Leinad Kralc Cooks Onions: CD release show for “Layers: 1975-2004” this Friday at Caliche Co.

When I first heard about a group of these Amarillo artists forming an experimental band in 1970, I almost certainly involuntarily shook my head in disbelief like an outtake from a Tom & Jerry cartoon. When they found out they were going to be playing a live show Caliche Co. (2311 SW 7th Ave., Amarillo). Friday, October 4th for your CD release partyI knew I had to see if one of the band members would join me on air to share some of the history of this surprising endeavor.

While something like “Onions” might not seem like a fitting element of the late 20th century Texas Panhandle music scene, it’s somehow not surprising when you take a breath, zoom out and take in the flatland’s uniquely psychedelic landscape. And after my conversation with the founding member and multi-instrumentalist Leinad Kralc, I realize I should have had Tom & Jerried considering there weren’t any more Outfits like onions dotting the plains.

Music lovers of the High Plains, you are all cordially invited FREE SHOW Please bring chairs, blankets, pillows, drinks, friends and positive energy to Caliche Co’s outdoor area. Doors open at 8 p.m., and Andrew Weathers from Full Spectrum Records will be there (and hopefully perform). You can also pick up a copy of the new album, Layers: 1975-2004.

To hear ours detailed interviewClick the link at the top of this page – and listen to the band’s music below. Here’s a shot of “EARL!! We become what we think about.”

For further reading, here is an essay by Lienad Kralc about onions: “Growing up in Texas, I enjoyed a variety of music genres, including all electronic sounds. In 1967, one of my main influences was a musician, artist and electronics expert: Robert Fuentes. Robert was a few years older than me and recorded electronic compositions using oscillators that he had built as musical instruments. These recordings are lost forever. After receiving a drum kit for Christmas 1969, Robert and I discussed the possibility of me drumming to his electronic music. However, this was never to happen as Robert died in November 1970 under strange and tragic circumstances. In December 1970 I began recording experimental tapes using one of Robert’s oscillators.

A mutual friend of Robert’s named Greg Cain and I began recording tapes in a shed behind my mother’s house, using Robert’s oscillators and other equipment. I spent a few years in Austin making tape loops, but when I returned to the city Greg and I started recording again. At all hours of the night, people came to my shed where a stack of cassette tapes was waiting for me.

We were soon joined by pianist Lindall Cain and later Keith Montgomery. It was Keith who kept shouting the word “Onions” during a session that inspired us to use Onions as a band name. Although Greg and I did not initially intend for “Onions” to be a tribute to Robert, we would soon go down that path. Unfortunately, other members had never met Robert. Other people also played on sessions from time to time, including lead guitarists Blackie Leopold and Jody Detton. A gaming system soon developed without guides or rules that people could explore unhindered by convention. Suggestions were made from time to time, but the recordings were well received in their own way. After a while we had a method of doing and not doing things that Onions seemed to work with. Pianist James Hatfield joined in May 1979 and over the years took part in more sessions than anyone else. Between 1977 and 1985 we tried different directions and then stopped recording for seven years.

On July 25, 1992, after seven years of silence, the Onions reunited. Blackie couldn’t make it but Jody, Greg, James, Keith and I recorded again in the same shed. We did our first live shows on stage in 1994. One show was played in a field in the country north of Amarillo. Our sound and light show was so loud and strange that residents called the sheriff. They came in three cars to stop us. Just as we finished and turned off the power, they came onto the property and asked, “What the hell was going on?” With hundreds of watts of power and slides of art, flesh, and stars projected onto large screens around us, the sheriff wanted answers. I went over and told him we were making a Halloween video. He scratched his head, got into his car and they drove away. I’m not sure how much they heard. Jody’s neighbors never spoke to him again. The musician August Smith joined in the late 1990s.

In addition to computers, samples and other instruments, he also brought keyboardist Mike Kimbrough into the group. Artists Tom Boberg and Carli Scales as well as drummer Danny Miracle took part in some sessions.

Over the years, Onions have had the opportunity for members to build musical structures in our live improvisations and for other members to freely alter those structures to create tensions and shifts in the music. We always seemed to reach a climax at the end of each session. We sometimes used tape loops, but all Onions performances are recorded live without overdubs.

———————-
Album info: Onions – Layers: 1975 – 2004

Disc One: 1975 – 1996
Track list:
01) Dark Loops (September 74th – December 75th)
02) Root Beer on My Carpet (June 1977)
03) Sickest Choir (Summer 1978)
04) Is God a clown? (May 1979)
05) Bike Spoke Straw (November 19, 1980)
06) El Warpd (Winter 1981)
07) I shouldn’t long for anything (April 1985)
08) Dog-A-Tronics (November 1980)
09) What should we do? (07/25/92)
10) Roach (5-30-93)
11) Smashing Sax (9-30-94)
12) Buffalo Lake (03/18/95)
13) Glass in My Pants (12/5/96)

Disc Two 1995 – 2004
Track list:
01) The first five (03/31/99)
02) Sparkle (03/31/99)
03) Opening (04/01/01)
04) We’re leaving (11/23/03)
05) Vacation in Bangkok (7.5.04)
06) MF Rolls (7.5.04)
07) Opera and Frogism (10-9-98)
08) Orchestral piece (03/26/99)
09) Organ Quartet (03/18/95)
10) Graduation (02/19/00)
11) Organized (03/26/99)
12) “American It Seems,” Part 2 (8/4/00)

Leinad Kralc (Dan Clark) – loops, vocals, bass guitar, keyboards, oscillators, tremeloa, drums, trombone, abuse deck, effects
Gerg Naic (Greg Cain) – vocals, clarinet, keyboards, percussion, clocks, bicycle spoke straw, clackers
Keith Montgomery – screams, noises, Magnus chord organ, junk
Lindall Cain – piano, organ, drums
James Hatfield – piano, keyboards, voice, sampler keyboards, sounds, percussion
Blackie Leopold – keyboards, lead guitar, voice, devices, cassettes
Jody Detton – keyboards, routines, percussion

Also…
August Smith – keyboards, vocals, samples, percussion, computers
Tom Boberg – screams, noises, glass breaking on Glass in my Pants
Mike Kimbrough – Keyboards on America As It Those
Carli Scales – keyboards, percussion on smashing sax
Danny Miracle – drums on smashing sax

Photographs by Debbie Tingley and Lienad Kralc
Recordings developed by Dan Clark
Artwork by Dan Clark
Layout by Ryan McGreer
Mastered by Andrew Weathers
(c) 1975-2004 Jubal Clark Songs (BMI)