Now Playing - 'Every Thing You Know Is Wrong' by "Weird Al" Yankovic
Sequenced by Jason Copeland, (slightly) modified by 'Stan and the Sequencers'

(1979)

Name chopped up, the Combo has probably already had a run-in with the censors.

(1981)

Squares know who they are, and are offended at being called such. It appears the Combo drew some extra heat, as the next record -

"... By the pool one afternoon"
('Happily Ever After (West of Eden)' from OTBG by Little Jack Melody With His Young Turks)


(1982)

The Combo's name is slightly jumbled, and it is going downward. And on the back, the band is tetering on a balance. The biggie, the faces covered on the sunbathers. A loss of identity message. Also, of course, this is the record that contains 'You Pull My Tongue Out'.

('Originals' - 1982)

(1984)

The Combo sneaks in some crosses, created by the lettering on the front, and by turning the back sideways, you have a cross created by the (former) top line and the dancers.

There is a particular song on this album, that has special significance (unfortunately). That is Ice Machine In The Desert. When the "Know-nothing" movement (the fish cult) set up the Brave Combo list, they needed a name. Of course, they prefer to have titles like "Deadheads" or "Dittoheads", so they became the "Bucketheads" based on "Don't forget your bucket".

For some odd reason, "Weird Al" Yankovic documents a visit to the defunct official (so it seemed) Brave Combo list in 'Every Thing You Know Is Wrong' on 'Bad Hair Day' like this - "I was just about to mail a letter to my evil twin when I got a nasty paper-cut and well to make a long story short it got infected and I died so now I'm up in heaven with St. Peter by the pearly gates and it's 'Obvious'. He doesn't like the neru jacket that I'm wearing. He tells me that they've got a dress code. Well he lets me into heaven anyway, but I get a room next to the noisy ice machine for all eternity and everyday he runs by screaming - "Everything you know is wrong. Black is white, up is down and short is long. And everything you used to think was so important doesn't really matter anymore because the simple fact remains that every thing you know is wrong. Just forget the words and sing a long.""

Here's the detail.

"I was just about to mail a letter to my evil twin" - Al was attempting to post to his newsgroup (alt.music.weird-al)

"when I got a nasty paper-cut" - Al was flamed on his newsgroup.

"and well to make a long story short it got infected and I died" - The flames intesified, and Al was flamed off of his newsgroup.

"so now I'm up in heaven with St. Peter by the pearly gates" - Reference to ELP's Benny The Bouncer from Brain Salad Surgury - "Now he works for Jesus as the bouncer at St. Peter's gate"

"and it's 'Obvious'." - David Carter, moderator/censor of the old Combo forum uses this address (among others) - obvious@lab.com.

"He doesn't like the neru jacket that I'm wearing." - He doesn't like hippies.

"He tells me that they've got a dress code." - He says that only certain subjects are allowed to be discussed on his list.

"Well he lets me into heaven anyway, but I get a room next to the noisy ice machine for all eternity" - A perfect depiction of the Bucketheads.

"and everyday he runs by screaming - "Everything you know is wrong. Black is white, up is down and short is long. And everything you used to think was so important doesn't really matter anymore because the simple fact remains that every thing you know is wrong." - Descibes the 'anti-reality campaign' (tm) that occurred on the list.

"Just forget the words and sing a long."" - The 'dumbing down of America'.


"Chickie met that record man"
(Little Jack Melody)

' ... Got a coke bottle stuck at the end of my tongue ... '
'One Of Those Days' - "Weird Al" Yankovic


(1984)

We may be oppressed, but we aren't going to be sad about it. This is the album with The Real Thing on it, check out this portion - 'Real Thing' cut (you'll need a .MP3 player).

Also on this album is a cover of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly. The old rumor that floated about, is that the singer was so stoned when they recorded that song, the words just came out that way. Supposedly, what he was really trying to sing is - "In the garden of Eden baby, don't you know that I'm loving you, In the garden of Eden honey, don't you know that I'll always be true". Which, of course is where Adam and Eve take a bite of the apple, or as Little Jack Melody would say - "He said "check my apple pie, I think you'll dig it"". :-)

Notice also, that the only other Combo recording with 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida' by 'Iron Butterfly' included, also includes the little guy in the corner who can't seem to finish what he's saying. (see Music Circus below) I do believe that is because, it's the only way the Combo could tell us about a certain list, a 'hippie trap'. If you've ever been on the Brave Combo's old feedback list, you had probably noticed the Bucketheads using a different, unadvertised (if I recall correctly) address other than the normal one (bravecombo@brave.com) to write to the list. Here, let me illustrate. This is the important parts of a post by a "Buckethead" -

Subj:	Re:we're not even on planet earth anymore, toto...
Date:	7/6/98 2:25:00 PM Central Daylight Time
From:	bucky@unm.edu (Mary Bokuniewicz)
Sender:	owner-bravecombo@brave.com
To:	bravecombo@butterfly.net (bucket heads)
[snip]

double bucky  Using both the CTRL and the META keys. ...

It is half-seriously suggested that the extra shifing keys be
implementad as pedals; typeing on such a keyboard would be very
much like playing a full pipe organ.  This idea is mentioned in 
a parody of a very fine song by Jeffrey Moss called "Rubber 
Duckie", which was published in The Sesame Street Songbook ... .
These lyrics were written on May 27, 1978, in celebration of the
Stanford Keyboard:


Double Bucky

Double bucky, you're the one
You make my keyboard lots of fun
Double bucky, and additional bit or two
(Vo-vo-de-o)
Control and meta, side by side
Augmented ASCII, nine bits wide
Double bucky!  Half a thousand glyphs, plus a few
Oh, I sure wish that I had a couple of bits more
Perhaps a set of pedals to make the number of bits four
Double double bucky
Double bucky, left and right
OR'd together, outta sight
Double bucky, I'd like a whole word of
Double bucky, I'm happy I heard of
Double bucky, I'd like a whole word of you

[snip] 

You see, Mary Bokuniewicz is also known as the Two Mary's buckethead, as she carried 2 different signoffs - aunti Mary and anti-Mary. See her expose herself on the Camel Discography

(1985)

Insert Art

This record was a boost to the Combo's career, as it was a listen of this album that convinced David Byrnes to use Carl and Combo's talents to help him create the movie 'True Stories'. Not to mention the movie appearances. ;-) Notice the back picture. This album was supposedly recorded in response to some compilations that were coming out by major record companies featuring Texas bands that were not up to (even) Denton, Texas (alone) standards. The International Record Syndicate must not have appreciated it much, because they kept offering the Combo record deals.

('People are Strange' - 1986 - UK)

You aren't kidding, Carl!

Brave Combo Discography continued - '87 - '90

More Resources

Stan and the Sequencers