Eight months ago, the world lost singing legend David Bowie. Six months ago there was a Tribute to Bowie show at the Rhythm Room in Phoenix , AZ and on a bill which also included Field Tripp, The Lonesome Wilderness and Serene Dominic, there was a little noticed duo at the bottom of the bill called The Butane Brothers who were unproven talents but fit the Sunnyslope residency requirement.
The brothers, Bowie superfans Hal and Cal Haversham performed only two songs that night, “The Little Bombadier,” a rightly obscure item from Bowie’s 1967 debut album when The future Thin White Duke seemed more interested in being the present day Anthony Newley. The other song was “Breaking Glass” from Bowie’s 1977 album Low, This recording, selected for this week’s Single of The Weekend, is not only is the first Onus live recording but also the first ever cover song of someone not from Sunnyslope or even nearby Arrowhead. And it was recorded live at that very same Rhythm Room show.
You’ll note that the Brothers gave it a Latin feel, sorta like a couple of tracks from David Live but incorporating a lot of the progressive sounds from his Berlin trilogy and nothing from Never Let Me Down, an album even Bowie superfans like Hal and Cal never much cared for.
As for the brothers’ group name, it can be attributed to losing Bowie to a secret 18-month bout with cancer. Considering the amount of minutia we know about the Kardasians without even wanting to, we still don’t know what kind of cancer it was that killed someone we genuinely cared about. This medical riddle perplexed no one more than Hal and Cal, who called themselves The Butane Brothers to quell their own speculation.
“Bowie is holding a cigarette in every album cover, it’s gotta be lung cancer” said Hal to Cal and without the benefit of a fact checker nearby so Cal naturally agreed.
“Breaking Glass can be streamed and downloaded for free from onusrecord.bandcamp.com
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