WHO’S IN THE BAND? WHERE ARE THE ORIGINAL MEMBERS OF THE BAND?
Soulhat is no longer a touring band. They perform occasionally in Austin and elsewhere, performing most recently in summer 2022 at a private event.
Barry “Frosty” Smith passed away in 2017, following a long health battle.
Cassis has performed with Austin bands like Blue, and with Frosty in Papa Mali and the Instigators. He also toured with Austin legends like Doyle Bramhall II, Charlie Sexton, and Double Trouble — yes, THE Double Trouble. Brian played with Kevin (as “Fire”) with Austin’s own Earthpig (now relocated to Marfa, TX via Queens, NY) and with the Billy White Trio.
Soulhat reunited the “classic” lineup in July 2005 as part of Antone’s 30th-anniversary celebration. They played two shows at Antone’s – one acoustic and one electric – and then sporadically after that, including shows in Houston and Dallas.
The band began recording again in 2013 – promising a new album, but ultimately choosing to individually release seven digital singles.
WHAT’S THE LATEST ON A NEW SOULHAT RECORD?
That depends on what you mean by “new.” A new Soulhat LP was expected in late 2002 but has yet to appear in stores. There were rumors it was a live record.
“Experiment on a Flat Plane,” the last full-length LP was released on 7/25/00 on the Terminus label (Atlanta, GA). The line-up for that release was: Kevin McKinney – guitar, vocals, SK1; Mac McNabb – Guitar, Hofner Bass; B.E. “Frosty” Smith – Drums, Electronics; Johnny Vogelsang – Fender Bass. The band’s self-titled EP — released in the fall of 1998 and the only official studio release to feature the trio lineup — went out of print in December 1999. Some of these are still available through places like Discogs and record conventions.
The two major label (Epic/Sony) albums, “Outdebox” and “Good to Be Gone,” are still available at most big record stores around the US (and we’ve heard of them seen in places as far from Austin as Eastern Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand). You can also get them through online record stores and also stream them on Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, and Tidal.
Kevin McKinney has released multiple solo albums since 2002. McVein in Green, Kevin’s first album-length solo effort was released on Shat Records on May 24, 2002. Talking with Plants, his follow-up was released in 2003. Chocolate Records also released Kevin McKinney’s short 4-track quickie take on Christmas music, “12 Holiday Hits,” in November 2000.
Bill Cassis has been doing a lot of producing and most recently appears as an artist on Wayne Sutton’s 2005 release Walking Disaster. It was released in summer 2005 at Wayne’s Donkey.com.
WHERE CAN I SEE THE BAND LIVE?
Unfortunately, you can’t. Before the most-recent demise of the band, they played regularly in Austin (Stubb’s, Antone’s), as well as monthly gigs in Dallas (Club DaDa), Houston (Fabulous Satellite Lounge), and San Antonio (The Lab). Infrequent (but frequent enough to mention) gigs occurred in Baton Rouge, LA, Corpus Christi, Killeen, College Station & various locations around the great state of Colorado.
The band toured the southeast, northeast, and some of middle America in the fall of 2000 and has made several trips through the Tennessee Valley, southeast, California & Utah since that time.
From 2005-2012, the reunited “classic” lineup performed a smattering of shows in Austin, Houston, and Dallas. In 2016, Soulhat joined Blind Melon and Blues Traveler for two shows in Mississippi.
WHERE CAN I GET “LIVE AT THE BLACK CAT,” “TOO GONE TO BE GOOD,” BOOTLEGS, BONECRUSHER (EXTENDED VERSION)?
The first two titles are both out of print. And unfortunately, there are no plans to re-release either title. Your best bet is to look around at ebay, Discogs, and record conventions.
Live recordings are all around, particularly in Austin. This site will occasionally post MP3 files of both old and new shows, but if you want complete copies, you have to seek out a local hathead. There is also a fair amount of sourced material available at Archive.org.
The extended version of “Bonecrusher” was never released to the public. It was sent to radio stations as a promotion for the Good to Be Gone LP. The single has three versions of the song (LP, radio, extended), but the one you want to hear (extended) is best sought out by tuning to KLBJ-FM (93.7) in Austin at approx. 5:05 pm every Friday. Host Johnny Walker plays the extended version every week, around that time. The lyrics to the extended version can be found by clicking here.
WHAT’S UP WITH THE BONECRUSHER? We HEAR IT EVERYWHERE.
We know: the song certainly has a life of it’s own. As we said above, in Austin, you can hear Johnny Walker play the extended version on KLBJ-FM (93.7), every Friday afternoon at about 5:05 p.m. It can also be heard behind the awesome moves of a slightly-younger Hakeem Olajuwon on an NBA jams video cassette. It was also featured in the American video release of the animated feature film “Tekken.” And lots of you around the country and world tell us that you’ve heard it and dig it.
The song evolved in 1992-93, in Austin and on a live tour of the mid-Atlantic and east coast. It quickly became a crowd favorite, particularly as a closer, because of its furious pace, epic length, and hilarious call-and-response section (in which Bill and Kevin traded barbs back and forth over their microphones). This section was later dropped from the song, entirely, though Kevin usually managed to draw-out live versions of the song with dadaesque monologues and plenty of non sequitur.
After the trio started-up in 1998, The Bonecrusher changed again and started to pop up during acoustic sets as a mad, rollicking, freight train-paced barnburner (similar in tempo to 2000’s WNBA). NOTE: If you’ve never heard that version, you can here it below. This version is from 8/9/98 at the Saxon Pub in Austin.
Kevin later modified the “rocking” version to resemble the acoustic version by changing the song’s chord structure.
WHERE CAN I GET SOULHAT SHIRTS, BUMPERSTICKERS, POSTERS, AND OTHER MERCHANDISE?
As far as we know, what was left of the old merchandise was sold at the two reunion shows in December 1996.