Chris Nine, Bill McShane and a bunch of their friends are successful business professionals these days. Company owners, architects, ad agency and real estate professionals. Some of them have kids. But there was a time when they all seemed destined for rock and roll superstardom as members of their respective bands, Schatzi and Ultimate Fakebook.
That was back in the Y2K era, when music was found on quaint Internet sites like Myspace and some more nefarious ones, like LimeWire and BearShare. The music industry has experienced seismic shifts since these bands were first catching buzz. But one thing that’s never changed is good music finding and keeping an audience. Despite long, off-and-on-again hiatuses for each band, Schatzi and Ultimate Fakebook have never really lost their audience. In fact, they’ve gained new followers over the years, members of the streaming music generation, new listeners who followed their first real fans. So, the bands are reuniting for some road dates, including a Houston stop this Friday at Shoeshine Charley’s Big Top Lounge.
“Are you ready to rock? It’s not a question, baby.” That rhetorical notion is also a line from Ultimate Fakebook’s album, This Will Be Laughing Week. The record was released in 1999 so UFB tapped Schatzi to rejoin them for some anniversary show dates and to rekindle a long friendship. UFB hails from Kansas and Schatzi is Austin-based and during their mutual heydays they often played together.
“We love those guys. They’ve been hands down the best friends we’ve had from Texas – and honestly some of our best band friends ever. They’re always so nice to us and always help us with shows, so we’ve returned the favor and had them come play with us in Kansas,” said UFB guitarist/vocalist, Bill McShane. “They’ve played record release parties of ours in the past and all sorts of shows. We just love those guys so it’s a really cool thing to not only be doing anniversary shows but to be doing anniversary shows with our friends that we played with back in those days.”
“Those days” were busy for both bands, chasing the dream of professional music lives as they were. McShane was able to talk about the past and address today’s shows by remarking on the marking of This Will Be Laughing Week’s 25th anniversary.
“So, basically, it’s our second record. It came out first on an indie label out of Lawrence, Kansas called Noisome Records. Things kind of started snowballing for us around that time, it was 1998, late 1998. Within a year, we had a major label deal with Epic Sony 550 Records. They loved the record and wanted to put it out, first thing out of the gate.
“So, we signed a deal with those guys and it was basically a dream come true, everything we’d always basically dreamed about,” McShane said. “We always felt that we were a radio band, at heart. Even though we kind of played all-ages shows and stuff, we made no bones about the fact that we were mostly interested in songwriting
“It was a dream come true and that’s the album that most people have heard,” McShane continued. “We toured a lot on that record and created a lot of really great tours. We opened for The Get Up Kids and At the Drive-In with a really great tour. We played a lot with MxPx and Nada Surf, all sorts of really cool bands. We played Texas plenty of times and the country many times over, over a span of five years or so. So, we kind of have a cult following basically because we don’t fit into a lot of categories. We’re like-minded with punk rockers and all-ages types of bands but we have a little more of a poppy, radio sound.
“When you see us live it’s kind of an interesting mix because the songs are super catchy but we’re just rocking the fuck out. We’re not buttoned up pop in that regard, we go for rock and roll,” McShane said.
Schatzi also went for rock and roll from its inception. After their 1998 self-released debut, Joanie Loves Schatzi, they found themselves in a label bidding war around 2001, once their song “Death of the Alphabet” began getting rotation on alternative rock radio stations in Austin. Their sophomore LP, Fifty Reasons to Explode, was a college radio airplay staple and they drew comparisons to bands like Weezer and Jimmy Eat World.
The band began its own hiatus in the early 2000s when co-founder and guitarist Montez Williams left the group to start a family. Tragically, Williams died in an Oklahoma City flood in 2020. The band has refocused since then and for Schatzi these shows aren’t just a trip down memory lane.
“I’m the new gal at Schatzi, I’ve been with them I guess two years now when they decided to do the reunion after Monte died. So, they reformed and had a benefit to raise some money to go to his kids and they gave me the call,” said Chris Nine, who plays keys in Schatzi and other instruments in other Austin groups like Stella and the Very Messed and Tender Wolf. “I joined them for that show and have been with them ever since.
“We’ve been writing new material and when the offer came in from the Ultimate Fakebook guys to do these shows we were like yeah, let’s work up this new stuff. Our set’s a lot of old stuff, too, but we’re working towards recording the new stuff soon and that’ll all be a part of this show. And we’ve got a series of shows coming up in the fall too with them in Kansas and Missouri. So, we’re real excited about it.”
Nine grew up in Houston and was a member of the Houston-based all-girl, hardcore, political punk band Manhole in the ‘90s.
“Houston is kind of big in my heart, I still have lots of friends and family there and I’m looking forward to connecting with some of them for these Schatzi shows.”
“They did a ton of cool tours with bands,” Nine said of her new bandmates. “I remember Schatzi playing some big shows – I’m trying to remember some of the names – and playing with lots of cool bands back in the day. Those early 2000s, when they were really, really active, I was in Austin but I was also doing the whole dot-com thing, so I was really, really focused on my career. That was the era where I was not playing as much. I didn’t start playing as much until 2007 or so and they were already done playing by then.”
They were indeed, but the band still has a desire to perform and create.
“Schatzi, at this time, is full of a bunch of grown-ass adults,” Nine said with a laugh. “Back then, they were a lot of kids, being able to be on the road and all that kind of stuff. It’s a little harder to do that. We’re obviously still doing that, but it’s different now.”
McShane understands his fellow artists’ need to put new music into the world.
“We did a new album in 2020 that was the first thing we had done in 16 years since we kind of went on a hiatus, I guess.” McShane said. “We didn’t break up in the sense that we’re never going to do anything together but just stopped touring and stopped doing stuff. In 2020, we actually put out a brand-new record called The Preserving Machine. We got really inspired to do something. We never would have done something unless it was really, really inspired and meant something to us.
“I just felt like I had a lot I really wanted to say to kind of close out our story a bit. You know, we kind of ended with some untended business in a certain sense, so I got inspired to make a new record. So, that’s what that new record is.”
Both McShane and Nine agree this joint tour is as much about the fans as the bands.
“We wouldn’t do it at all if we didn’t have our hearts in it and fully believe 100 percent that we could have fun and the fans would have fun. That’s what it’s all about for us and I think our fans know that,” McShane said. “The cool thing is, ever since we sort of stopped, whenever we do a reunion it’s just amazing, the vibe is absolutely amazing. Everybody’s so happy to be there, it’s like a family reunion. We’re totally excited.
“We’re just kind of celebrating the 25th anniversary of that record coming out because it was such a really big deal for us, it kind of started everything for us.” McShane added. “It’s our most well-known and we still play a lot of songs off it but we’ve never played the entire record all the way through at a show. I know that’s what a lot of bands do and it’s cool. We’ve never done it so we’re trying to think from the standpoint of fans. We thought they would enjoy that, if we played the album from start to finish. So, we’re doing it and it’s gone great so far.”
Nine said both bands have been following Myspace Facebook and Instagram to get a gauge for this week’s Houston show.
“It’s pretty cool. If remember correctly – it’s been a while since I’ve been down there – but I believe Shoeshine Charley’s is right by the Continental Club, right? And it’s not a huge venue, it’s pretty small,” Nine said. “I’m just thinking about what we’ve heard from people that are looking forward to the show. I expect this to be a packed show since we’re playing a venue that small. Yes, it’s been since 2004 since Schatzi’s played Houston, but I know there’s still a community there just based on what we’re seeing on social media. People are excited about it, so we’re expecting it to be a really good time.”
Ultimate Fakebook and Schatzi, with Houston’s own Fun Haunts, Friday, June 28 at Shoeshine Charley’s Big Top Lounge, 3714 Main. Doors at 8 p.m., music at 9 p.m. $15 in advance and $20 at the door, cash only. 21 and up.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
