Mike Frazier’s shows with the Bad Quitters, the Shut Ups represent SA homecoming

A full album from the Bad Quitters, called I’ll Be Damned, is due out in a couple of months.
Credit: Courtesy Phot / The Bad quitters

You could call Boise, Idaho musician Mike Frazier’s two upcoming San Antonio gigs a homecoming of sorts.

As frontman for the Austin bands Transmography and the Shut Ups, Frazier developed a fondness for the Alamo City, and the latter band was more of a fixture here than in its hometown.

Now, he’s returning to the 210 with his newest group, the Bad Quitters, who will perform Thursday, April 23, at the Lonesome Rose — a show that celebrates the group’s latest single, “Spend It All,” featuring the Alamo City’s own Garrett T. Capps on fiddle.

And to celebrate the past, Frazier’s other band, the Shut Ups, will play Lowcountry on Saturday, April 25, for King William Fest.

The Bad Quitters offer a refreshing take on Americana, drawing on the Neil Young and Crazy Horse template of raw, thrashed guitars holding up a tenderly melodic sensibility. Meanwhile, the Shut Ups are a noise-rock whirlwind, whose shows are generally 20-minute meltdowns marked by frantic drumming, skittering guitars and outlandish costumes.

Though not a San Antonio native, Frazier’s had a long history with the city — and with music-scene fixture Capps in particular. Frazier, who’s 10 years older, was the local singer-songwriter’s camp counselor at Camp Rio Vista, the oldest summer camp in the state.

“I was his counselor when he was 11,” Frazier said. “When I met him, he was just a really cool kid. Had a big CaseLogic CD book of about 200 CDs, and we would just talk music all the time. He was already a drummer. I was a guy from Austin just figuring my way through music and thought it was great — here was this kid already with cool taste in music.”

Frazier recognized a kindred spirit and the pair bonded immediately.

“He was always the same guy he is now, man,” Frazier said of Capps. “He looked and talked the same. Well, he did have green hair one summer.

Capps’ high school band, the Boy Scout Cookies, even played the White Rabbit with Frazier’s Transmography. Eventually, Frazier snuck Capps and the band into his SXSW showcase.

Fast forward a few more years and Frazier had started The Shut Ups. Though based in Austin, San Antonio embraced the group and their particular brand of improvised insanity. The Shut Ups played Capps’ 2016 Cinco de Mayo blowout, providing Frazier with his most treasured San Antonio memory.

“We were playing at Paper Tiger when they still had the radio antenna,” Frazier recalled. “We were playing the courtyard, packed house. Our drummer, Eric Green, kind of the front man of the band, he scaled that antenna. I had my eyes closed, and I noticed everyone looking up – Garrett had gotten on the drums and Eric scaled the antenna, at least 50 or 60 feet in the air, hanging upside down, in a monkey or shark costume.”

Eventually Paper Tiger’s owner — local restaurateur Chad Carey — was forced to take down the antenna due to liability concerns. The stunt made it obvious why.

“[Carey] wanted to put a statue of Eric up there … but actually had to take it down,” Frazier added.

Now, fast forward again to the present, and Capps is hosting Frazier’s The Bad Quitters at his club, the Lonesome Rose, not long after he played fiddle on the band’s single, recorded with Josh Bloodsworth and Justin Morris at San Antonio’s Cornpound Complex.

A full album from the Bad Quitters, called I’ll Be Damned, is due out in a couple of months.

More than anything, the decades-long friendship and collaboration between Frazier and Capps is a testament to the power of music to bring us together.

In a world hell-bent on siloing everyone by age, gender and political persuasion, it’s refreshing to see these two musicians reach across the years and craft indelible, ass-kicking tunes.

Mike Frazier’s shows with the Bad Quitters, the Shut Ups represent SA homecoming

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