Tony Duran Looks Back on 18 years of Underground Music in the Coachella Valley
Tony Duran wears a black Great Muta (WCW wrestler) t-shirt, black frame glasses, and black pants and arrives punctually to our meeting at Palm Desert’s The Hood, a location he has performed at many times. He enjoys a cold non-alcoholic Heineken as he recounts his experience as one of the leading frontmen of the Coachella Valley underground since 2007. For two hours, we discuss the origins of his music career, his various projects, inspiration, and the importance of the Coachella Valley to his art.
Infrequently hitting his vape pen, he chronicles the 10+ projects he has been a part of, all of which hail from the east end of the Coachella Valley. He is calm and thoughtful as he details the origins of his first projects, and the temporary conclusion of his most current band, Nervous Grave, a proper darkwave band and arguably his best-sounding iteration thus far.
Duran’s love of music blossomed from a very early age, and his embeddedness in the Coachella Valley is the prime reason for his musicality. Early shows at the Veterans Park in Coachella were formative for a 15-year-old Duran. He points out a performance and circle pit at a Serpiente 666 show that was particularly formative, for it was there that he embraced the DIY and backyard show ethos.
It is fitting that the city of festivals has produced such music aficionados and obsessives like Tony, young people who decided from an early age that live music would be a way of life, kids (now men) who searched for a means of expression and creative outlet as often as possible. He recalls obtaining his first batch of vinyl records from finding a crate of records at an abandoned house off 52nd street in Coachella with James Gastelum (Calmala, Ocho Ojos, Big Lizard). One notable find was Cosmic Slop by Funkadelic, which would briefly inspire a funk project by Duran and Gastelum.
The proximity to a music community accelerated Duran’s musical development and kickstarted artistic spark. At the Palm Desert Mall’s now defunct-Record Alley, a haven for music lovers, he purchased his own records for the first time, Incubus’s Make Yourself and Weird Al Yankovic’s Food Album, which he acquired at 13. Other middle school discoveries included his main influences, The Cure and The Cramps, which were introduced to him by his first collaborator, Jorge Gomez, of Los Mumblers. This common thread weaves all of Duran’s projects all together: the enduring influence of The Cramps, The Cure, and The Gories, each of which can be traced in the various bands he has fronted. Meeting Jorge and joining Los Mumblers, his first band, proved fateful, for Duran became a full-time musician and never looked back.
With Los Mumblers, a psychobilly/surf punk/tropical punk band also featuring Angel Cervantes on drums, Tony came into his own as a frontman, rallying the crowd and developing his from-beyond-the-grave persona, a torch that he still carries to this day. His tenure in Los Mumblers would give him his first taste of the stage, even though he wasn’t the band’s main songwriter. A “house-destruction show” in the La Quinta cove on June 15th, 2007, would be where he played his first show with other like-minded punk bands whose purpose was to “help tear apart a house set for demolition,” a unique situation that might only have been possible in that year in that scene. From there, Los Mumblers would play shows across the Coachella Valley, including shows with indie bands Courtesy Knave, The UN, The Feedbacks, Baby New Year, and more. His later projects would play shows with other local favorites, The Kathy’s and Las Feas. A history of Tony Duran tells the history of the Coachella Valley underground music scene, since, for 18 years, there has never been a period of inactivity for him that lasted longer than a few months.
Soon, Tony would leave Mumblers to join Big Lizard (with James Gastelum of Ocho Ojos and Calmala and Yesenia of Las Feas), before diving into songwriting with his solo project, A Real Good Tombstone, through which he covered Black Flag’s “Fix Me” and “Frustration” by Soft Cell, two songs that outlined the dual path of punk and new wave that today coalesce in his darkwave band, Nervous Grave. From there, he joined an early supergroup called Batskinners (featuring James Montenegro of Dead Talk Back and Ian Townley of GreasexTrap). Though he focused on only singing live, Batskinners was Duran’s first foray into songwriting, an obstacle since, he says, “I don’t know how to play instruments, but I learned from The Gun Club’s Jeffrey Lee Pierce about open E tuning.” Despite not being able to form guitar chords, the open E tuning enabled Duran to write and easily compose songs by using a one finger power chord. In Batskinners (2013-2015), Tony wrote songs for the entire band to learn and build on, a method he would continue with his next solo project Ritual Rastrero, though in this band he would play guitar on stage for the first time. Before RR, however, he served a stint as singer in rock n’roll band The Basaracts (members of Gisele Woo and the Night Owls–in fact, the entire Night Owls).
Getting started playing shows in high school has resulted in Tony having considerable experience in hosting shows and sharing punk news through word-of-mouth, which assisted the development of the DIY backyard scene. He states, “there is much history and lore about the Kyuss generator parties, but we also had our own lore with our backyard and garage shows, like at Jorge’s house. The atmosphere and energy was unforgettable, and it was a community effort. Jorge had a huge part in that, too.” Duran also mentions shows in 2009 and 2010 that were unforgettable, including a show featuring an impressive hardcore band called Spiral (Ignacio Caniza) and ska/punk band Pulso Final, featuring future member of Ocho Ojos, Cesar Charro. Josh Garcia, who played with Duran in Batskinners, Ritual Rastrero, Bone Pillar, and Nervous Grave acknowledges his unacknowledged impact on the local scene. He states: “Tony’s contribution to the local scene is understated, by being supportive of local acts, and demanding such high standards from himself in his work, other artists seem to want to win his praise. Taste, style, and elusiveness have also garnered Tony a sort of mystique, but ultimately, he is like any of us, seeking the crossroad where good music is done well.”
After Ritual Rastrero came to its conclusion in 2017, Duran collaborated with James Montenegro, RIP, on Bone Pillar and Dead Talk Back. Collaboration with Montenegro initiated Duran into the world of proper synth-based music (though it does hearken to his early days covering Soft Cell). Although COVID-19 would force a two year hiatus that effectively halted both of those projects, the desire to continue creating synth music was a flame that could not be extinguished, and Duran debuted Nervous Grave when some global normalcy returned.
As Nervous Grave, Duran has released four EPs: Cosmic Death Match (May 2022), Black Castle Fear (July 2022), Mirror of Death (June 2023), and most-recently Buried in Black (February 2024). The tracks are dark and mood, matching the dark lyrical topics such as obsession, blood, graveyard romance, dreams, decaying castles, and life and death and in between, the typical lamentations of a lonely (and horny) vampire in a decaying gothic chateau.
In “Magyc Beings” from Buried in Black and “Crystal Power Castle” from Black Castle Fear, Duran uses technology to camouflage his voice as a female voice, adding an alternate perspective to his darkness-obsessed world. The entity known as “Jett” creates a discourse within the Nervous Grave universe, much like Prince did in the 1980s. Duran’s own singing style is reminiscent of the stylings and flourishes of Rozz Williams or Billy Corgan, strong and controlled, visceral when appropriate, and seductive as needed.
What’s most exciting about Nervous Grave, Duran’s first proper dark wave band, is that rather than wallow (like Joy Division), or present an aggressive front (like Bauhaus), his songs are fun, allowing thumping synths to match the tone of the lyrics, a world where the dance floor is the only refuge for a freaky misfit. On “Paradise Garage 1999,” Duran sings: “Why waste my time with tears in my room / I need a taste of that midnight groove lived on the dancefloor, / my heaven give me the beat, / my possession glitter kiss dreams on a disco floor.” A similar ethos of dancing as a solution to isolation and estrangement links all of the Nervous Grave releases. These first releases feature ominous synth-pop with lyrics about graveyards, tolling bells, decay, and nightmares. It’s an interesting juxtaposition, one that works extremely well. What adds idiosyncrasy is the influence of wrestling on Nervous Grave. Snippets/samples of wrestler speeches or taunts are featured on tracks on “Hostile City 3a.m” and “Violent Beauty.” This attribute makes the songs unique and recalls what early like-minded post-punk artists Skinny Puppy and Cabaret Voltaire have previously done with war speeches and propaganda.
Recently, Duran has announced the release of Strychnine Tonic, a 5 song EP featuring 3 new songs and 2 live tracks, so we’re hoping Nervous Grave will return to the stage soon, either solo or with Josh Garcia, his live backup, or with a full band. Either way, we are eagerly anticipating his return, like a revenant, for surely he will. You can’t keep a good ghoul down.
titsay
andulkaphoto
ellievsbear
baratheonpilled
