Trigger Quintet discog

One of the cooler persons I digi-met during UBF's first life was Mark Twistworthy, owner/operator of Twistworthy Records, which began publishing during the mid '90s in what arguably was a heyday for the surrounding Texas scene. I could go on about all that, but I'll let you Google it on your iPhones if you please.

The Twistworthy label made its first impression in April '95 with a Houston band called Trigger Quintet, dished on 1,000 copies of clear seven-inch vinyl. And the three songs included would represent 60-percent of the band's recorded work, which is such a tease. The band, of which Mark was a part, was great and its music found me right as I was buried under bands like Constatine Sankathi (with which Trigger Quintet shared space on Slave Cut's great Use This Coupon compilation). But they didn't have a long life.

"Everything that happened with Trigger Quintet seemed to happen so fast," Mark recalled. "We were together for about nine or ten months total."

Calling themselves simply "Trigger," the band marked its first show in October 1994 at a community center in The Woodlands, Texas, Mark said. Noting so many other same-name bands, they added "Quintet" by the second show, but "despite the name change, people still referred to us as 'Trigger,' and as a result we were billed that way on every show of our six-week midwest/east coast tour with Carbomb in June 1995."

"The tour was an amazing experience," he continued. "In a stroke of luck, we received our seven-inch just a day or two before leaving for tour. It was the first vinyl release on my own label (the only previous release being a demo by a band I was in prior to Trigger Quintet). We shared equipment with Carbomb the whole tour, following their van in our drummer Tim's Honda Accord (touring in a Honda Accord wasn't so amazing)."

Carbomb perhaps might not've experienced the same amazing feeling: They broke up about a week into the tour, in Chicago. "Their drummer, bassist and roadie ended up taking a bus back to Austin, so in order to continue with the rest of the dates, Jeb (TQ's fill-in guitarist for that tour) and Tim learned all of the bass and drum parts to the Carbomb songs in a few hours. Chris from Carbomb taught them all of their songs while parked in a park along Lake Michigan in Grand Haven, Mich., and they ended up playing all of the rest of the shows the rest of the way, including the show that night."

While on tour, Trigger played shows with the who's-who. "We played multiple shows with Braid who had just released their first LP (who hooked us up with Fred from Divot Records, resulting in our being included on the Ground Rule Double compilation), multiple shows with Impetus Inter from Minn., and single shows along the way with many other bands we liked like Ezra Pound, Rye Coalition, Action Patrol, Spirit Assembly, Boys Life, the Make Up, Cap'n Jazz, Cornelius, Eagle Bravo, Hellbender, Spanakorzo, Boy Sets Fire, and others I'm forgetting.

"One of our last shows of the tour was in Lake Jackson, Texas, with Daredevil, a band comprised of ex-members of Indian Summer and Ordination of Aaron. This meeting would result in our being included on the Use This Coupon compilation on Slave Cut Records, run by one of the members of that band."

Six weeks of touring through major metropolitan areas should've surfaced some action, right? Well:

"The lowest point of the tour," Mark said, "was being a no-show for our show at the Fireside Bowl in Chicago with Braid and Rye Coalition after witnessing a drive-by gang shooting right in front of the Fireside, just a few feet away from us--and then subsequently getting pulled over and surrounded by cops with their guns drawn for fleeing the scene immediately afterwards. This, along with the fact that Carbomb was in the middle of breaking up, forced us to regrettably not go back to the Fireside that night, so both Carbomb and Trigger Quintet cancelled the show."

The band landed back in Houston with a glad-you're-home-safe show that included Fisticuffs Bluff and the great Nuzzle before another home-state show with Crownhate Ruin, in College Station. "This show, in July of 1995, would end up being our last show," Mark said, explaining Mike decided he was moving to San Francisco, where he joined the band Lonely Broken Radio, which may have included some former Ordination of Aaron and Indian Summer folks. They saw a seven-inch released on Chrysanthemum Records.

Mike appeared in Austin a few months later and formed Desert Jet Set with Tim and Jeb before returning to Houston and initiating Curses All You Vampires with TQ guitarist Brian. Mike's in the Windy City now.

Tim was in the each-accomplished Hades Kick and Rhythm of Black Lines and currently plays in the Austin-based Golden Calf.

Mark moved to Austin in 1996 and has lived through numerous bands. Twistworthy Records is still active (pick up the Flesh Lights debut single, out now!). His current band, Come And Take It, should have a seven-inch out this month.

Here's the Trigger Quintet discog (I posted the Use This Coupon cut a long time ago but these tracks came straight from Mark, who said he got them through another blog, so if you're responsible for digitizing them, thank you, and hit me up so I can give proper credit).

TITLE: (tracks from Trigger Quintet's s/t seven inch and the Ground Rule Double and Use This Coupon compilations)
LABEL: Twistworthy, Divot and Slave Cut, respectively
YEAR: 1995
TRACKS: Senseless in Drowning / A Return Home / Kill Me Before I Die / Slept For Seven Days / Crash Course