Island and all this weird nomenclature that just kind of lends itself to that kind of storytelling,” Todd recounts in the Dark Secrets: Stories of Rubberneck.
Been there, it’s kinda weird, and it’s one of those fabled off-the-beaten-path Texas spots to seek out for sure. But this is now and newly Nashville-based rockers The Absurd have put their DNA all over this seminal post-grunge guttural powderkeg. Vocalist Ben Foerg told me about why the trio decided to cover this crunchy TX-rock classic, “…growing up I always really loved this song and when we got The Absurd going a bit, we were looking for ways to kind of challenge ourselves to do new things and as such decided to try some covers. This one kind of came up randomly, and pretty much as soon as we started playing it, we all had a feeling that it was a great fit for us. Like we could have written the song ourselves. It was really just happenstance that we ended up covering it, but that we kept playing it and wound up recording it was a result of us really loving this song and realizing we did a pretty solid rendition of it.
All in all, we just really love this song. The shame is that Rubberneck is a really great album and most people couldn’t tell you one other track from it!”
Agreed, if you didn’t kick around the scenes from College Station to Tyler or you didn’t catch Toadies slaying stages around Deep Ellum back in the mid-90s, “Rubberneck” probably, unfortunately, didn’t linger too long in your rock n roll landscape. Hey, it’s never too late to get on it. The album stands the test of time and with hooligans like the boys from The Absurd blasting out their respect for it, maybe, just maybe, it’ll have another revival.
THE ABSURD vs. TOADIES
Band photo via Facebook // Quotes courtesy of The Absurd
Toadies Rubberneck
Vaden Todd Lewis – Rhythm Guitar/Vocals
Darrel Herbert – Lead Guitar
Lisa Umbarger – Bass
Mark Reznicek – Drums
The Absurd Possum Kingdom
Engineered by Ben Foerg
Mixed by Joshua Martinez
Guitar/Vox – Ben Foerg
Bass – Josh Loney
Drums – Colin Jensen
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Don’t be afraid
I didn’t mean to scare you
So help me, Jesus
I can promise you
You’ll stay as beautiful
With dark hair
And soft skin, forever
Forever…