It's kind of weird to think of the Ramblin' Ambassadors as Brent Cooper's new band, over 20 years after their debut CD dropped. But a legacy like Huevos Rancheros could be hard to shake - unless you're Brent Cooper and can pull great instrumentals out of every orifice. The Bastards immediately set themselves apart from the eggs with the first track on Avanti, the delicious spaghetti western theme "Sixty Seconds to What?" Oh, and Dave Alcock and Russ Broom helped put this together, so you know it's a quality product. It's different, but just as great - and seeing the band live still makes us grin from ear to ear. [img width=662.5px]//7ca49eb9f67ba1319ef136f9d52cd8b8.cdn.bubble.io/f1779765229174x624986393290654300/richtext_content.jpeg[/img] [h2]Ramblin' down that musical road[/h2] [h3]Brent Cooper's new band revisits 50 bucks and a case of beer[/h3] MARY-LYNN MCEWEN It's bold to disagree with a Canadian rock legend, but Calgary songwriter-guitarist Brent J. Cooper doesn't think that it's better to burn out than to fade away. If he had it his way, he'd do neither and would be perpetually setting up for the next gig even before the notes of the previous one had finished ringing in his ears. That's why Cooper has a shiny new group, The Ramblin' Ambassadors, even though his 13- year-old band Huevos Rancheros never actually broke up. "Huevos was still around-we just didn't play very much. We'd go for months without talking even though we were an active band. I just said, 'Look, I've got another band, I'm gonna have some fun, play some music,"" Cooper says over beer on a stopover on his way to band practice. "You may get a different story depending on which of us you talk to, but on a musical and personal level, we needed a break. It had been 13 years. Tom (Kennedy, the replacement on bass for Graham Evans) was still being called the new guy after seven or eight years. I was kind of frustrated that Huevos wasn't progressing. It was nobody's fault." During their time together, Huevos put out four albums, a stack of singles, appeared on various compilations, toured Europe, became the only Calgary band to tape for the infamous John Peel Sessions, and appeared in a beer commercial with Don Ho. Last year, one of their songs even ended up on an episode of The Sopranos. But somewhere along the way, the band got stuck in greatest hits mode. "Well, (in terms of the) of 50 bucks and a case of beer gigs, we'd gone beyond that point and we were unable to take a step backwards and be creative. But I think we would all argue that point. It just wasn't as much fun as it used to be. "We just petered out. We've never officially called it quits, although I see in the literature that we've called it quits, but we've never said it." So in answer to the question "Have you quit?" Cooper says, "Well, for now, yeah, because the new band is what interests me -playing with these guys." "These guys" are upright bassist Scott Nickless, late of The Agriculture Club and The Rhythmmaires, and drummer Tyler Pickering, who plays guitar and sings in The Failure. The band began the way the best rock and roll bands do- by accident - when former Night Gallery promoter Craig Evans responded to Cooper's repeated threats of a new band by saying the next week was open at the club. Cooper had already been talking to Nickless and a friend suggested Pickering. He revisited a cassette with a half-dozen song ideas on it and a week later, they were at the Gallery. The Ramblin' Ambassadors became the latest in a string of Cooper's bands that started in the early '80s with The Will and progressed through The Cryin' Helicopters, Gravity Thugs, Ted Clarke Five and a brief stint with Joe 90. "It was nice, it was real exciting again, it was fun. Our new band is neat, it's like (in a breathless deep voice), 'You know, we're in a gang.' It's not like, 'Oh, yeah, were going to play the same 20 songs again for the 500th time."" Cooper loaned some equipment to Dave Alcock, producer extraordinaire, in exchange for sporadic studio time, and over a period of months the band recorded the Alcock-produced Avanti, their nine-track debut. They used two-inch tape and the rule was they weren't allowed to record on more than 12 tracks at once. "That ruled out putting on stereo maracas. Keep it simple." The idea to record Avanti came when Jann Arden's guitarist Russ Broom called Brent and urged him to bring over a bottle of wine and record a few songs. Cooper had been talking about doing a solo album for a long time, but when he heard Calexico's The Black Light he figured they'd made his record already. The man who still routinely pulls out his Ventures, Stones and Ramones albums says that while Huevos could have played AC/DC all night, he wanted to expand his sonic powers. "What keeps it fresh with the Ambassadors is the other guys are still in other bands... I'll call 'em up and ask, 'can we get together?' It's not like, 'We gotta practice five times a week, we gotta play now now now now!"" The album features the same hit- me-again riffs that Cooper lives and breathes, but there is also space to move between notes. "The Ambassadors aren't so frantic and it's not as heavy," says Cooper, "but there's a couple of total Brent rock songs on there." The album's simplicity has paid off and it has already turned up in the Top 10 college charts in the Eastern U.S. So is it back to the 50 bucks and a case of beer thing? "No, it's not quite like that again," Cooper answers. Then he ponders it for a few seconds before amending his answer. "I'd do it. It's fun to play, I love to play! Why would I stop?"
