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Butch Willis.

BANDS

Butch Willis & The Rocks

Butch Willis & D Flat

HOMETOWN

Beltsville, Maryland

DOCUMENTARY FILM

Amateur on Plastic

GREATEST HITS

Be the 23rd Rocker
Drugs
Flashback
The Garden's Outside
Here I Am
Kitty Cat
Locked in This Room
Newsletter
The T.V.'s from Outer Space
Wendy Maine

ALSO

Butch on Facebook

Butch on Wikipedia

DESCRIPTION

Butch Willis is an American musician. Willis is backed by The Rocks and many of his records are credited to Butch Willis and The Rocks. Butch's musical style is broadly "outsider art" or art brut. Specifically though his music is a mixture of classic rock, new wave and rockabilly.

Butch
at the Teen-Beat B.B.Q.
Photo by Mark Robinson

Butch
8"x10" colour glossy
Photo by [unknown]

Butch with Gibby Haynes from the Butthole Surfers
9:30 Club
930 "F" Street, Washington, D.C.

Butch with former roomate Root Boy Slim
9:30 Club
930 "F" Street, Washington, D.C.

Butch on the set of the Forrestville Rocks television programme
Photo by John Heyn

Butch on the set of the Forrestville Rocks television programme
Photo by John Heyn

Flyer for show
April 21, 1985
Friendship Station
Washington, D.C.
(Lydia Lunch did not show up.)

BAND LINE-UPS

THE ROCKS
"OF" LINE-UP

Michael Maye,

Jeff Lotson,

Kent Schroeder,

Butch Willis

THE BUTCH WILLIS SESSION PLAYERS

Tyrone "Ty" Brunson,

Dan "Dizzy Rush" Hovey,

Butch Willis,

"Nervous" Rex Wilson

THE ROCKS
"FORTHCOMINGS"

Al Breon,

"Cap'n" Jon Curlin,

Dean "Dean X" Evangelista,

Joe Lee,

Jeff "Jeff Scott" Mentges,

Ray Wallace,

Butch Willis

THE ROCKS
"FORESTVILLE ROCKS"

Al Breon,

"Cap'n" Jon Curlin,

Dean "Dean X" Evangelista,

Joe Lee,

Kenn Rudd,

Keith Waldron,

Butch Willis

THE ROCKS
"CONQUERING THE ICE"

Al Breon,

"Cap'n" Jon Curlin,

Dean "Dean X" Evangelista,

Kenn Rudd,

Karl Straub,

Butch Willis

THE ROCKS
"SPEEDBALLS"

Al Breon,

"Cap'n" Jon Curlin,

Dean "Dean X" Evangelista,

Peter Miller,

Kenn Rudd,

Butch Willis

D FLAT

Chris Callahan,

Tom Krauth,

Mark Robinson,

Karl Straub,

Butch Willis

Tony Zanella (2003 live show)

D FLAT 2003 LIVE SHOW

Chris Callahan,

Mark Robinson,

Karl Straub,

Butch Willis

Tony Zanella

INTERVIEW

Phil Milstein interviews Butch

Phil Milstein's song poem site

BUTCH'S FAVORITE RECORD STORE

Joe's Record Paradise

BUTCH'S OWN LABEL

Love Records

ALBUMS NOT YET RECORDED OR RELEASED

Rock Was the Reason to Roll

Box of Marshmallows

FILM

AMATEUR ON PLASTIC (STARRING BUTCH WILLIS)

A film about Butch Willis.

FORRESTVILLE ROCKS (Live)

Butch Willis & The Rocks on the Forrestville Rocks television programme.

THE MANY MISHAPS OF BUTCH WILLIS

"Hey, hey, we're The Rocks
You can look at us or you can stop
Hey, hey, we're The Rocks
We just wanna thank you, thank you, thank you a lot."
("We're The Rocks")

In the mind of Butch Willis, he and his group The Rocks are the entry-level equivalent of Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band, Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band, or even the latter-day Rolling Stones. They play straight-arrow AOR hard rock, with a lot of sheen and just a little tiny bit of gristle. By Butch's way of seeing things, the only reason he and his band don't have a major-label record contract is due to clerical oversight.

To the rest of the world, however, he and The Rocks belong much more to the realm of such outsider musical artists as The Twinkeyz, Electric Eels, Shuggie Rodelle & His Imbiblio Band or the singing flea market cowboy Buddy Max, than they do to the world of arena rock. As evidenced by the two albums he released on his own Love label in the mid-1980s, Of and Forthcomings, Willis and his revolving-door band of D.C.-area musicians are anything but pedestrian. Would Bob Seger have a full-time band member whose sole duty is to stand there and chop at his throat while warbling vocal tones?

While much of Willis' material centers on banal topics given humorous slants ("Kitty Cat," "TVs From Outer Space," "Pizza On My Jeans"), he is equally capable of a sublime treatment of classical themes ("The Girl's On My Mind," "Everything's Alright," "The Garden's Outside"). At their best, his Rocks are capable of generating a surging undertow of rhythmic noise, over which Butch can pour out his heart and "throat guitarist" Al Breon can uvulate like there's no tomorrow, contributing a warp factor reminiscent of Tommy Hall's electric jug playing with the 13th Floor Elevators.

Willis's songs are exciting, his lyrics entrancing, and his quavering voice and unsteady physical presence are like watching a hobbled old lady trying to cross a busy intersection against the light. Add to that a Maryland twang ready-made for a John Waters Dreamland production or the cast of Heavy Metal Parking Lot and Butch's obvious sartorial splendor, and you've got the makings of a true star.

In August of 1986 Butch and I, along with his then-manager Jeff Krulik, met in Butch's bedroom in the basement of his mother's house in suburban Maryland to try to survey the lay of the Willis mind. The various medications he was on at the time had left Butch with a pronounced quake of the hand that made the lighting of each cigarette a time-consuming and potentially hazardous task, but otherwise the conversation flowed smoothly and agreeably. Butch had some great stories to tell, and had the kicker conclusion to just about every topic that came up. (See interview link at left.)

- Phil Milstein

DISCOGRAPHY

SINGLES

The Garden's Outside
Shopping Bag

ALBUMS

Of
Forthcomings
Conquering the Ice
Speedballs
Of 2
Superstitious Mummies
Rawed Out of the Bottom Basement
Locked in This Room (Live at the Black Cat)

COMPILATIONS

Teen-Beat Fifty
Teen-Beat 100
Wakefield: Volume 1
Wakefield: The Teen-Beat Boxed Set
Wakefield: The Teen-Beat Boxed Set
1997 Teen-Beat Sampler
1999 Teen-Beat Sampler
2000 Teen-Beat Sampler
2001 TeenTeen-Beatbeat Sampler
2002 Teen-Beat Sampler
Teen-Beat Subscribers' CD, 2004
Teen-Beat No.1 Record Label
2010 Teen-Beat / Other Music Sampler

ALSO

Teen-Beat's Fifth Anniversary
Teen-Beat's Sixth Anniversary
Teen-Beat's Seventh Anniversary
Teen-Beat's Eighth Anniversary
Teen-Beat's Ninth Anniversary
Teen-Beat's 10th Anniversary
Teen-Beat's 11th Anniversary
Teen-Beat's 12th Anniversary
Teen-Beat's 13th Anniversary
Teen-Beat's 15th Anniversary
Teen-Beat's Sweet 16th Anniversary
Teen-Beat's 17th Anniversary
Teen-Beat's 18th Anniversary
Teen-Beat's 20th Anniversary Commemorative
Teen-Beat Graphica Exhibition

FILM

Amateur on Plastic [documentary]

SONGS

Amateur on Plastic
Be the 23rd Rocker
Can't Keep Me Away from You
Cigarette Pack
Concrete & Birdfeathers
Dance
Dirt Work
Drugs
Everything's Alright
Everytime I See Her
Falling in Love
Flashback
The Garden's Outside
Good Girls
The Girl's On My Mind
Hank's Song
Heartache
Heartache (Re-Mix)
Here I Am
I Like to Party
I Miss Her Too Much
I Miss Karin
I Need You Too
I Want that Date
I Want To Be a Rock'n'Roll Star
I'll Do It
I'll Never Be the Same Again
It Can Be Forever
Kitty Cat
Lewie Tonite
Locked in This Room
Love Fad
Love On the Loose
Lucky Stars
Luxury or Death
Never Again
Newsletter
Night After Night
November Day
The Only Way to Love
Penny Penny
Pizza On My Jeans
Penny Penny
Private Life
Radical Song
The Radio Rocks Me
Right Beside You
R'n'R Slave
Rock'n'Roll Told
Rock To the Spot
Shake
Shoppin' for You
Short Steps
Superstitious Mummys
Susie C.
Taste Me
The TV's from Outer Space
Titled
Wendy Maine
We're the Rocks
We Can Do It
Wipeout
You're What's Missing in My Life