Sammy Kidd is not playing around with label, festival

Last October, I told you about Sammy Kidd and the band Mean Motor Scooter, an impossibly young-looking band that puts out impossibly good music (albeit about space aliens and lizard people). When I got word that Kidd was putting on his own festival at Lola’s starting May 5, I sat down with him to talk about it.

“I’m really trying to just get as much attention on these bands in DFW as possible,” Kidd told me. “I want to get all of them on tape as much as I can — get them putting out more recordings and more cassette tapes of all of their bands.”

Yeah, the kids these days are getting back into cassette tapes. What’s old is new, and as Kidd told me — cassettes are cheap.

“So I started this thing called Brainhole Tapes, and it’s like no budget at all,” he said. “I don’t even know where to start, so I’m like ‘How am I going to get people interested in Brainhole Tapes and how am I going to get more bands than the 10 or so that are willing to start off with me?’

“ So I thought a festival would be the best way to get attention. All the bands have been really awesome about it. Everybody has the same goal in mind.”

The event will be a three-day affair, starting at 5 p.m. May 5 with Jeremiah Jackson, Signals and Alibis, Better Now, Hen and the Cocks, Kyoto Lo-Fi, Bellringer, the Sex RYNOS, and the Phantom Sensation, which goes on at midnight.

Day two starts at 2 p.m. with Chillamundo, and continues with Caliche Burnout, the Confounded, House Fire Syndrome, the Infamists, Dead Words, Blands, Telemegasounds, Dead Mockingbirds and I Happy Am. It finishes with Henry the Archer.

The final day kicks off with the Prof Fuzz 63 at 2 p.m., followed by Satellite Dream, the Fibs, Teenage Sexx, VVOES, Dome Dwellers, Picnic Lightning, Loafers, Sealion, War Party and Mean Motor Scooter, which closes the weekend at midnight.

For all that, admission is only $12 a day or $30 for a three-day pass.

“I wanted to make sure the festival didn’t get shut down by the police and I wanted it to be as cheap as possible, but I knew that by doing this through a venue I’d have to charge something — so we came up with the most reasonable price we could. And Lola’s was really cool about it.

“When I came to them with the idea,” said Kidd, “they were like ‘Well, we usually do Lolapalooza on the first of May, but you’ve got this whole thing set up so just do it.’ ”

When not setting up three-day festivals on zero money, Kidd and his band have been working on a new album and there’s label interest.

Be sure to pick up a copy when it’s out, and with a lineup like the one at Brainhole Fest, you’d be crazy not to at least check out a day or two.

This story was originally published April 25, 2017 at 3:01 PM with the headline "Sammy Kidd is not playing around with label, festival."