RIP Brad

Brad Houser, bass player and co-founder of Dallas rock band New Bohemians, dies

Brad Houser, RIP.

Courtesy photo

Brad Houser, a nationally renowned musician from Dallas who was a member of Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, died on July 24; he was 62.

Born John Bradley Houser, he was a founding member of the New Bohemians, later named Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, who rocketed to fame following their 1988 hit "What I Am." He also went on to form other bands such as Critters Buggin and Dead Kenny G’s.

According to a July 19 post by the band, Houser suffered a stroke on July 17, and was in the hospital where he remained in critical condition. A friend of the family confirmed that he was taken off life support on July 24 at 4:44 pm, and he "passed peacefully" at 9:09 pm.

"We want to say thank you to the many friends and family that have reached out in support of Brad and his wife Kiri. We love you all, and we are truly grateful," the post said.

Houser was beloved not only for his music expertise and fluid effortless bassplaying but also for his humility, generosity, sense of humor, deep infectious laugh, and encouraging nature. Friends called him "a rare human with the most beautiful heart and soul," "a team player," and "a musician's musician."

He attended Hillcrest High School and was a member of the high school band, starting out on saxophone before switching to bass, which he played on five albums with the New Bohemians, as well as on several records with his bands Critters Buggin and The Dead Kenny Gs.

He resided in Austin with his wife Kirilola Onokoro, a musician and former bass player for Japanese band Ex-Girl, with whom he also released recordings under the name Diamond Boom.

In addition to playing music, he wrote about music and the bass for Bass Musician magazine, and also collaborated with Reverend Guitars to create a pair of bass guitars, including one called the "Basshouser."

More recently, he worked as an instructor at the New School of Music, an organization in Austin that focuses on jazz instruction but also offers free classes to those who could not afford to pay for lessons, including a program where they lend instruments to underserved students so they can practice at home.

In April 2020, Houser invited friends on Facebook to post a comment recalling how they met: "The last few years have taught me that when it is our time to leave this world no one can stop it. We have one life to live. The material things we invest in are left behind only to be discarded. Memories are important to me. I am joining the 'reunion of friends' challenge. .. If you are reading this message, make a comment using a single word about how we met."

Responses included "music-making," New Bohemians, and "Club Dada" where Edie Brickell and New Bohemians first played.

In 2022, he mused on Austin, stating, "I had the honor of playing Liberty Lunch with Edie Brickell and New Bohemians in '86 and John Doe in '95. Best damn venue ever, well, OK maybe in a dead-even tie with 500 Cafe, Theater Gallery (when you could still go up on the roof!!!!!!) and Club Dada…….. Liberty Lunch was everything good about the Austin that us old(er) MFers still remember."

"Now we are rapidly becoming Dallas with more hills and trees. I’m from Dallas. Austin was always such a magical place, seemingly in a different realm entirely separate from the $money$- driven greed pits found almost everywhere else. These days you’ll find me at the Continental Club gallery on Fri-Sat nights, playing to the absolute best of my ability with some extremely gifted musicians (Josh Perdue & co) and on Sunday afternoons downstairs with Marshall Hood."

Before he died, his fellow New Bohemian band members Kenny Withrow and John Bush came to his hospital room to play music, and also brought Houser's beloved dog Riga to his bedside. He was an animal lover who often advocated on behalf of rescues.

On Monday afternoon, Withrow posted a request on Facebook, saying, "At 4:44 pm if you could, pause for Brad and his journey," to acknowledge his passing.

Brickell posted a remembrance, saying, "Just spent 6 weeks playing and recording with my friends, New Bohemians. It was our final day recording and Brad was about to take off for a gig when I said, 'Aw, come on! One more jam, Brad. You start it.' He nodded and played this great part and I started singing about him to him with the biggest smile on my face just having fun. I was celebrating his generosity to stay and play one last song with me. But I never thought it would be our final song together. Our band's very last jam was a playful song about Brad. I loved him. He taught me a lot."

UPDATE 8-1-2023: A memorial service will be held at All Saints Presbyterian in Austin at 7808 Rialto Blvd. on Tuesday August 1 at 1 pm. The service will also be livestreamed for those who cannot attend.

music concerts celebrities deaths

Movie Review

Faces of Death returns with modern twist on cult horror film

Photo courtesy of of IFC Films

Dacre Montgomery in Faces of Death.

True horror fans will likely be familiar with the 1978 cult film Faces of Death, which purported to be a documentary showing real-life killings in gory detail. It didn’t, of course, but that didn’t stop rumors from continuing to spread for decades. Now, almost 50 years and multiple sequels later, comes a new version of Faces of Death, an actual movie that pays homage to the original in interesting ways.

Margot (Barbie Ferreira) works at a YouTube-like company called Kino as a content moderator, flagging videos that violate the company’s policies. This means her job often involves seeing some truly despicable things from all manner of depraved people. One day, though, she comes across a video that seems a little too real, and after seeing more similar videos, she starts to believe they’re genuine murders.

Going against her company NDA, she starts to investigate the videos on her own, which puts her on the radar of Arthur (Dacre Montgomery), who is actually kidnapping people and killing them on camera through methods seen in the original Faces of Death film. It’s not long before Arthur tracks her down, with a plan to make her one of his next victims.

Written and directed by Daniel Goldhaber (How to Blow Up a Pipeline) and co-written by Isa Mazzei, the film is not so much scary as it is creepy, with the occasional gross-out sequence. The idea of having someone emulate the killings in the cult film is a good idea, and pairing it with the modern-day attention economy - in which content creators go to increasing lengths for clicks - is a clever twist on a concept that other films have done.

The film as a whole is a commentary on how social media and video sharing sites have often decided to prioritize profits over the well-being of their users. Margot is shown allowing videos involving violence and sexual assault to stay on the site while nixing ones depicting how to use Narcan or demonstrating putting on a condom on a banana. Josh (Jermaine Fowler), Margot’s boss, is even explicit in the company mandate that outrageous videos drive views.

While Arthur has the makings of a good villain, there are few attempts to make him seem truly diabolical. His kidnappings often seem more spur-of-the-moment than calculated, and even though he has a well thought-out dungeon at home, the house’s location in the suburbs seems to make him vulnerable to easy discovery. Goldhaber and Mazzei leave more than a few unanswered questions along the way that take away from the intensity of the story.

Ferreira is yet another actor from Euphoria who’s capitalizing on her exposure from that show. She plays Margot’s increasing anxiety well, and when the action ratchets up in the final act, she meets the moment in a satisfying way. Montgomery returns to the vibe he had while playing the evil Billy on Stranger Things, and even though his character doesn’t fully live up to his potential, Montgomery sells his evil for all it’s worth.

The new Faces of Death may not be what some are expecting given the reputation of the previous films, but it’s a solid horror/thriller that uses the brand as a launching pad into something different. It doesn’t make much of a dent in the scare department, but it does give its violence and gore a degree of relevance in today’s often desensitized world.

---

Faces of Death is now playing in theaters.

movies film