KASHMERE STAGE BAND: NOT YOUR HIGH SCHOOL’S HIGH SCHOOL BAND

Kashmere Stage Band: Kashmere + Ain’t No Sunshine + Do Your Thing (Instr.)
From Texas Thunder Soul 1968-1974 (Now-Again, 2006)

Like many, I was first turned onto the Kashmere Stage Band by Eothen Alapatt, aka Egon from Stonesthrow. At the time, I couldn’t believe a high school band, even one out of Texas, could sound this polished and bad ass but the more I heard from the KSB, the more blown away by them I was. I got lucky – I was able to get a copy of their Out of Gas…But Still Burning off of eBay early enough, before their LPs started going for gonzo dollars and it still is just a marvel to listen to how wicked a sound bandleader Conrad Johnson was able to pull out of his students.

Egon’s been a huge booster for the group over the years: he put “Kashmere” (my favorite amongst their original tunes) on the groundbreaking Funky 16 Corners comp back in the late ’90s and has worked tirelessly over the years to make this anthology happen and last week, Texas Thunder Soul finally dropped, bringing out the best of KSB plus a second disc of live, alternative and previously unreleased recordings (proper!).

In addition to giving “Kashmere” another rotation, I pulled two off that bonus disc – a great instrumental version of “Ain’t No Sunshine” plus an instrumental version of “Do Your Thing” (the vocal version is available on Zero Point, arguably their best album.

Be sure to check out the All Things Considered story on the KSB that ran this past Friday. And look at Stonesthrow’s Kashmere Stage Band page for more pictures and information.