Word of former Jesus Lizard guitarist Duane Denison's departure from Hank III, the country/punk band fronted by Hank Williams' grandson, was still warm when the cast of his new band with former Faith No More singer Mike Patton, Tomahawk, was announced. The group of heavy hitters also includes former Helmet drummer John Stanier and Melvins bassist Kevin Rutmanis. "It's definitely the closest thing to a rock band that I've been involved with in quite a while. For that reason, I'm pretty excited about it. You can't go wrong with that lineup," says Patton.

Denison's guitar work gave an alternative rock edge to country music upstart Hank III's sound, and will be heard on the Hank III's rock album, This Ain't Country, due out this summer on Curb Records. "It's been almost two years since the Jesus Lizard broke up. I've been playing with Hank III and that's been great," explains Denison on his decision to leave. "But they're his choice of tunes -- and that's fine -- I knew what I was getting into as a sideman. I've been storing up ideas for two years and felt the need to do my own thing, which is to have a band-type situation and do a record that way."

Patton and Denison first met in Nashville at a Mr. Bungle gig -- one of Patton's other projects. "I asked Duane to do a record for my label, Ipecac," explained Patton from the L.A. recording studio where he is beginning work on a new album for his other project, Fantomas, with Melvins guitarist Buzz Osbourne. "I told Duane he should put a band together of his stuff, that I'd love to put it out, because I think he's an amazing player. A few months later, he asked me to sing and I thought, why the hell not?"

Denison got the band off the ground, by mailing tapes of song ideas to Patton in San Francisco. Patton contributed ideas, then they passed the recordings along to Rutmanis in L.A. and Stanier in New York, enabling them to write the bulk of their record from four different cities. "We won't all be in the same room until we're in the studio," says Patton. "We've all been doing music for awhile, we realize that we don't have to live in some kind of Animal House, Belushi-like setting to be a fucking band. You show up, you're professional, you do your work and that's the way it is. It's called getting old, I guess."

Taking advantage of cut-rate prices at top-notch studios due to a recent country music downswing, the band will record their songs in Nashville this May. Patton is curious about the prospect of being holed up in Music City. "I'm excited about that actually -- it's like going to Mars or something. We went out to a bar and Duane pointed out Vince Gill. I wouldn't have known Vince Gill from a piece of Wonder Bread."

The group's sound will be the sum of its parts, according to Kevin Rutmanis. "Compared to the stuff that Mike's been doing lately, it's more rock-driven or even mainstream for Patton. Duane wrote a lot of the music for the Jesus Lizard, and it's apparent that the same person wrote this music. But we don't sound like the Jesus Lizard." Denison describes it as "more stripped down and straightforward than anything I've heard Mr. Bungle do, and more complex texturally than the Jesus Lizard." Patton says, "I'm at the point now where I'm more curious about other people's ideas -- especially good ones -- and Duane has great ideas. It's very exotic to me at this point, being involved in a capacity where I'm not accountable for 100 percent of it. I obviously really care about it and it's going to drive me nuts and keep me awake at night like every other fucking thing I do, but I couldn't have written these tunes, that's the bottom line -- he did, they're great."

None of the band members seem to look at this as a side project -- not even the notoriously engaged Patton. The band plans a U.S. tour after the September release of the album. "I've made it clear with everyone from the start that I want to be able to tour three or four months of the year," Denison says, "and everyone seems amenable to that.

MAUREEN HERMAN
(February 21, 2001)