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Poor But Sexy
About Poor But Sexy
Poor But Sexy was born of demo songs I started recording by myself in 2005 while underemployed and living in an unheated warehouse space in Shaw. It was the only time my lifestyle has approached "poor but sexy", though that is, admittedly, overselling it a bit.
The idea was to write songs that would make my friends laugh. So I cobbled together mash-ups of whatever I was preoccupied with at the time: the smooth comic sing-song of R. Kelly, Bob Dylan's fingerpicking, classic rock noodling, and in-jokes from my time as a student in Germany.
My employment situation turned around in early 2006 when Jason Caddell (Dismemberment Plan, producer of Cex, Statehood, Hellfighters) approached me about a 3-month gig in the Ukraine doing sound for political events. As it turned out, there wasn't actually that much work for us there, so we spent much of our time holed up in hotels, learning Beatles songs on acoustic guitars, and Jason offered to help me re-record the demos.
Back in DC, another friend from the Ukraine Beatles circle asked me to perform as Elvis Costello in the upcoming 2006 "Run for Cover" benefit concert at the Black Cat. He assured me that singing classic songs to a packed house of drunk people would be like shooting fish in a barrel, and he was right.
As it turned out, two future members of Poor But Sexy were among that night's "Attractions". David Durst, a keyboard player with a wizardly recall of classic rock riffs, and Bruce Falconer who plays drums like Stewart Copeland. As a bonus, the two look like twins.
Brandon Kalber, who I played with in Travis Morrison Hellfighters, is the best bass player I know. He can do Bootsy and he can do Jaco. So he is also in Poor But Sexy.
In mid-summer 2007, that constellation of people arranged and recorded the four songs currently available on our Myspace page, with Jason producing.
Based on our friends' response to those recordings (and the continuing grip of that glorious Run for Cover show on my mind), we booked our first show for May 18, 2008 at the Galaxy Hut in Arlington. That night pretty much sealed the deal. Now we are writing as a band, playing regularly in DC, sounding better and better, and getting ready to record more songs this fall.
Beginning in September 2008, we will start selling homemade CD-R's of our recordings at shows. After that, we'll just have to see!
-David Brown