The Damnations TX : Half Mad Moon

It's almost as if they never existed. A search of this phenomenal band returns just about nothing. It seems as if I check YouTube every few months hoping for something to surface. A few very rough videos have actually landed, but they don't do this band justice. When I think of The Damnations TX, I think of the Athens, Georgia band The Possibilities. I mean, they have nothing in common, and don't even sound alike, but I've created some sort of mental connection. I don't know, I guess they're just two more bands that I think should've made it. I loved The Possibilities, but they weren't as good as The Damnations (they later had to add TX since some other band had the name). I saw both bands just once, The Possibilities at The Baggot Inn in New York and The Damnations at South By Southwest. The Possibilities were better live. But The Possibilities didn't release a record as good as The Damnations' 1998 debut Half Mad Moon. It's Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, though less refined and more rock n' roll.

These songs remind me of so many spots over the years. The record reminds me of Austin. The final track, "Catch You Alive," crept onto my iPod while I was sitting on a graffiti'd stone wall on a beach in Italy. I remember that euphoric feeling. As sisters Amy Boone and Deborah Kelly harmonized "All night I would drive, just to catch you alive. Anything to catch you alive," that magic hit me. Keith Langford (or was it Keith's brother? Or wait, was it Claude Bernard's brother?) pounded the skins and I was off. But this is just one track. Just like Car Wheels, there isn't a dud to be had. I made a mix for an old pal at a job a few years back and he commented on just one song: "Kansas." And who could blame him. "What we've all come to fear, is a pepper on fire, like that old man."

Despite a major-label debut, the Damnations seemed to completely evaporate. They released one more record, Where It Lands, four years later via an indie and that was it. Last I heard, one of the Boone sisters was working at Stubb's in Austin. With a record this good, I'd argue that the Boone sisters should have been set for life. But that's not how it works. Just ask The Possibilities.