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LOCAL BANDS UNFORGOTTEN
The Walt Lariat: 1996-2000
Like so many other bands, The Walt Lariat was formed by old
friends who had a history of playing music together. In 1996,
Damien Schafer, previously of Atlanta's Levelhead and Athens' The
Pullouts and The Mike Douglas, formed the band with Ray Sullivan,
Gino Zahnd (Pullouts) and Jay Neubert (Levelhead), and the two
were the group's core through a revolving door of other performers.
“I wanted to do something new that incorporated the poppy
feel and beautiful melodies that I loved so much," Schafer says
of his musical goals, "with some darker, more nut-crushing, gui
tar-heavy rhythms. Ray was way more into straightedge hardcore
bands, and, as you can imagine, his love of the more aggressive
music was just the ingredient I needed. We ended up getting a
house and set up a practice room in it that we would play in all
hours of the night. The best music I have ever written came out
of those late nights, because we were just playing music that felt
good."
Still, the sound of The Walt Lariat, named after a particularly
brutal wrestling move, was not born out of thin air. Time spent in
The Pullouts and Levelhead had honed Schafer's pop sensibility and
short-lived band The Mike Douglas was among the first of a few
Athens bands that would explore the
melody-driven, expansive type of
rock music played by The Walt Lariat.
At The Time
The house-show scene circa 1996
was incredibly healthy in Athens,
and The Walt Lariat soon found
itself playing every available liv
ing room and basement in town.
"Locally, we played at houses a lot.
The Dead Body House, The Ultramod
Compound and The Boba Fettucini
House were the favorites," says
Schafer. "As far as bars and clubs go,
we played at the 40 Watt, the Engine
Room, Tasty World and the punk-rock
bookstore [Above Bookstore] on
Baxter Street that our friend Robert
Newsome set up years aqo, which is
now no more."
Sharing bills with Atlanta's At
The Price Of The Union and Athens'
Jet By Day was a common occurrence
for the band, but The Walt Lariat
also played some memorable, semi-high profile gigs, including one
memorable night in 1997 when the group played with The Promise
Ring at DIY venue the Ultramod Compound. The band was also a
regular at the Caledonia Lounge and Atlanta's Under The Couch.
Although the band shies away from certain descriptions of its
sound. The Walt Lariat can best be summed up as second-wave
emo, which was defined by the exploration music as a aural-tex
tural device and exemplified at the time by bands such as Christie
Front Drive and Mineral.
"I never really thought of it as an emo band," Schafer says.
"It seems like emo became the new name for what happened to
punk rock during that time, though, so in that respect. I would
say that we would fall into that category. I simply thought of us
as a rhythm-heavy punk rock band with interesting rhythms and
beautiful melodies. We loved the dynamics of crazy heavy guitars
and crashing cymbals flowing immediately into a complex lullaby-
esque interlude. I still love that stuff!"
Ray Sullivan says, "We never viewed it as 'emo.' We sort of hated
that term."
Why the Split?
Flush with initial success. The Walt Lariat nonetheless fell
victim to boredom and writer's block. "I would say that the band
ultimately broke up because of me," says Schafer. "When Ray and I
first started playing, it was out of our sheer love of writing music.
It was such an exciting time and it seemed like we didn't have a
care in the world.
"At that time, songs just 'happened.' It seemed so natural and
easy. Of course, we did also want to tour and record. I started
booking shows on the East Coast and we recorded the Clockside
Vigil EP. We started writing more music and it seemed like good
things were happening, until I slowly realized that I could not
force myself to write 10 to 13 songs with no real inspiration. I
think the minute we decided to try to force the music out of uur-
selves was the minute the band started to fall apart. It was an
amicable split, though, and we are all still good buddies."
Sullivan remembers it slightly different by saying, "We split be
cause people's personal lives were taking over and the band wasn't
a priority for us. It sucked."
These Days...
Bassist Josh Lott was in multiple bands during his tenure with
The Walt Lariat and went on to form popular local band Paper
Lions; he currently plays drums with Teenage Meth Lab and Elf
Power. Jason Neubert lives in Atlanta and plays in the band The
Paper Champions. Spencer Davis wound up moving to Portland,
OR with his other local band, metal-hardcore act Avalauncher. He
now plays in a Misfits cover band called The Misfats in which all
the members are self-described "fat guys who sing about food."
Time and distance, unfortunately, rendered many of the members
unreachable for this article.
After The Walt Lariat, Sullivan moved to New York and has
played with a number of bands since, including The Amverts with
former members of Atlanta's Hal Al Shedad and Year Zero. Schafer
moved to New York to explore his already significant interest in
graphic design. He says, "I studied graphic design in school and
I wanted to get away from music for a while and explore other
things I loved. I started a design studio in the city called Herosion
that I am involved in to this day. Ray and I talk a good bit and I
have started writing again. We have chatted about trying to write
some music together again. I am excited about the prospect, but
we'll see what happens."
Gordon Lamb
That Beat in Time is a biweekly feature examining dearly departed local acts
worth digging up Next up: Mercyland. Is there a band you’d like to see cov
ered 7 Email music editor Chris Hassiotis at music@flagpcle com
The Walt Lariat, circa 1999 (L to R) Spencer Davis, Josh Lott. Damien Schafer, Ray Sullivan
The Walt Lariat
4
The Walt Lariat Released:
1998 The Ckxkside Vigil EP. CD (Boat Anchor Records)
Damien Schaefer (vocals, guitar)
2000 Emo Dunes No. 5: / Guess This Is Goodbye, compilation CO
Ray Sullivan (drums)
Gino Zahnd (bass, 1996)
(Deep Elm Records)
Jason Neubert (guitar, 1996-1997)
Hear The Walt Lariat:
Spencer (Fujimoto) Davis (guitar, 1997-2000)
Both releases are available from a variety of online shops, in-
Brain Lysne (bass, 1996-1998)
eluding www.deepelm.com,www.insound.com and www.athens- *
Josh Lott (bass. 1999-2000)
musicnet. The Walt Lariat has no Internet presence.
32 FLAGPOLE.COM • NOVEMBER 8,2006
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