‘SILENCE’ IS GOLDEN
HOMEGROWN HOUSTON BAND MR. PLOW IS ENJOYING A REAWAKENING, OF SORTS, WITH THE RELEASE OF A NEW ALBUM.
A little more than a decade ago, I wrote a sidebar for a story about “The Simpsons Movie” that included some bands that took their name from the beloved TV show: Fall Out Boy, Disco Stu … that sort of thing. Among those listed was Mr. Plow, a comedic one-man band from Canada. It was a case of looking afar and missing something in my own backyard. For more than 10 years at that point, Houston’s own Mr. Plow had been creating a wonderfully grumbling sort of stoner rock.
About that time, though, bassist Greg Green left for Florida to study to become a chiropractor. Singer/guitarist Justin Waggoner and guitarist Jeremy Stone spent more time practicing law, though Waggoner kept serving some doom rock with Sanctus Bellum.
As if eclipsed by the Plow King, Mr. Plow sat in the garage.
Then, about three years ago, Waggoner, Stone and Green reassembled for a one-off reunion show with a new drummer, Cory Cousins, who played with Waggoner in Sanctus Bellum.
“Having him play with us invigorated the whole thing,” Stone says. “We started writing new material.”
Waggoner credits Cousins with bringing “the energy of youth. He’s younger than the rest of us.”
Stone: “But he’s still old.”
Waggoner: “Which is just another way of saying we’re really old.”
Mr. Plow — not the Canadian one — was back. The band started writing new material, resulting in “Maintain Radio Silence,” its title less a tip to its hiatus than to a general disregard on the part of radio to the buzz-saw sounds of bands like Mr. Plow.
When last heard from, Mr. Plow was shoveling “Asteroid 25399,” a set of songs inspired by Kurt Vonnegut. Waggoner says the band secured permission through Vonnegut’s screen printer to use one of the late author’s drawings for the album cover.
“We sent him a copy,” Waggoner says. “And we got his review through the screen printer. He said, ‘Kurt says the new album looks great.’ ”
He says another Vonnegut phrase, “Granfaloon,” was runner-up for the new album title. But “Maintain Radio Silence” was, Waggoner says, “something we joked about for years. That if we did a new album, we’d call it ‘Maintain Radio Silence’ because there’s no hope any of these songs would get played on the radio. That was the original motivation for that song.”
Stone says Waggoner “writes most of the lyrics these days. Usually whatever books he’s into are what influences the songs.”
Which is how Mr. Plow ended up with “Samizdat,” which he picked up from David Foster Wallace’s “Infinite Jest.”
“It’s audio/visual entertainment used as a terrorist weapon,” Waggoner says. “The viewer can’t do anything else, so he watches until he dies. That seemed as close to serious social commentary as Mr. Plow will get.”
Adds Stone, “It sounded more heavy metal than ‘Johnny Gentle,’ ” referring to another new Mr. Plow song that takes its title from a ’60s British singer whose one-time backing band went on to some renown.
“Maintain Radio Silence” is out today, and the band will play a hometown release show Aug. 25 at Brash Brewing Company.
It’s a welcome return that hopefully will provide ample opportunity for me to make amends for placing a local Mr. Plow behind a Canadian Mr. Plow, who Waggoner says “is a really nice guy.”
And, there was a third Mr. Plow that came along in the early-aughts.
“We didn’t communicate with them so much,” says Stone. “Their fans got on our message board. They were pretty mean.”