Music: ‘Grass Kickers

If anyone is looking for the perfect Christmas present for Split Lip Rayfield frontman Kirk Rundstrom, one thing would make him happy above all others.

“I really want to go on tour with Slayer,” says Rundstrom from his Kansas home. “Anything you can do to help with that. I will be very vocal about that this next year.”

There are any number of people, the members of Slayer included, who might consider the idea just left of ludicrous. Although Rundstrom understands that reticence, he’s committed to eradicating the idea that Split Lip Rayfield is a Bluegrass band. Given SLR’s banjo/guitar/one string bass/mandolin configuration, that could be a tough sell.

“We’re not really a Bluegrass band,” says Rundstrom. “We’re a Rock & Roll band with acoustic instruments.”

Rundstrom admits he’s not helping his case much when Split Lip opens for Bluegrass legend Del McCoury.

He’s getting closer to the point by referencing opening gigs for Nashville Pussy, Leftover Salmon or, like the band’s current circuit, the Reverend Horton Heat.

“People see us walk out with acoustic instruments and you can see the look of disappointment on their faces,” says Rundstrom of SLR’s opening slots. “Then we kill them.”

That diversity has defined SLR from the beginning. Forming in Kansas nearly a decade ago and naming themselves after a denizen of Rundstrom’s hometown with the unfortunate condition of having his upper lip become an open wound with the winter’s lessened humidity, Split Lip Rayfield pushed the boundaries of a genre that already prided itself on its defiance of convention.

Acoustic guitarist Rundstrom played with a ferocity that wasn’t even evident in his Rock outfit, Scroat Belly. Banjoist Eric Mardis had never touched the instrument before being invited to play with SLR as a side gig to his Metal band, Snake Bite, and bassist Jeff Eaton had just perfected the concept of constructing a bass out of a Weed Whacker cord and an old automobile gas tank. Mandolinist Wayne Gottstine came later, after looking for an outlet other than a traditional Bluegrass band. Even Alt.Country label Bloodshot wasn’t entirely sure what to do with them once they’d signed.

After three albums, countless support tours and contributions to every cool Bloodshot compilation (including Darren Blase’s Shake It/Bloodshot tribute to The Midwestern Hayride, Straight Outta Boone County), Split Lip decided to take it down a notch over a year ago. With the conclusion of the grueling yearlong roadwork following the release of 2001’s Never Make It Home, the band decided it was time to back off the gas pedal slightly. They took off an entire year. When they reconvened at the end of 2003, they revamped their touring schedule to make concessions for everyone’s sanity.

“Since December of last year, we’ve been doing about 12 shows a month,” says Rundstrom. “We stopped doing the 30/60 day tours. You kinda lose your mind after 30 days. Since we’re in Kansas, we can be in Austin in eight hours, in Chicago in 10 hours, in L.A. in 20 hours and Richmond, Virginia, in 18 hours. We do the long drive, hit a region and do 12 shows. That’s what we’ve been doing and it works good for us. We all have families and kids, and doing that, we get to come home and spend time with our families and take care of business.”

SLR’s new touring schedule also allowed the band to complete their fourth album, the recently released Should Have Seen It Coming. Although the album doesn’t necessarily break new ground for SLR, it does capture their visceral stage presence in the studio.

“There’s hardly any overdubs on it. We sat down in a room with open mics, facing each other, and played it,” says Rundstrom. “We went down to New Orleans and recorded with Mike West, who’s just awesome. He’s a banjo player and he’s got a studio down there. He’s an incredible person. He’s someone I try to be like, spiritually … a great work ethic, an honest man. He worked us hard. He said, ‘You guys are a live band, let’s play it live.’ He doesn’t pull any punches in the studio. We’d play and he’d go, ‘Well, that’s flat, and you’re out of time, and do you guys even want to record today?’ It was like going to music boot camp. He knows why music works. I love him to death.”

With the release of Should Have Seen It Coming, SLR is gearing up for the road again, but they remain committed to their new truncated touring arrangement. And while they’re ostensibly making time for their families, the band’s members are still almost compulsively busy on other projects. Rundstrom is still marginally connected to Scroat Belly. (“We only did one show this year; if someone pays us enough money, we’ll play your wedding …”) He released his third solo album this year, and he’s working on his fourth (” … it’s like Mr. Bungle meets Sade. I’ve successfully written an album that will never get airplay.”). He’s also recorded albums with at least two other bands, Grizzly (with Gina Black, among others) and Grain & Demise. Mardis works out his Death Metal demons with Satan’s Jeweled Crown and plays in a Jazz combo called Floyd the Barber; Gottstine plays in a Power Pop band called The Sluggos; and Gottstine and Eaton play in a pure Bluegrass outfit called The Hudlers.

“We can’t focus,” says Rundstrom with a laugh. “That’s probably why no one’s heard of any of our projects. We’re like a band of ninjas who go out and play shows, and no one knows we do it.”

This article appears in Dec 1-7, 2004.