Squat Thrust

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K3baC7Vchg

 

 

Squat Thrust

Longtime denizens of Austin’s “slop-rock” scene, epicentered in Room 710 on Red River, Squat Thrust was one of Austin’s most underappreciated hardcore bands. Born in Lubbock, Texas, 1985, where guitarist and frontman Jimmy Bradshaw met bassist Wade Longenberger at a Black Flag show, the band's central duo relocated to Austin in 1987. Here, they embarked on a decade-plus career of bizarre live shows that sometimes featured a plastic bubble, within which the band played their sloppy-tight post-punk melodies (“Karate” is a particularly charming tune, anticipating Anna Nicole Smith’s “like my body?”). The band’s heyday peaked in the late 1990s, playing alongside such notable and iconic Austin bands as Brown Whörnet and the Pocket FishRmen. The cult-favorite threepiece gigged through early 2004 as Bradshaw also pursued a number of side projects like Sniffy, Unicorn Magic, Voltage, and U.S.S. Friendship. Longenberger committed suicide that spring. The band is immortalized on the bizarre and hilarious low-budget film Rock Opera, a punk rock marijuana caper featuring live performances by Squat Thrust and other beloved, notorious local bands. – Melanie Haupt