XL Cover Story: The Next Next Wave

Attic Ted: Rock band

By Joe Gross
Dec. 1, 2005

Amber Novak for AA-S Attic Ted in action at Room 710 in November. From left: Grady Roper, Bill Jeffery and Wade Driver.
The Next Next Wave
Reginald Harris	René Pinnell
Myrna Cabello	Justin Raiford
Attic Ted	Leah Marino
Wendy Colonna	Nathan Green

Lead Ted Grady Roper, 33, says the San Marcos group's massive headgear, both creepy and functional, started as Halloween costumes during its first Austin show in 2002.

"I made a big Beethoven head, and I ended up not wearing it much," Roper says. "While I sang, it just sat on the organ."

Roper kept the head, and when he strapped a mike inside it, his voice changed radically — and with it, Attic Ted's persona.

"It was no longer me," he says. "I was just this old man and he just was way more interesting than I am. It's almost as if he writes the songs now. They're not really from my point of view."

A fan of bands such as the Residents and Caroliner — costumed outfits that toe the line between rock shows and performance art — Roper made masks for the rest of the band. They jibed well with the group's original blend of gritty rock, sampled noise and menacing, almost carnival-esque organ.

"We use this old '50s Hammond organ as a starting base," Roper says. "It sets the tone." Hickoids guitarist Wade Driver and sampler kingpin Lance McMahan fill out the sound with slashing riffs and digital orchestrations.

The band — which ranges from one to six people based on members' availability — recently released "Hemogoblin" on Roper's excellent Pecan Crazy Records, which has also released top-flight CDs from jazz band E.C.F.A., blues from Walter Daniels and more.

While Roper often uses his art and comics newspaper Proper Gander to trade for proper studio time, he's also a huge home-recording advocate. "The four-track cassette recorder is the greatest device ever," Roper raves, claiming to elicit beautiful sounds from his old, analog Tascam Porta-Studio. "Most bands spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars, and we avoid all that."