Since he's known most for playing in big combos with a big sound (happy dance bands The Stacks and The Sleepyheads, ugly guitar-grinders The Dirty Knives), why, all of a sudden, a two-piece band?
Says David: "For a while now, I've wanted to do a two-piece band. The bands I've been in lately have been great, but I wanted to A: do something 'beyond genre' (though the Fifties and Sixties influence is definitely in evidence), and B: play my guitar real loud and wild."
Regarding the latter point, Dave says: "Playing with excellent guitarists, I sort of fell into a strictly rhythm role and let my chops get cold. I like doing this two piece because, for once, I can hear what the hell I'm doing!"
"It's a lot easier for two people to agree than five
or six. It's also a lot easier to get everybody together. We're still
getting that big, messed-up sound, but it may be even a little bit more
direct to your mind this way."
Dave's guitar style, while not likely to convert any acolytes of the slick (ick) and clean (double ick), or most anybody that isn't hip to the budget rock sound already, is a mix of equal parts Bo Diddley and Sterling Morrison (Velvet Underground), with way too much "Back From The Grave"-type garage fuzz junk (fuzz courtesy of his 1961 Silvertone Model 1472 amplifier). "I'm really a singer, first and foremost," says Dave. "The guitar playing is just something I picked up when I couldn't get anybody to play the kind of songs I wanted to hear the way I wanted to hear them. Somewhere along the way I started to kinda like it." It's definitely NOT "the New Orleans sound," unless you're talking about the small group of like-minded local bands (Royal Pendletons, Darkest Hours, Fontanelles UK, Detonations, Fireball Rockett) digging around in the dirt of real rock and roll.
Of course the sound still contains the trademark danceability. Providing the beat is Slade Nash, formerly of New Orleans' brass-clank trio, Los Niños. "Slade's great for this music because he's like me in that he likes to just set up and play, anywhere, any time. We can pack the whole band in his Escort. He also mixes a really good bourbon and soda." Oddly, Dave and Slade went to the same college at the same time and know most of each other's ex-roommates (and both attended the single, notorious Underwear Meat Clock show at the Snakesnatch Lounge in Knoxville), but met only recently, here in New Orleans.
Slade plays a stand-up kit that consists simply of snare, floor tom, crash, and a big cowbell. Nothing to get in the way of the big beat sound.
Dave points out that The Stacks, the five-piece band (featuring members of Egg Yolk Jubilee) that he also fronts, has not disbanded. "We took off for the summer of 2002 while our lead guitarist Chandra was in New York. I hope we'll get it back together by winter. But The Stacks is all covers, and we're doing a lot more of my so-called original material in this new band," jokes Dave.
The All-Night Movers are:
Dave Rhoden: guitar
Slade Nash: drums
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