Deaf Pedestrians 'And Other Distractions' album

You’ve probably heard their nerd anthem, “Hail to the Geek” on the radio and in the TV shows “My Super Sweet 16” and “Beauty and the Geek.” You might even be amongst those who are wearing Spiderman T-shirts, sporting mullets or playing Dungeons & Dragons...such geek traits celebrated in the song. But there’s much more to Deaf Pedestrians than “Hail to the Geek.”

Sure, Deaf Pedestrians value humor, sarcasm and irony, but the band is no mere novelty act or one-trick pony. The group’s songs are clever, emotionally expressive and sonically diverse, revealing a range of musical knowledge, including Alternative, Hard Rock, Punk and Pop, all of which have been crucial to singer, songwriter and bassist Charlton Parker’s development as an artist and individual. Born to a strict, religious family, the songs of Pink Floyd, Stevie Wonder and The Clash have provided Parker with a desperately needed form of escapism.

“I wasn’t allowed to listen to anything my parents called secular music, so I had to sneak all that stuff in,” he says. “And I would listen to everything I could find, which is what makes us a pretty eclectic band. Our album is pretty diverse in the sound spectrum, but it always has just a dash of strange to make it Deaf Pedestrians.”

That album, ...And Other Distractions is filled with yearning, self-deprecation, anger, humor, and always enough hooks to ensnare the listener regardless of style or subject addressed. Composed equally of songs from the band’s self-titled, self-released disc, and newly penned numbers including “Hail to the Geek,” …And Other Distractions offers a comprehensive look at one of the most enjoyable and creative new rock bands. “15 Beers Ago,” which garnered iTunes Free Download of the Week honors, begins with the sound of an opening can, and quickly evolves into a propulsive Punk-Pop number with a psychedelic-tinged bridge, “Listen Up” attacks with staccato bursts of guitar and contemptuous vocals that yield for a lighter-raising chorus, and “Idiot” is a melancholy song of regret and dread.

“That one’s probably the most personal song on the record,” Parker reveals. “It’s about being with someone that’s definitely poisonous, and being so stupid you constantly stay with that person. Love makes you stupid. That’s the general gist of it. I’ve had the misfortune of dating lots of junkie chicks so I have a unique perspective on human courtship.”

As effective as Deaf Pedestrians serious songs are, it’s their barbed, humorous material that has really struck a nerve, whether it’s 15 Beers Ago,” an anthem for drunken misadventure or “Splatter,” a song about killing and burying an unfaithful girlfriend in an shallow grave...

“A lot of our songs have humor, but it’s not joke music,” Parker says. “Music is a medium where people will sometimes not take you seriously if you use humor. And I just think that’s ridiculous. You just get tired of the Mad At Your Dad kind of stuff after a while.”

Deaf Pedestrians formed in 2001. At the time, guitarist Garrin Walker and drummer Russ Dignam were in a band called Loop 12 and Parker was in an unknown two-man group. Eager to build his audience, Parker asked Walker, who had a recording studio, if he and Dignam would help him record some new demos. When the four musicians got together and started jamming, it became clear that their chemistry was strong and the new songs they were playing were a quantum leap from their older stuff. So, they joined forces and, after days of debate, decided to call themselves Deaf Pedestrians.

“It was the strongest name we could come up with,” Walker says. “There was a school for the deaf in Austin, and we saw a crossing walk sign there that kind of stuck in our minds.”

With a name chosen, Deaf Pedestrians recorded over 15 tracks and sent them to radio stations and various industry folk. After hearing songs like “Seatbelt,” “Super Nice Guy” and “We the Sheeple,” Rock veteran, Binky Philips, signed the band to his start-up indie label, Dotpointperiod. After Deaf Pedestrians spent much of the next year writing new songs and fine-tuning the ones they already had, they entered the Hurricane Sound studio with producer Mike Gage to record dEAF PEdESTRIANS. The album came out in late 2005, and the band supported it with gigs across the country opening for Staind, Papa Roach, Saliva, Shinedown and Sevendust.

“We were grinding away,” Parker says. “We were playing the clubs and going on tour, but we were still poor. We made all the mistakes and experienced all the horrible things that you can think of for a smallish band trying to make it. Eventually, it got to the point where Russ and I pretty much gave up on the idea of getting a major label deal. We figured we would just do the cult status thing and be happy with that.”

Then came “Hail to the Geek.” Parker wrote the song one night as a joke about his nerdy hobbies and awkwardness with girls, and had no intention to record it. But when his bandmates heard the tune, they convinced him to play it with them. Within a few hours, Deaf Pedestrians had put together a funny, self-deprecating and catchy-as-hell song as powerfully resonant as Beck’s “Loser” or Radiohead’s “Creep.”

“That was the easiest song to write because it was pretty much how I grew up,” Parker says. “It’s really just taking little bits from my experience. And I thought, ‘What would tickle people that have the same interests as me?’ and apparently there’s a lot more people than I thought.”

Deaf Pedestrians started shopping “Hail to the Geek,” “Idiot” and other new songs, and in no time radio stations were all over “Geek” like cheerleaders on football players. After a major executive at MTV heard the song on Sirius Hits One, she made some calls and the next day the track was licensed to “My Super Sweet 16.” Then the show “Beauty and the Geek” also requested the song and aired it three times. Next thing they knew, Deaf Pedestrians received that major label record deal they had once only dreamed of.

“There has been this incredible frothing at the mouth response,” Parker says. “Now, a lot of people come up to me at shows and ask if I really play D&D, and I can give them the satisfaction of knowing, yes, indeed, I have no life. But everything is happening so fast for us now and it’s all really exciting.”

who is who
Charlton Parker – vocals, guitar
Garrin Walker – guitar
Jake Crawford – guitar
Russ Dignam – drums

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Deaf Pedestrians - And Other Distractions