"August 24th, 2006
A few days ago, I went out to Clackamas to interview Toody Cole of
Dead Moon for an upcoming story for WW. The interview won't run for
a couple of weeks, and since Toody had so many interesting things to
say, I won't get to include much narration of my experience out at
Tombstone Music in the piece, so I thought I'd offer it up here for
the time being.

Almost every Dead Moon song belongs to one of three modes. All of
the trio's members came of age in the late 60s, and slower, folkier
tunes like "I Won't Be the One" are beautifully personal and honest.
As I make the trek out to 82nd Drive in Clackamas to interview Toody
about growing up as musician in Portland, I wonder if discussing the
past will tap into a similar emotional space as when, while on
stage, she sings to vocalist/guitarist Fred Cole, her bandmate of
nearly 20 years and husband of almost 40, "I won't be the one who
walks away / I won't be the one who fades."

I pull up at the old-west looking building where the Coles used to
run Tombstone Music, and where many of the instruments remain,
waiting to be sold online. I walk inside the open door into a hot,
deserted room littered with instruments and junk. The surroundings
remind me of the red leather boots Toody wore when I saw the band
last spring at Lewis & Clark College, and Fred's trade-marked wide-
rimmed, limp country hat, as well as the second mode of Dead Moon's
music: Sinister and Southern-sounding. For a minute, I'm a little
nervous, recalling the dark blues mystique of songs like "Room 213,"
which, with its "man with no eyes" in "the room full of broken
mirrors" is almost like a voodoo dream.

But, as I follow the sounds of Fred and Toody's voices up a
staircase, past a sign that says "smoking area," and find them
smoking, both sporting more worn versions of the piles of Dead Moon
t-shirts that abound, I begin to realize that the tone of the
afternoon will match that of Dead Moon's tough, raucous, celebrative
punk numbers like "Fire in the Western World." Fred has to split to
take care of business, and I begin to talk to Toody, who begins
smoking and doesn't stop until I leave more than an hour later.

So you'll have to pick up the paper for the full story, but here's
one of the most interesting things Toody said, that since, it's not
really related to the angle I'll be taking, won't end up in the
story. I asked, "Since you were a part of the music scene, as a shop
owner and promoter for over 20 years before you started Dead Moon,
did that affect how you viewed things once you starting playing out?"

For us, it gives you a different realization of the music business
and how important everybody's roll is. Whether it's you writing
stuff, the kids putting up posters, drawing the posters, cleaning up
the room afterwards, on and on and on, we're very appreciative to
everybody who has a job to do at any venue anywhere we play anywhere
in the world. We still feel that way, like no job is above us or
beneath us. It takes everything to make it happen; it's not just up
there for an hour and a half.

It's an attitude like that that's made Dead Moon such a favorite in
this town for so long.
Dead Moon plays Dantes at midnight on Saturday, Sept. 9 as part of
Musicfest Northwest."


See:
http://localcut.wweek.com/?p=581