Thanks Buddy know that once you start saying Thanks Buddy, you can’t stop saying Thanks Buddy. Thanks Buddy!
Whatever name a band chooses can affect people’s opinion of them, and that judgment, right or wrong, might stick permanently. But every once and a while you end up growing to love a band name that initially rubbed you the wrong way—which was precisely my experience with Santa Cruz rockers Thanks Buddy.
The first time I heard the name, I couldn’t believe it. That’s not a real band name! But within just a couple of hours, I found myself succumbing to the overwhelming temptation of saying “Thanks Buddy” as often as possible, in whatever conversation I was in. It was then that I realized that my initial reaction was wrong. It was an amazing name.
I’m not the only person that feels this way. Kevin Seconds—the former lead singer of punk band 7 Seconds turned solo acoustic troubadour—told them that it was his all-time favorite band name, after they played a show together. He even gleefully told the crowd: “Even if you hated them…you couldn’t really because of their name. How could you hate a band called Thanks Buddy?”
Still, not everyone is a believer, and the name remains polarizing. It certainly gets people talking, which is ironic since not a whole lot of thought that went into it in the first place.
“It’s a stupid band name that we came up with. We’re like, wait a minute, we say that all the time. It just sort of stuck,” says bassist Chris Jonsson. “We get high compliments on the name. I’ve also gotten, ‘I fucking hate that band name.’”
The strangest thing about it is how much the name suggests a sound totally different than the one they actually have. It would seem to fit a hyper-sarcastic gang of Ween-worshipers, when in fact Thanks Buddy falls on the other side of the spectrum. They write serious Replacements-inspired, straightforward rock songs that have a hint of Americana and punk rock.
“Most of our lyrics—they’re not serious, but they’re earnest. We’re not just joking around. Even though we’re not necessarily light-hearted as a band, we are as people. We’re just having fun,” says singer/guitarist Joe Gibeault.
The band was formed by Gibeault and his brother Brian (keyboards), who’d previously played together in the all-acoustic Broken String Band. At one point, they invited Dustin Roth of Moon Eater to join, and eventually Jonsson joined them on bass.
As familiar and gimmick-less as their music sounds, they end up being a sort of oddity in Santa Cruz ,where bluegrass, folk-punk, garage-rock and reggae dominate the scene. Good old fashioned rock bands are few and far between.
They give it an interesting spin, though. Joe, for instance, doesn’t like to play power chords. His history playing the acoustic guitar has led him to approach rock a little differently, giving it a thicker, more roots-oriented sound. The songs tend to be simple, often driven by three chords, but it’s the chemistry of the musicians that gives the music its character.
“I always talk about this as my fun band. There’s no pressure. It’s more like we hang out, and we get to play music. The other bands I’m in are like working bands. It’s always an argument. There’s always discrepancies,” Roth says.
Like all good rock bands, it’s the melodies and the lyrics that make it work, and Roth feels they hold up.
“One of my favorite songs we have—‘Last Call’—is three chords the entire song. It’s just that it’s got a great melody over it, and there’s little tasty things here and there, like little build-ups,” says Roth. “It helps that we have two singers [Joe and Chris] that can sing really well. Their harmonies together are so good.”
Thanks Buddy plays Bocci’s Cellar on Sat, July 27, 9pm; $5.
