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The Latest 07.12.2006 IT'S OFFICIAL, I'M JOINING SORTA 05.19.2006 A couple of quick news items: 05.12.2006 As Reported by Sam Mackovech in the lastest issue of Dallas Observer: Chris Holt Jesus Christ, Chris. Most musicians would be stretched thin playing guitar for four bands simultaneously (Olospo, Salim Nourallah and the Noise, the Jones Thing, Doug Burr's the Lonelies), and that's what you call "whittling it down"? But if the title of musician of the year is this city's MVP award, then Holt's your Steve Nash, throwing assists every which way and holding his own to boot. But even when Holt says he wants to focus on his solo songwriting, he can't help but attach a few asterisks. He's pitched in on guitar for Sorta after barely rehearsing with the band--"I already know all the songs." He'll never turn down a gig with fellow winner Nourallah--"I'm always flattered that he even wants me in the band." And even with his new "focus," Holt insists that he's still just a phone call away for bands in need of his skills. It's not just guitar--the winner of best instrumentalist has that instrument locked, from the Brit-pop bombast he adds to the Noise to his covers-out-of-thin-air powers in Chris Holt's Jukebox to his Pink Floyd-perfect wails that propped up The Wall (or his 2006 New Year's concert tribute to it, anyway). His guitar-picking fingers take on a different identity for every act, but on his 2005 solo disc, Summer Reverb, he becomes a different band for every song. Dallas has a few amazing one-man bands, but while early Centro-matic and Deathray Davies tracks shone in spite of their lo-fi lack of polish, Holt's arrangements are a little too perfect--he nails drums, keyboards, bass and guitar as he effortlessly genre-hops from reggae-tinged pop to beer-in-one-hand alt-country to 21st-century Billy Joel and every poppy thing in between. For this reason, the musician of the year is turning his attention back to himself (between occasional support gigs for friends, of course), abandoning his tribute gigs and rekindling Olospo as his new solo project. We can't blame him. Keep the ball this year, Holt, and dunk it. --S.M.
05.10.2006 Wow...in between strikes of the giant hammer that keeps pounding my head in the form of a vicious hangover, I've come to realize (again) that you fans are the greatest...I am so thankful that you guys showed enough support for me and the band to give me another two awards last night. I honestly felt like last year's Musician Of The Year win was a freak fluke...the awards show equivalent of the one-hit-wonder...but now that you guys have given me a second round of praise fills me with the highest gratitude. Musician Of The Year and Best Instrumentalist?? Damn...I'm not sure I deserve both of those...but I'm not gonna refuse them...what an incredible honor. I'm also really happy for Salim and Sorta and Woodbelly...it was like all of our friends finally got their due. Thank you so much to everyone who voted, and for sticking with me and the band for so many years. Despite my current state of nausea, I feel great, thanks to all of you. Stay tuned for more music...there's a lot more on the way.
04.10.2006 Greetings to everyone who’s still hanging with us on this crazy roller coaster from hell! Though it’s been a fairly bumpy ride for the last couple months, I’m very relieved that things are finally starting to smooth out. Really, I’m just sick of thinking about it…all I wanna do is get back to writing, playing, and recording. So anyway, there’s a lot to report…please bear with me if I ramble on about it! First and foremost, I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who nominated me for the Dallas Observer Music Awards for the second year in a row. I thought last year’s win was a bit of a fluke, and for me to get nominated again this year in two categories of such prestige was really flattering. If you want to vote for me, here’s the link: www.dallasobserver.com/musicawards/2006musicpoll Now, for those of you who have kept up with the website and the blogs, this may be old news. For those of you haven’t, here’s the scoop: Britt has decided to stay home with his family from now on. He’s got a new baby boy and a thriving real estate career. We pondered for awhile about what to do, but we’ve finally made the decision to keep the band together. I’m really glad we’ve decided to give the Spo another shot. Things have been far too quiet in the last couple years, and with the new lineup, we’re ready to start assaulting the scene again. We’re gonna play anywhere and everywhere that will have us, all over the world! The thing with Britt is as weird for me as I’m sure it is for everyone else who’s accustomed to his presence…it’s gonna take some getting used to. Shit, he’s been with us from day one. I should make it clear that this is a totally friendly transition, and that it’s not the tired old rock n’ roll cliche…it’s not the bitter breakup. Britt is our friend and brother and always will be…there’s just no way for him to do the Spo full-time anymore. Tom, Nick, and I still want to do our thing and we want to do it full-tilt…so we’ve gotta move forward. Steve and Eric are fantastic players and great guys, and as they get more comfortable with the old material, the band’s gonna kick serious ass. For those wondering how the band will change and evolve…who knows? I do know that the songs I’m writing now are different from the songs I was writing a few years ago…but isn’t that pretty normal? I know that all my idols grew and evolved over the years…I would hope that we’re not like AC/DC or something where everything sounds the same…I want our music to change as we grow up. Believe me, it’s still gonna be every bit as intense as it was before. And as far as the old stuff is concerned, of course we’re still gonna play all the old tunes…we just need time to learn ‘em. We’re even gonna keep playing Britt’s tunes. He may not have written a lot of them, but almost everything he contributed was great, so we’re proud to keep them in our rotation. It may take a little time to get used to me singing lead on “William And Aaron”, but Britt’s cool with it, so here I come. I have a feeling Britt’s gonna be making a few appearances here and there at shows anyway…ultimately, the Olospo of 2006 and beyond will feature a healthy mix of both old favorites and new horizons. So, there’s a lot of stuff to look forward to. We’ve talked a lot in recent months about the still unfinished “Film At Eleven” studio album, which has sat in the vaults since 2004. Because of the lack of proper Spo releases since 2003, we’re pleased to announce that we plan to release two new studio albums this year. One, of course, will be the “Film” album, which will be comprised of songs from the ’03-’04 era. The second will be a brand new record consisting of a dozen or so songs that I’ve written this year for the new lineup. One will sound like the Spo of old, and the other will lead the way to the future. Tom’s new home studio is ready to roll, and we’re itching to get back to work. One last thing I want to mention…we were really excited to hear that our olds friends in Hard Night’s Day recently purchased the previously boarded-up Club Dada in Deep Ellum. Dada, as you may recall, was the site of many classic Spo shows, including our live album from 2003. The new Spo lineup played its first show at Dada last weekend, and the place looks and sounds great…we’re gonna be playing there a lot in the future, as well as at our favorite local venue, the Granada Theater. The folks at Dada have asked me to start doing my acoustic shows there, with the hope that we might help to revive the dying Deep Ellum scene. We’ve come up with this concept called “The Wheel Deal”. Basically, it’s me and a giant wheel of fortune…the wheel will have a variety of different categories on it, and I’ll spin it between songs to determine what gets played each set. It’ll be a totally interactive thing with the crowd, doing requests and all kinds of ridiculous shit. It could either be brilliant or an epic trainwreck. Either way, it’ll be worth checking out if for nothing more than tragic comedy, for however long it lasts. Come see the Wheel Deal this Wednesday the 12th at Dada…it’s my birthday, so I’ll be getting tanked. Thanks again to everyone who’s still supporting us after all this time. We promise to keep the tunes coming and if you stick around, you won’t be sorry…we’re gonna rock this motherfucker again and again. Thanks for listening, CH Visit the News, Archived page for past entries.
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