Remembering The Kind

... With Notations on The Shwag, The Schwag, Vitamin A, Vitamen A and Other Early '90s Divergences and Delights

Occasionally a video comes to my attention and I think I just have to do something on this for Silver Tray, the repository of lost and forgotten musical projects of St. Louis. And occasionally I begin to compile a post and then… things get slow. Kinda gummy. Interviews fall into cracks. Good intentions erode. In a deep clean of the Silver Tray inbox, I found evidence of a lost update on a lost project. It’s a long-form live video from the band The Kind, which would eventually morph into The Schwag, aka a Grateful Dead Experience with a lifespan of three-decades-and-change.

Here’s the video, produced by noted STL videographer Brian McClelland and featuring a group consisting of: Jimmy Tebeau, Tracy Lowe and Dan Eubanks (on bass, guitar and drums respectively).

The video’s description via YouTube and The Schwag’s channel: This is a video from 1991 of The Schwag in its earliest form. It was recorded at the Jefferson College TV studio in Hillsboro, MO. The band was technically called "The Kind" at the time until the band expanded in 1992 officially becoming The Schwag. This video was produced by Brian McClelland for a college class project he had to turn in for a grade. Schwag bassist Jimmy Tebeau and drummer Danny Eubanks were students at Jeffco at the time. Guitarist Tracy Lowe was a former student there as well.

After sending out Q’s to the four video principals (all emailed back on October 26, 2023, oh how time flies!), I heard back from Lowe and Eubanks (in abbreviated form). Let’s roll with what we’ve got, a few days shy of a full year in the Silver Tray Good Intentions Hopper. Better late than never…?

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What was the lifespan of The Kind? And what was the formation of the band, i.e. who got the ball rolling, etc.?

Lowe: It’s a weird situation. We started The Kind just to have fun and it caught on a little. The video was seen by an ex-Soulard bar owner and he recognized us at a Dead show in Bonner Springs, KS. He got us the Tuesday spot at Molly’s. It was its own thing and lasted four or five years.

Some covers, some originals....? A lot more of one than the other? What sounds were you all listening to at that time?

Lowe: A lot more covers, for sure. I love playing covers but I’ve always written music. Don’t know why but I’ve always come up with storytelling. I was into Al Di Meola and fusion stuff. Any seminar I could find, I’d be there. I couldn’t get enough of seeing Tom Kennedy on the Landing.  At the same time, I loved punk music, like local heroes The Nukes.

Jimmy and I had been playing music together since he was 14 but Danny and I had been playing music together for years before I’d met Jimmy. He and I were seeing Dead shows and we went from him doing “Funky Cold Medina” and myself playing “Number of the Beast” to jam music.  We tried a bunch of iterations but The Kind, in my recollection, happened because we were all local Festus/Crystal City friends. In the early years we started “Shakedown Street” with the intro to “Number of the Beast” by Iron Maiden. It was maybe 20-seconds of “Number of the Beast” (to shocked faces) and then a big down beat to “Shakedown.” We always added a lot of humor into The Kind and didn’t take ourselves real seriously.

Some off-the-wall covers were: “Earache My Eye” (Cheech & Chong); “Riders on the Storm,” “Possum,” “Whipping Post,” “Run Like Hell.” Other covers went everywhere: “Limbo,” “Little Wing, “The Weight.” We also observed no rules with Dead covers and played segues that The Dead never did like “Help on the Way” > “Slipknot” > “Feel Like a Stranger” > “Help Slip a Stranger.”

The originals that went over best (and later became part of Vitamin A) were Kind/Schwag songs: “Catfish,” “Heatman,” “Happenin’,” “Invisible,” “Too Late It’s Gone,” “Mikey Needs Cheese,” “pfdbbb.” And a lot of really bad originals that didn’t work, i.e. “Falafel Man” on this video.

Anything stand out about the day this video was recorded? Like, how much of it do you remember? Or do you now watch this thinking “I am on-screen, but have no memory of this whatsoever?”

Lowe: I remember being very nervous but also very medicated.  

Question for Dan: drums? How long was drumming a part of your life? And with whom did you play out on drums?

Eubanks: Drums were my first instrument, which I started trying to play at about five, I guess, when my Mom gave me a kit for Christmas. I thought of myself as a drummer primarily even after it was clear that bass was where I would end up. By junior high I started playing with my buddy Brad Goodwin in the basement of his house. I was playing drums in school band from junior high forward, and I ended up at Jeffco on a percussion scholarship. But even then, I still ended up on bass more than drums; we had more drummers and no bass players when I first started there, so eventually I just followed fate and that, for me, was bass. The Kind was the only band I actually played out with on drums in a regular capacity. I sure loved it, though. Hope I get to play some drums again some time, maybe with these boys!

How did your next projects shake out immediately after The Kind? With whom did each of you link up? And how did The Kind slowly meld into The Schwag?

Lowe: The Kind was turning into more of a tribute band. I was friends with the band Blue Dixie and they were having great success with half-covers and half-originals and that was my goal, too.  Brad Sarno and I were pretty tight so we decided to get something together.  Our first practice was myself and Chris Rose from The Kind (who took Danny’s place after he left), Brad, Smitty (RIP) and Andy Barnes (who I still play with) from Blue Dixie.

Our rule was NO RULES, originals and covers. Blue Dixie + The Kind = what? The Unkind? Or The Shwag? We voted for The Shwag but then had to figure out how to spell it, so we voted to add a C like Schwinn bicycles. We had good crowds from the start. Jimmy came in on conga and vocals and later we became a double trio with two bass guitars.  

Jimmy joined Vitamin A and I was really pushing The Kind and The Schwag. Later, The Schwag decided to become a tribute band and I wasn’t really into that. Jimmy asked me to substitute for Dino English, who at the time played guitar in Vitamin A. Vitamin A ended up needing a guitarist/songwriter and Jimmy asked if I’d be into playing full-time in Vitamin A. This was all after the naked thing :) The Schwag was getting bigger and we were having problems booking Vitamin A around their busy schedule so we basically just switched off. Jimmy did The Schwag and I brought my Kind originals to Vitamin A. We adopted the name to Vitamen A after all of the changes. And it really did change.  

Looking back on The Kind, what's good? What're the fun memories you may've had about that time?

Lowe: I don’t remember much bad! The early days of the STL jam scene were pure; all jam bands helped each other. The band Jake’s Leg were always super good friends and still are. Randy (of Jake’s Leg) owned 20 North and gave us every Monday there for a long time. We played with Blue Dixie a bunch. For me, one of my best memories was playing for the very 1st NORML (National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws) rallies. One of my good buddies was the St Louis president of NORML and got The Kind as the only band at the rallies. I was very involved in legalizing marijuana and felt proud to add what we could.  

The day Jerry died there was a band booked at Molly’s and they gave up their night so we could supply a place for everyone to gather and grieve together; our guitar teacher Duke Michalak showed up with his keyboard and surprised us all. That was one of my best memories. It was such a great scene and I have nothing but love for the people, band mates and our culture. Of course, the nights when touring bands would sit in were awesome. Mike Gordon from Phish at Molly’s was epic.

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