Search - Gear Daddies :: Billy's Live Bait

A Lifetime Ago.....

Jeffrey R. Logan | Ottumwa, IA | 04/14/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It seems like only yesterday I was trying to get into Kirby's in Moorhead, MN, to listen to the Gear Daddies. I was 19 years old, a college student who thought beer and girls were the end-all and be-all. Who knew there was a soundtrack to that life? The honest feeling that comes out of every track never fails to stir up a little something inside me from that time. If a song or songs can do that to me, it's a beautiful thing."

One of the best Minnesota bands

Erica Anderson | Minneapolis, MN | 01/24/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was listening to the radio the other day (on a rare occasion) and heard one of my personal favorite songs from my high school days, not to mention from one of the few local bands I was into..."Stupid Boy" by Gear Daddies. I am not really into the local music scene here in Minneapolis but the few I did like (The Replacements, Husker Du/Sugar, Babes in Toyland, Zu Zu's Petals) actually broke out into mainstream music with major record labels. One of them were Gear Daddies. So after hearing "Stupid Boy" on the radio, I busted out my copy of "Billy's Live Bait" (a collection of Gear Daddies' songs). I almost forgot how much I loved this band. I guess if you were to label the Gear Daddies' music, they would be right up there on the alt-country scene with Wilco and Lucinda Williams. The music is ridiculously catchy and so bloody hummable. Martin Zellar is one of the best songwriters to come out of the frozen tundra I call Minnesota. A lot of the songs on the cd is filled with lament and regret. Martin's raw vocals also lends to each song a wave of emotion that the listener can hear. Why the Gear Daddies didn't achieve the same notoriety as Wilco is beyond me. Their music was very radio-friendly and hook-driven. How can you not love songs like "Stupid Boy" and "Color of Her Eyes" (my two personal favorite Gear Daddies songs)? "Billy's Live Bait" is a testament to Gear Daddies' legacy. Martin Zellar still performs around the Twin Cities on the weekends despite having moved to Texas a few years ago and releasing the same infectious music with his band The Hardways."

Boys

Teri Dunn | gloucester, ma United States | 02/09/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Oh, my, I'm scooting down the highway today blasting this CD, and I know it's not recent, and the band has broken up long ago, and these boys are all men by now. I'm not a kid anymore either. But I tell ya, ladies out there, this is genuine Boy Rock, all the raunchy, intense passion you only get from guys that age. Makes me want to be 20 years younger and jumping up on that stage (or into their torn jeans). Oh, they indulged in "the beat and evil things days that come to young guys in their middle twenties" (Kerouac), so we get a little self-pity, a little self-destructiveness. But I miss the rawness of those days. Martin Zeller sang like he meant it, and the rest of the band plays their guts out. Which is more than I can say for the boys that make music today. Sigh. Moan. -- from a 40-year-old wife and mother"