D Nuts || October 24, 2006

Last week, while visiting with the staff at our sister site (er, more like stepsister site) at Matt's El Rancho in East Dallas, we noticed a familiar bug-eyed grin walking out of the restaurant--former Chomsky lead singer Sean Halleck. He was with a posse of local musicians who had scuttled out before we could grill--or identify--them, but they weren't the dudes in the old band. Got Sean's number, said we'd call him later.


Sean Halleck (old-ass photo by Cabe Booth)

As former members of the Chomsky army (and, therefore, fans of XTC-addled pop with incredible hooks and one helluva stage presence), we have a few million opinions on the band--its rise in the early-'00s local scene, its Aezra Records disaster and its anti-climactic breakup/hiatus/freeze. We talked to Sean about these things earlier this year for a column that never came to light, mostly because his quotes were about as uninformative and vague as could be. Wish we could repost the quotes from that, but, uh, the computer said interview was housed on was hosed. In short, he wouldn't go so far as to kill off the namesake, and he just about invited the original lineup to return should they desire (though lead guitarist Glen Reynolds has publicly stated his lack of interest in doing so), but Halleck had otherwise written off the original band. No dirt scooped (not even off the record...ass); as far as he was concerned, he was just a dude with a day job and a few minutes on the Craig Kilborn Show so many years ago.

Nearly a year later, the dude with a day job finally has some new songs. "I dunno specifically what songs or how to do them or what," Halleck says, "but I've gone so far as to talk to [Valve member] Casey Diorio, and I've had conversations with people to record music for a living" (including, yes, chats over queso at Matt's). Details are still mighty sketchy--and this is no guaranteed winner, either--but for Halleck, this much of a declaration is a rare thing, so takes what ye can gets. "It was refreshing to start pushing myself to get some of these demos going. That's part of the confusion, figuring out which direction to go. One group of songs sounds like one direction, and the other sounds like a different direction. I just gotta pick one."

Gigs? Song titles? A band name? Nothing yet (except for the fact that "Chomsky" is out), but we'll continue hounding Halleck for more info in the coming months. In the meantime, the rest of the band members are still active in acts like Shibboleth, Peter Schmidt A.H.G.S. and Reynolds' solo act (not to mention his Oasis cover band, Blow Aces, who guest at an Adventure Club-sponsored Halloween gig on Saturday). Halleck's gotta catch up to the rest of the guys, so we cordially invite Sean and any friends he enlists to debut his new material before year's end (if possible)...we've been chomping at the bit to organize a good Dd concert. Give us an excuse to throw one. -SM