Tex Miles History
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1997:
Steve Boras, UB Cheung and Art Vanterpool
found themselves working in the same
department of a global financial institution in the
middle of 1997. UB prodded the others to jam a
| few times after work in September 1997, with Art
and UB switching off on guitar and bass.
1998:
In April, James Miles, who Art met when he was 10, was
asked to audition as full time bass player. This
enabled both UB and Art to concentrate on
playing guitar. James then recommended Matt
Beisner to audition as lead vocalist a month later,
and was "hired" on the spot. Female vocalist
Katie Alden was then added to the lineup
rounding out what came to be known as
Looking For Art. The band debuted live on
12/30/98
at Great Lakes, Brooklyn
to an enthusiastic audience.
1999:
The band worked on covers with a smattering of
originals from Art, gigging in February at St. Barts,
New York at a benefit for Muse of Fire
Productions. In March, Looking For Art had its
first of many gigs at The Elbow Room, New York.
Looking for Art played a book signing party
at the now-defunct POV Magazine, our first show without Katie
(complete with guest vocals provided by Captain
Lou Albano), but the gig turned out to be one of
the best to date as the guys discovered the
freedom to rock out without fear of drowning out
poor Katie.
2000:
The band honed its live show with three Elbow
Room gigs by April but it all came to a grinding
halt as Matt left the band in May 2000 to pursue
other horizons and endeavors.
The remaining four band mates carried on and
focused on originals during the summer. Many of
Tex Miles' originals were developed and
rehearsed during this summer but were, oddly
enough, never played live by Looking For Art. The
year ended with Looking For Art hiring Ross
Thomas to replace Matt.
2001:
The new formulation debuted in February at a
dive called Love Sexy in Hoboken. Around this
time, Matt emailed Art and Steve and asked if
they would play on a CD of his own material.
Although Steve and Art agreed to do this, they
had no idea this "studio musician" gig would turn
into a full-blown second band called Angel Party.
2002:
Steve had volunteered Looking For Art to play his
department's Holiday Party back when Matt was
the singer, and the department called in his
services in January.
A new bassist was hired, Ken Hollar, who
also worked in Steve's department. This fourth
formulation of Looking For Art played the party
but the set list looked more like that of a cover
band than an originals band. It was a great show,
and many people begged that Steve bring back
the band for next year's department's Holiday
Party. It was, however, the last show ever for
Looking For Art.
February 2003: The Start of Tex Miles
Steve and Art decided not to throw in the towel.
Instead, they chose to pursue working on
originals that had been shelved over the past two
years.
2003:
Steve and Art would have probably stayed rehearsing at
2004-2005:
James commences rehearsing with the band in February, but he can't get to work at 6:30am and
rehearse as well. Art and Steve rehearse and work on material through mid-2005, at which time
James and Matt are contacted to play bass and sing, respectively, on their debut CD. Both former bandmates
agree, and Matt recommends they record at Beautyrock Studio
where Matt has been recording for some time. A series of business trips, and James moving back to Texas resulted in
the bulk of the tracks being recorded on October 15, 2005. The day was memorable not just because James flew in
to record, nor because it was the first sunny day in about a week (the NY region has downpours and flooding for the past
7 days), but because "the band" watched Penn State lose a heartbreaker to Michigan AND USC beat Notre Dame in a
similar last-minute ending while they waited A LONG TIME for dinner to arrive. The finishing touches and final mix
was completed in time for Christmas 2005.
2006:
With the CD completed, Art and Steve wanted to bring in a bassist and, if possible, a singer, as the fleshed out
sounds on the CD would be hard to replicate live. Ads were placed, people were contacted, ads were answered, and
nothing came of all this effort. Finally, Steve asked Matt if his bassist,
Eric Mauriello, might be available for a live gig. Not only did Matt respond that he may be available, but
that Matt was also available for playing out live. Due to vacations and conflicts, only 3 rehearsals
with all 4 musicians were conducted. Nonetheless, the show at
Desmond's Tavern for the "debut" gig of this band of
musicians billed as "Tex Miles" on July 27, 2006 went off without a hitch for a capacity crowd, despite
the show starting at 10:15pm on a school night. All of the
tunes from the debut CD as well as some old songs from the Looking for Art and Angel Party days were played, and
the crowd was so jazzed an unrehearsed version of Roadhouse Blues was played as an encore without a trainwreck.
2007:
A show was scheduled for early 2007 but Steve found himself in the hospital and out of commission for
some time. Matt continued working on his solo material and Art sat in at a Desmond's show while Steve recovered. The band then secured a slot on April 26, 2007 at Desmond's once again. However, roadblocks were thrown up: Art had to cancel one rehearsal, Steve had to cancel one rehearsal, then an early Spring snowstorm threatened to keep Eric from rehearsal and work and traffic made Art and Eric frighteningly late for separate rehearsals. Nonetheless, the band kicked into high gear for the April show, which saw Matt's Desmond's set that night close with Tex Miles backing him on two songs, including Backdoor Man.
Tex Miles History
After four other gigs, the guys parted ways with
Katie and started laying down tracks for their only
CD. In October, the band returned to The Elbow
Room for one of their best shows ever. In
December, the buzz was rising and the band held
their final Looking For Art show of the century,
culminating in the release of their only CD.
Looking For Art played two shows, in March and
May, and took the summer off, in part, as Steve and UB's wives were due
with children (the babies were born 6 hours
apart from each other).
Angel Party
played their first gig in May (a few weeks after the
last Looking For Art show), then were scheduled
to play a "Pink Slip" party (a networking party for
unemployed people started by the irrepressible Allison Hemming).
However, Steve's wife gave
birth the morning of the Pink Slip gig, and in one
of the greatest display's of "the show must go
on," he played the whole show and drove back to
Pennsylvania to be with his wife and premature
son. (Note to people: Steve was told by his wife
to play the gig.) Matt managed to get
Steve to agree to play one final Angel Party gig in
June, which turned out to fall on the day Steve's
baby came home from the hospital. Steve
managed to sit-in for the hip-hop band Mental Notes that
opened for Angel Party that night as their drummer was late.
Over the summer, Steve rested and did not gig.
Art, however, found himself gigging for Angel
Party who hired a substitute drummer, and a wonderful
female vocalist named Samara Dunn. Art lost count of
how many gigs he played that summer.
James Miles decided he did not want to be a
professional caterer and applied to and was
accepted by the University of Texas for the MBA
program, which he started in the fall of 2001.
Having already dealt with tryouts, Art volunteered
to switch to bass. This third version of Looking
For Art played live only once, at a private September 11
benefit in December.
Angel Party, meanwhile, played a very tough gig
out on Long Island just a few weeks after
September 11. Since James played bass in both
bands, a new bassist had to be found for Angel
Party as Art didn't volunteer to switch in this band.
The gig was hampered by logistical problems
and the general negative
vibe the permeated the Metro area that fall. Steve
realized he needed to stay close to home and
gracefully left Angel Party shortly after the gig.
Angel Party eventually disbanded in December.
Ken left the band to pursue his CFA designation,
and core members decided to go back to the roots,
which sadly meant that Ross was asked to leave.
UB left soon thereafter, expressing a desire to
get back in touch with his hard rock roots. UB still plays live with his band, Limelight, which
does a knockout job with 80s covers.
The duo tried out a few other people but nothing
worked. As they worked on these originals, they
found their singing improved, their capacity to
sing and play also grew, and - surprise - their
desire to bring in added personnel diminished.
As one of Art's former band mates said, "I
supposed it is pretty efficient with just two guys."
Many different names were considered: Sunday
Blues, Jello Sliderule, Looking For Art,
Art, and Boraspool. Then, one day in
rehearsal, Art and Steve were talking about how
James "messed" things up by not coming back to
New York. Steve said they should name the band
after James, and suggested Tex(as) Miles. The
irony of the band being named after their missing
bassist sat very well with Art, who decided this
was the name for the band.
The band, billed for this show as "Art," was received by an enthusiastic crowd on May 7, 2003, including
UB and Jamie Balling, bassist for the Booda Velvets.
As can be seen at the SHOWS page, Tex Miles had a decent run
through September 2003 at the Acme Underground.
A combination of personal and business commitments precluded the band
from holding any more shows through the rest of the year. During the month of December, though,
word was received that James was moving back to NY as he had been made an offer he couldn't refuse.
After a minor break for vacations, Art and Steve worked with Eric through the end of the year. A show in October saw Eric playing both bass and keyboards, while Matt worked on a solo project. A final show
December 14, 2006 at Desmond's Tavern saw the return of Matt to partial singing duties.
Tex Miles History
