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Tanz Waffen was born of the ashes of an Austin band called the Secret Six (which in turn had been born of Jesse Sublett's band The Skunks, with some help from my old band Almost Anyone (featuring me and the late Gary Guthrie), in Austin Texas, somewhere around 1984.
The name, occasionally a source of controversy (by idiots like Ed Ward who think any German word is automatically racist), means Dance Weapon, translated from it's German origins. One item worthy of note is that in the 1986-87 Austin Chronicle Music Awards, we won the award for "Best Texas Tape" (remember CDs had just been invented like a year earlier and were very pricey both to buy and to reproduce). We beat out the likes of Daniel Johnston & Jerry Jeff Walker in that category, which for some reason gives Nanz and I both a little pleasure.
We didn't intend to be a duo necessarily, and often augmented our frequent live shows with percussionists - both to add musically and visually. Many thanks to the slew of percussionists we had - Marco Gavini, Phillip, Louis Hicks and James Fener. Towards the end we added a permanent drummer, Mike Soliz, late of Austin's Watchtower.
We also used to occasionally augment our live shows with films, videos and slides, so many thanks to Ken Kelsoe & James Schubert for their work there.
Three things stand out in our 6 years, and while we never really "made it", these three things still stand as some of the more important things in my life. First we were fortunate enough to hook up with Razormaid Records and release 4 songs remixed by Joseph Watt. This gave us some exposure outside of Austin and enabled us to travel a bit and not go broke. Second, in 1986 we met the band Mark of Kane, formed lasting friendships and played many a show together, engineered for each other, and eventually merged into one band in 1991 called Voodoo Dali.
Lastly, in 1988 we met, befriended and eventually toured with (both opening as well as being her band) the new wave star Lene Lovich. For some in-depth writing about our experiences, click here: Touring with Lene was as close as we came to "making it" and it enabled us to play all over the country at some great places. It is an experience I will not forget. Tanz Waffen never really had a "last show" or farewell as we simply "became" Voodoo Dali and picked right up where Tanz Waffen left off, originally playing many Tanz Waffen songs. Special thanks, in no particular order, to Brad First, Waterloo Records, Phildo Owens, Joseph Watt, Art Maharg, Michael Hernandez, John Dennett, Kerry Jaggers, Frank Kozik, Joe Dorgan and Club 101, Lene & Les, Dan Matthews & PETA, Kerry Crafton and Ron Rogers.
Band/Organization solicitation comments that are tasteful and not gigantic will be allowed to be posted for 10 days, and then deleted. Thanks for your cooperation. If you post advertisements on our page, please allow us to do the same or you lose that privilege. I have currently disabled friend invites from bands due to the large volume that get solicited. If you are a band that truly wants to befriend us for reasons beyond just adding to your friend's list, send me an email and I will send a friend request to you. This page created and maintained by TW co-founder Jeff, in conjunction with input from Nanz.
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