Scattered Thoughts

by Gary Davenport

Overview

San Antonio, Texas native Gary Davenport dedicated his life to quietly enriching his hometown scene of underground music. Active in bands since the age of 13, Davenport founded the micro-label Closet Records, serving as a home in the late '70s and early '80s for his own experimental and new wave groups as well as for more adventurous area punk bands made up of excitable young musicians. The majority of the bands Davenport led or pressed records for never made it out of Texas, but their small circles made strange and distinctive sounds that helped keep San Antonio weird. Scattered Thoughts collects some of the best of Davenport's output from this time, in the form of moody solo tracks, experimental collaborations with longtime friend Mark Champion, and cloudy new wave- and punk-leaning tracks from his band Mannequin. Active between the mid-'70s until the early '80s, Mannequin started out as a less frenetic prog band, but they reconsidered their sound after attending an infamous San Antonio date on the Sex Pistols' ill-fated 1978 U.S. tour. Though they didn't go full-on punk, the change from the misty and mystical "Labyrinth" to the spiky bass lines and jagged tempos of "A Desperate Situation" is a marked one. Mannequin produced colorless new wave rockers like these alongside more sad-hearted acoustic numbers like "In America There's Everything," placing Davenport's depressive yet poetic voice in the center of all the songs. Experiments with flute and synthesizers give some of the songs a new age tint, as with the sadly lovely "Romanticizing Again." The songs traverse different styles but feel united by a specific mood of cautious but hopeful curiosity. Perhaps the most representative track of the anthology is its centerpiece, "Sarra." Written by Davenport for his then-girlfriend, the simmering song is devotional to the point of lovesickness. It's more serious and stormy than gushing, and communicates intensity with restrained rock instrumentation. Before the run of 100 singles was pressed, the relationship had reached its end, and in light of that development Davenport stashed the entire pressing in storage for the next 30 years instead of risking making his ex uncomfortable. This anecdote is a perfect summation of Davenport's music. Created to reflect on and give back to his small scene, it's almost as though all of his various projects were designed to exist in a vacuum. Listening to Scattered Thoughts holds a somewhat voyeuristic quality, like listening in on a private band practice between some serious but seclusive friends. Davenport's unique songwriting perspectives and willingness to explore new modes of sound result in a singular sound. When archival work this strong surfaces after decades with literally zero fanfare, it calls into question how many other unknown works of completely unknown genius are still out there waiting to be discovered. ~ Fred Thomas

Product Details

Release Date:	11/08/2019
Label:	Numero
UPC:	0825764119719
Rank:	80944

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Gary Davenport   Primary Artist