CHRIS EUDY w/ THIRD COAST GUITAR

Who would you say is most to blame for your having come down with rock & roll pneumonia?  My folks were only 16 years old when I was born in 1970 so I had a pretty good record collection growing up. I would have to say Led Zeppelin was my first rock and roll love affair, but it was The Police who made me want to play guitar and be in a band.

What are your 5 favorite guitar solos of all-time?

Buddy Holly-“That’ll Be The Day” …Jimmy Page-“Whole Lotta Love”….Robert Quine-“Girlfriend” (Matthew Sweet …..Jim Babjak- “Girl Like You” (Smithereens)…..David Hidalgo/Cesar Rosas- “Mas y Mas”

What was your first guitar and what is your axe of choice these days? Do you collect at all?  My first guitar was my mom’s Yamaha FG acoustic, but I guess my first solely owned guitar was a Yamaha SBG200, kind of like an SG Special copy. Great guitar! My number one these days is a guitar built at our shop by Robert Daniel. it is a 1959 copy of a Les Paul Junior but with an ebony board, stainless steel frets and in cherry red. I don’t really collect guitars, I only have about 5 guitars that I play regularly and a few mutts lying around.

Outside of the household name brands, any new guitars on the market that have caught your eye at Third Coast Guitars?  My favorite right now are the Wild Custom Guitars. They are out of France and they have a really classic look with a twist and they are remarkably built.

Is the guitar ‘set-up’ still the life blood of the business or has that changed over the years? 

That has change a bit over the years. We’ve become more nationally known for our restorative work and for doing higher end repair. We do a ton more vintage restoration these days, but fret levels and set ups are still a big part of what we do every day.

What is the strangest client request (in terms of guitars) that you’ve ever had?   We get weird requests all the time! The most recent one is taking a Parker Fly guitar, putting in a Sustainiac, and acoustic Piezo pickup and a midi driver. It is going to look like an aircraft carrier inside! We have folks request to make their vintage guitars look like new a lot as well. I never have understood that but, as we say in the shop, “it ain’t my guitar”.

Music fills the air 24/7 there in the land of the cobbler: what 5 bands would you say have gotten the most shop air-time over the years?  With the advent of Internet Radio, we listen to all sorts of different stuff these days and rarely listen to stuff over and over again these days, but if you count the years of cassettes and CDs…

Yes (unfortunately for me, I hate prog rock)

The Darkness

UFO

Thin Lizzie

David Bowie

Would you ever consider a Third Coast mobile app and, if so, what might it do?

I have thought about it! I think it would have a tuner, a few maps of guitar anatomy (like what each part of an electric and acoustic guitar are called, people get things like bridge and saddle mixed up a lot), maybe a chart of things to look for when buying a used or new guitar.

What Gooey record is the bands St. Pepper’s? …any plans to finish the White Album?

We are actually getting ready to release a new album called “Rodgers Park” We are going to release it for free on the interwebs and press vinyl for sale at gigs. Vinyl is cool again.

If you could smash any guitar what would it be and why? (have you ever smashed a guitar?)  We actually smash broken, useless guitars all the time! Manufacturers have us smash cheap guitars that have twisted necks and what not a good bit. There are some pretty good photos and a video of us playing “guitar baseball” on or Facebook page. We try to keep it light most of the time, it’s just guitars, it’s not like we are doctors in an ER. You have to be careful when you smash Ovation guitars since they are made out of that composite. It can bounce back at you and smack you in the head. It’s always nice to smash the Keith Urban guitars they sell on Home Shopping Network. Those guitars are such crap and they have Keith Urban’s Picture on them.

Can you provide a ‘state-of-the-union’ for the Floyd Rose tremolo?   The Floyd Rose is still strong! There is still no unit that really provides the tuning stability of a Floyd if you really want to get your whammy on. The Kahler is really good as well for that but Floyd Rose still reigns supreme. Coupled with the GraphTech saddles, there just isn’t anything that comes close.

DAHLIA FATALE

When did you begin performing live?  I can’t really remember a time in my life when I was not performing. I was introduced the stage as a ballerina when I was 3, and it has been a love affair ever since. I began publicly  performing burlesque in the summer of 2010 with the Urban Bombshells Burlesque Show in Seattle, Washington.

 

How did you chose your stage name?  Research, research, research. I sat down and defined the qualities I wanted in a name. It was important for it to be memorable, easy to say and feminine without being too clean. I spent lots of time looking at name books and historical figures while Googling my potential identities to make sure they were not already in use. Finally I took a spin of my former pin-up name The Lady Fatal and added a flower with a less than bright connotation in modern society the ‘Dahlia’.

 

How would you describe the burlesque audience? A rowdy mixture. It varies show to show from people who have never seen burlesque before and are just curious to the super-fans who can be seen at every event to the occasional observer. In general it’s just people looking to have a good time with some fantastically different entertainment.

 

Who is your favorite all-time burlesque artist?  Midnight Martini from Colorado. Her movement is so engaging and sexy while still being silly and incredibly creative.

 

Do you have to be into rockabilly to be a burlesque dancer?  Definitely not. While many performers are fans of rockabilly, there are also performers who are strictly metal listeners, some punks, some dub-step fans, rock and rollers and many eclectic individuals. Rockabilly is an important side of the burlesque world, but it is not the only one.

 

Music is a big part of the presentation: what tunes do you like to perform to?  Every act that I do picks its own song. I do a lot of dance focused choreography, and my acts vary from super serious and contorted to fun-loving and free. Probably my three favorite songs I have acts to are I Believe In A Thing Called Love- The Darkness, Idlewild Blue- Outcast, and Ice Ice Baby- Vanilla Ice.

 

What’s the nexus between what you do and punk?  The nexus lies in the DIY spirit and creativity. Both burlesquers and punks frequently design their own costuming, create their own art, and aren’t afraid of offending their audience or causing some out-of-bounds thought. Although I do think the punk communities would agree that we should keep the glitter and sequins on the burlesque side.

 

What was your favorite band growing up?  The Clash. I have been rocking out to “Straight To Hell” since I can remember.

 

What are you listening to today?  Literally everything. Over the course of yesterday I listened to Missy Elliot, James Brown, Prince, Streetlight Manifesto, Bad Brains, Muddy Waters and Fantomas. I find that the more music I listen to the more styles of music I have to pull from for new acts.

 

Where would you go if you could time travel?  100 years in the future….just to see what kinds of fabulous costuming and music we have yet to come up with!