The Judy’s reunite for Austin Music Awards

The Austin Chronicle recently published this article about Houston/Pearland group The Judy’s, who plan to reunite for a show during SXSW at the Austin Music Awards on March 12.

Here’s more info:

For those too young to remember, the Pearland-based trio was a pivotal part of Austin’s original punk scene, forging its own genre between minimal New Wave and post-punk Dadaism.

“That’s where it all started for me,” recalls frontman David Bean. “I was in a high school summer program [in Austin] in 1979, put on by the National Science Foundation, and I snuck into Raul’s. That was the first time I realized I could play in clubs and be part of a scene.”

The Judy’s performed a private benefit party in 2004, but other than that the group hadn’t played together since the Raul’s reunion at Liberty Lunch, 10 years before. The Judy’s recently recorded a new song together, a commissioned theme for Japanese animé series Sgt. Frog, while Wasted Talent Records reissued expanded editions of the trio’s first two albums, 1981’s Washarama and 1985’s Moo.

A personal story about The Judy’s:

When I was a sophomore in high school, The Judy’s were playing Fort Worth and a couple of my friends and I skipped out of classes to go see them at TCU. One friend had to go cash his check from mowing lawns and on the way, some guys started screwing with us by stopping quick in front of us and flipping us off, etc. As it turned out, our friend in the passenger seat was flipping them off back and it pissed the guys off. We were total suburban kids (before I even knew what a freggin’ suburb was) and I personally had never been in a fight and rarely in that part of town.

Anyway, we tried to outrun them once we figured out they wanted to fight. They caught us at a light, jumped out, and hit both of my friends, breaking the driver’s sunglasses into the flesh around his eyes (which bled like you’d imagine it would). Needless to say, we didn’t make it to see The Judy’s–and got popped by all of our parents for skipping school. Every time I hear The Judy’s or listen to “Moo,” I have relatively fond memories. If you have never heard “Grass Is Greener” I suggest checking it out–it’s a pretty funny song (“Johnny is a boy / who wants to be a girl…”).

Tickets for the Austin Music Awards are $15 at Austin’s Waterloo Records (or $20 at the door). More information on this very original Texas band, including how to order the reissued albums, can be found at www.wastedtalentrecords.com. Houstonist music editor Eric Wilson posted a great interview with Jeff Walton of The Judy’s here.