Raul’s Royal Foot – Bio

In 1980 I was under-age (and drinking a ninety cent Budweiser) at a punk club on lower Greenville Ave in Dallas called DJs. Delores, the proprietor of DJs, didn’t check IDs, it just wasn’t a thing back then. I had been into the arena rock pact, attending shows at Tarrant County Convention Center Arena and Dallas Convention Center Theater. When I learned that local bands played local bars every weekend, my life changed in a big way. DJs hosted local bands like Superman’s Girlfriend, NCM, Nervebreakers, Quad Pi, Fort Worth Cats, and the Devices, and Austin bands such as Terminal Mind and Standing Waves. I could hardly believe what I was witnessing, the inventiveness, passion and madness, not to mention the limitless liberty of expression and folly.

It’s like that kid in The Decline: punk is making rock “raw again, and for real”. It was also around 1980 when my oldest brother, punk and skate photographer Bill Daniel, went to college in Austin and brought back to Dallas the Live at Raul’s
album, featuring two songs each of the Next, Standing Waves, Terminal Mind the Explosives and the Skunks. As well as the Big Boys/Dicks Live at Raul’s LP. My arena rock collection was neglected as I listened to those albums over and over and started to hang out at the Hot Klub and Ground Zero, other Dallas area clubs who featured local punk and new wave acts.

In early 2014 I came up with the concept of a Texas punk tribute band. It would be called Raul’s Royal Foot (Raul’s/Dukes Royal Coach Inn/Club Foot) and do bands who released 45s between 1978 and 1982, the glory era of the DIY punk
and new wave crusade. (Raul’s began booking punk bands in January of 1978, shortly after the Sex Pistols’ San Antonio show on January 8, 1978)

The first RRF show happened at a backyard party in October of 2014.

The lineup was:

Clay Daniel, guitar/vocal
Steve Landry, guitar
Shannon Rierson, bass
Brian DiFrank, drums

Cops came during the first song, we waited ten minutes, started again, and they were back within 30 seconds of our second attempt.
Other notable shows during this first iteration were:

September 2014 -36th anniversary of the Huns Riot at Trailer Space
December 2014 -Punk rock open mic at Lost Well
December 2014 -Vinyl swap meet at Raul’s (now called Local)
December 2014 -Museum of Human Achievement in conjunction with black and white punk and skate photo show by Bill Daniel
January 2015 -Houston punk band Vast Majority record re-release (Originally 1980) at Beerland

In October of 2015 the lineup changed to:

Clay Daniel, guitar/vocal
Lord Dread, guitar
Shannon Rierson, bass
Dan Ramirez, drums.

Notable shows include:
December 2015 – Vinyl swap meet Carousel
February 2016 – Sahara Lounge with Hairy Who (Steve Marsh of Terminal Mind).
December 2016 – Vinyl swap meet Carousel
March 2017 – Texas Party in Albuquerque
December 2017 – Vinyl swap meet Carousel
March 2018 – Freddie Steady Krc’s Antone’s Records annual shindig with Larry Seaman of Standing Waves, Freddie Krc of the Explosives, Steve Marsh of Terminal Mind, Jesse Sublett of the Skunks and Ty Gavin of the Next.  (could not have been a more perfect line up for RRF)

For kick and giggles, we will be recording a couple of tunes in May of 2018 at Utley Studio.