by Bunny Matthews
© 2002 Offbeat magazine.
CHATTANOOGA NATIVE/NEW YORK resident/artist/musician/writer/web site designer David Rhoden first arrived in New Orleans, to attend a friend's wedding, in May of 1999. Accompanied by his girlfriend/ photographer/bassist Sara Essex, David hung around town for a week and heard a different band every night. Infatuated by the city, David and Sara moved to New Orleans in October of the same year. Shortly thereafter, the couple wed. At their wedding reception, Ernie K-Doe sang an eight-minute rendition of "Mother-In-Law" while David danced with his new mother-in-law. Undoubtedly, David's mother-in-law is pleased that he's now attending law school at Loyola.
Previously, David has worn many hats, the variety of which can be appreciated by visiting his personal web site: davidrhoden.com. The visitor can view his skittish illustrations (an animated piggy-bank created for Tabasco, a Franky & Johnny's po-boy, the renowned Special Man of TV commercial fame, St. Louis Cathedral, the Gravier Street swingers' club Colette and a Lakeview pothole), his paintings ("Lucky Candle," "A Crowd," "Four Human Figures," "Two Human Figures"), his short stories ("The Bachelor Party," "Street Cred," "How I Became Smart"), his web site and font designs, his desk top screen saver patterns ("Aggressive Floral," "Calm and Moldy") and via mp3s, listen to David's various bands: Snake Oil ("proto-grunge two months ahead of its time"), the Hi-Balls, the Dirty Knives ("big guitars and animal drums"), the Sleepy Heads ("organ-fueled go-go dance party"), the Stacks and Mr. Rhoden's latest, the All-Night Movers. Sara, who was a member of the Sleepy Heads and Dirty Knives, has her own exquisite web site: saraessex.com.
"I've had so many jobs," David says. "I was working as a children's book editor-I worked for Golden Books. They had this new invention-it was new to me-called the Post-it Note. They were always on my desk and I would always gets irritated with them. I just felt like I had to peel them off all the time. I also had pencils and pens. I started developing a little vocabulary of odd weirdos-little heads and faces and strange-shaped bodies that I could draw on Post-it Notes.
"At the same time, I was getting more interested in what the Art Department did because they did the fun stuff with computers. Whereas, I had to deal with contracts and mail and going to Fed Ex. I wanted to do what they did-they were a lot cooler people and had funnier things on their desks. So I started getting interested in lay-out and got some jobs doing temp work, laying-out brochures for Goldman Sachs and Deloitte & Touche. I kept getting better and better at that until I thought I could do it. From there, I went into web site design by getting some software and playing with it.
"I took two adult art classes at SVA [School of Visual Arts]. It's a real good school for people who want to be professional artists. It has a really good, rigorous program where you draw naked models. I had a teacher named Jack Potter, who died about a week ago. He was so terrifying. I didn't realize that this guy was a really famous artist, a tough teacher. I remember the first day I couldn't draw in the class. I couldn't make a mark on the paper until he came and grabbed my hand and dragged it down the paper."
To the thesis that his drawing and guitar playing bear similarities, David does not concur: "My guitar playing is real messy and frantic. I think my drawing is neat and crisp-edged. When I was growing up, my brother was always a good artist and he's now a good writer, which is what my parents always thought I was going to be. I like having written things but I don't like writing things. I don't like the boring part of the job. With artwork and guitar playing, those are just things I would do anyway. I really like the 'doing' of them. With both, it's just get the work done and see what it looks like. There's not very much planning.
"A lot of my artwork and tapes of songs get thrown in the garbage. With every band, I'm like, 'Let's just move forward. Let's don't beat this thing into the ground.' Don't keep rehearsing old songs in an attempt to make it sound like Boston. Just keep it lo-fi, do it quickly, do it cheaply 'cause life is short and you're not the guy from Boston.
"I totally love party bands. I like bands that make the show a party. I don't really like this thing where it's let's make this show a scene for drug taking. What I like is when you get a whole bunch of enthusiastic people bouncing around, drinking, you can take whatever-just so that there's enthusiasm, a little back and forth between the band and audience. That's a thing that was gone from music for a while, where the rock band was up on a pedestal and everyone had to worship them."
In the First Church of New Orleans Rock, David has found ample spiritual sustenance: "I think the Royal Pendletons, long before I lived here, I thought they were one of the best bands in the U.S. I saw them in Alabama once and then in New York and I was very impressed. Little did I know that down here they're not considered all that impressive. I was surprised when they would talk to me at first. I was a little starstruck. I don't ever miss them when they play.
"I like Supagroup a lot. The Detonations are real good. They're real arty, kinda sinister punk rock but more rock than punk. They just don't play much. They're too snobby, too good for us. The Fontanelles UK are like the All-Night Movers but ten times younger, hotter, louder, more talented, more uncompromising plus they have a big ole gong on stage and they use it a lot.
"I don't care at all about the jambands. I don't think Galactic is any good-they just sound really tame. I've been listening to the Meters reissues lately and trying to figure out what it was about them. I guess it's because they're the originators and they had a brighter sound. The Meters' music was really better when it was considered like background music to anything and everything. I saw George Porter and the Runnin' Pardners and it was a jamband event and it was kinda sleepy. I don't like the whole jamband ethos of dirty hippies. I like dirty angry hippies more."
The All-Night Movers, David's current musical project, is a two-man operation inspired by Bo Diddley, featuring Rhoden and Memphis drummer Slade Nash: "Echo-drenched fuzz rock. I use a lot of echo and rockabilly touches. I really wanted this to be a two-piece band. I wanted to be the only guitar-just so I could hear what I'm doing and live and die on my own merits for once. And with two people, it's easy to cancel practice."
Matt Uhlman found a bunch of forgotten photos from two or three different All-Night Movers shows, going all the way back to the first one. There are too many to sort: they're here and here.
Photos by Trey Ledford from the Hi-Ho Lounge show with Dex Romweber Duo, August 30, 2003.
Where Y'At magazine interview with Dave about the All-Night Movers.
Random photos taken by Dave at the May 24 Detonations show, and just walking around beforehand.
Dixie Taverne photos by Trey Ledford.
Hangman games played on a very boring and somewhat intoxicated flight from New York. Rolling Stones, look out. WARNING: CONTAINS ADULT SITUATIONS.
Random photos taken by Dave at the May 24 Detonations show, and just walking around beforehand.
Photos from our trip to Houston and Austin with THE KA-NIVES!!! Live it up!!
Photos from our Xmas-time trip around the Southeast. Batteries died before Huntsville, sorry.
Great block printed flyer by Dan Haugh of GANx4 and godheadSilo.
Photos by Jeff Pounds
from the post-Xmas show at Circle Bar. My strap fell off.
Photos by Jeff Pounds
of "ELO" from the Masked Ball.
Photos by Jeff Pounds
from the Carondelet Street "show."
Photos from El Matador
by Dave.
Photos from the Mermaid
Lounge by Michael Villaraza.
Photos by Jeff Pounds
from the second show.
Photos by Jeff Pounds
from the first show.
Read an interview with Dave.
Another interview
with Dave, from Offbeat
magazine.
Other shows we might go to.
Some links you can use to get out
of here.
Holy mackerel, they got merchandise
Further inquiries: e-mail or call 347-228-8913.
photo of dave courtesy of Jeff Pounds