John Michael Dexter "Dex" Romweber (born June 18, 1966) is an American
rockabilly
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western music ...
/
roots rock
Roots rock is a genre of rock music that looks back to rock's origins in folk, blues and country music. It is particularly associated with the creation of hybrid subgenres from the later 1960s, including blues rock, country rock, Southern rock, ...
musician (primarily playing electric guitar) from
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill is a town in Orange, Durham and Chatham counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Its population was 61,960 in the 2020 census, making Chapel Hill the 17th-largest municipality in the state. Chapel Hill, Durham, and the state ca ...
.
Dex is best known as one-half of the seminal two-piece
Flat Duo Jets
Flat Duo Jets was an American rock band from Carrboro, North Carolina, and Athens, Georgia. This rockabilly, punk blues, and psychobilly band was a major influence on several bands of the 1990s and 2000s, including The White Stripes. The band's ...
.
He fronted the
Dex Romweber Duo with his older sister
Sara Romweber.
Early life and education
Romweber was born in
Batesville, Indiana, the youngest of seven children. The family lived in Florida, moving to Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 1977.
He attended Culbreath Junior High School and
Chapel Hill High School, bringing a style different from the "preppy" campus.
He might have been "single-handedly responsible for the creation of a generation of punks that inhabit Franklin Street."
Romweber's mother was a pianist who encouraged her son's interest in music and purchased his equipment.
His first band, Gary and the Resistors, started in the family's cellar, with classmate Hunter Landon (The Bad Checks) on vocals.
When the duo decided they needed a drummer, they called his sister Sarah and pulled together some pots and pans from the kitchen.
At the time Romweber was ten-years-old and his sister was twelve.
When they recruited Chris "Crow" Smith on guitar, the band became The Remains.
[Ross, Kirk (April 11, 1986).]
Flat Duo Jets, Combine Familiar, Obscure Music
. ''The News and Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina)''. p. 64. Retrieved June 20, 2022 – via Newspapers.com
Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites.
In November 2018, ...
.
Romweber's next band, Crash Landon and The Kamikazes, was started while attending Culbreth Junior High, with stand-up bassist Tony Mayer (Good Old Chicken Wire Gang Boys Band) and Hunter Landon on drums. Later, Romweber's sister Sarah Romweber.played drums with the Kamakazes.
Career
The Flat Duo Jets
Dexter began playing with Chris "Crow" Smith, with material culled mainly from his family's record collection. They called themselves The Flat Duo Jets, after hearing
Gene Vincent
Vincent Eugene Craddock (February 11, 1935 – October 12, 1971), known as Gene Vincent, was an American musician who pioneered the styles of rockabilly and rock and roll. His 1956 top ten hit with his backing band the Blue Caps, " Be-Bop-a-Lula ...
refer to his
Gretsch
Gretsch is an American company that manufactures musical instruments. The company was founded in 1883 in Brooklyn, New York by Friedrich Gretsch, a 27-year-old German immigrant, shortly after his arrival to the United States. Friedrich Gretsc ...
Duo Jet guitar.
The Flat Duo Jets' first release, ''In Stereo'', was recorded live in the studio in 1985 and originally released on cassette by Dolphin Records. The band was also featured around this time on MTV's ''The Cutting Edge'', in a segment directed by
Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris
Jonathan Dayton (born July 7, 1957) and Valerie Faris (born October 20, 1958) are a team of American film and music video directors who received critical acclaim for their feature film directorial debut, ''Little Miss Sunshine'' (2006). Later the ...
(who later went on to direct ''
Little Miss Sunshine
''Little Miss Sunshine'' is a 2006 American tragicomedy road film and the feature film directorial debut of the husband–wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. The screenplay was written by first-time writer Michael Arndt. The film sta ...
''). Relocating shortly to
Athens, Georgia
Athens, officially Athens–Clarke County, is a consolidated city-county and college town in the U.S. state of Georgia. Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta, and is a satellite city of the capital. The University of Georgia, the sta ...
, the band made an appearance in the film ''
Athens, GA: Inside Out'', alongside other well-known Athens bands such as
R.E.M.
R.E.M. was an American rock band from Athens, Georgia, formed in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the first alternati ...
and
The B-52's
The B-52's, also styled as The B-52s, are an American new wave band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1976. The original lineup consisted of Fred Schneider (vocals, percussion), Kate Pierson (vocals, keyboards, synth bass), Cindy Wilson (vocals, p ...
. Though recorded live to two tracks in a garage in the late 80s, the band's full-length debut LP, the self-titled ''Flat Duo Jets'', was not released until 1990. In support of the album, the Flat Duo Jets went on a national tour opening for
The Cramps
The Cramps were an American rock band formed in 1976 and active until 2006. Their lineup rotated frequently during their existence, with the husband-and-wife duo of singer Lux Interior and guitarist Poison Ivy the only ever-present members. T ...
, whom Dexter has cited as an early influence. 1990 also saw the band make an appearance on ''
Late Night with David Letterman
''Late Night with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on NBC, the first iteration of the ''Late Night'' franchise. It premiered on February 1, 1982, and was produced by Letterman's production company ...
'', where they performed a high-energy cover of
Benny Joy's "Wild Wild Lover". Their second LP, ''Go Go Harlem Baby'', was produced by
Jim Dickinson
James Luther Dickinson (November 15, 1941 – August 15, 2009) was an American record producer, pianist, and singer who fronted, among others, the band Mud Boy and the Neutrons, based in Memphis, Tennessee.
Biography
Dickinson was born in Li ...
in 1992, and has been acknowledged as a huge influence on
Jack White
John Anthony White (; born July 9, 1975), commonly known as Jack White, is an American musician, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the duo the White Stripes. White has enjoyed consistent critical and popular success and is widely c ...
of
The White Stripes
The White Stripes were an American rock duo from Detroit formed in 1997. The group consisted of Jack White (songwriter, vocals, guitar, piano, and mandolin) and Meg White (drums and vocals). After releasing several singles and three albums with ...
, not least in the documentary ''
It Might Get Loud
''It Might Get Loud'' is a 2008 American documentary film by filmmaker Davis Guggenheim. It explores the careers and musical styles of prominent rock guitarists Jimmy Page, the Edge, and Jack White. The film premiered at the 2008 Toronto Internatio ...
''. In the film, Jack White plays the record for
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...
's
Jimmy Page
James Patrick Page (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the rock band Led Zeppelin. Page is prolific in creating guitar riffs. His style involves various alternative ...
and
U2's
The Edge
David Howell Evans (born 8 August 1961), better known as the Edge or simply Edge,McCormick (2006), pp. 21, 23–24 is an English-born Irish musician, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as the lead guitarist, keyboardist, and backing voca ...
, playing the Flat Duo Jets' version of the traditional "
Froggie Went A-Courtin'" and discussing the impact that the band had on him. The film also features footage from their appearance in ''Athens, GA: Inside/Out''.
In the late 1990s, The Flat Duo Jets signed a major label contract with Outpost Records, a now defunct imprint of Geffen Records. The result was 1998's ''Lucky Eye'', produced by
Scott Litt
Scott Warren Litt (born March 10, 1954) is an American record producer who mostly works with artists in the alternative rock genre and is best known for producing six R.E.M. albums in the late 1980s and early to mid-1990s during the band's most su ...
and
Chris Stamey
Christopher Charles Stamey (born December 6, 1954) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. After a brief time playing with Alex Chilton, as well as Mitch Easter under the name Sneakers, Stamey formed The dB's with Peter ...
, which demonstrated a markedly different approach from their previous
lo-fi
Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate choice. The ...
efforts. The album featured a more polished sound for the band, accompanied by horn and string arrangements. Poor album sales were met with disappointment by the band, and it was shortly after the release that, after nearly 15 years as a band, Dexter and Crow went separate ways. Dexter maintains that the primary reason for the split was embezzlement of the band's proceeds on the part of Crow, though Crow disputes this.
Solo projects
In 2001, Dexter finally resurfaced with a new solo album, ''Chased By Martians'', followed by ''Blues That Defy My Soul'' in 2004. Around this time, Dexter's influence was beginning to surface in interviews with artists like
Neko Case
Neko Richelle Case (; born September 8, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter and member of the Canadian indie rock group the New Pornographers. Case has a powerful, untrained contralto voice, which has been described by contemporaries and cri ...
,
Cat Power
Charlyn Marie "Chan" Marshall ( ; born January 21, 1972), better known by her stage name Cat Power, is an American singer-songwriter, musician and model. Cat Power was originally the name of her first band, but has become her stage name as a ...
and
Jack White
John Anthony White (; born July 9, 1975), commonly known as Jack White, is an American musician, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the duo the White Stripes. White has enjoyed consistent critical and popular success and is widely c ...
. Dexter has described his reaction to this influence as like being "locked away in a Gothic castle for many years" and "living in such isolation that I haven't even noticed." In 2006, Dexter released the album ''Piano'', which consisted of 13 original classical piano compositions in the style of Chopin.
Also in 2006, a documentary about Dex and The Flat Duo Jets began playing at film festivals. Upon completion of ''
Athens, GA: Inside/Out'' in 1987, director Tony Gayton began filming an untitled documentary of the Flat Duo Jets' national tour. After funding for the film fell through, production ceased and the film was forgotten. Funding the rest of the film himself, Gayton met up with Dexter in Los Angeles sixteen years later, and filmed new interviews with the intention of completing the film. The film, entitled ''Two Headed Cow'', was eventually completed using a recovered VHS version of the original 16mm black-and-white footage, edited together with new interviews with Dexter, detailing his life and career, as well as performances in and around Los Angeles and interviews with Jack White,
Exene Cervenka
Exene Cervenka (born Christene Lee Cervenka; February 1, 1956) is an American singer, artist, and poet. She is best known for her work as a singer in the California punk rock band X.
Music career
The 21-year-old Cervenka met 23-year-old ...
of
X, Cat Power and Neko Case.
As of 2009, the film has yet to be picked up for distribution, though it had a brief run on
DOC: The Documentary Channel.
Dexter's current band, The Dex Romweber Duo, began as Dexter and drummer Crash LaResh, who performed with Dexter from 1995 to 2007. The original Duo toured extensively and recorded several 7 inch releases and recorded two full-length albums (''Chased By Martians'' and ''Blues That Defy My Soul''), but these were credited as solo Dex Romweber releases. Crash LaResh left the band in 2007 and was replaced by Dexter's sister, Sara Romweber. In 2009, the pair released their debut album, ''Ruins of Berlin'', on Bloodshot Records.
The album featured guest appearances from Exene Cervenka, Cat Power, Neko Case, and longtime friend Rick Miller of
Southern Culture on the Skids
Southern Culture on the Skids, also sometimes known as SCOTS, is an American rock band from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Originally a straightforward roots rock band, they became known as a tongue-in-cheek "party band" with an exaggerated "white ...
. The band toured the U.S. twice in support of the record, playing support for
The Detroit Cobras
The Detroit Cobras were an American garage rock band from Detroit, Michigan, which was formed around 1994 by vocalist Rachel Nagy and guitarist Mary Ramirez, with a constantly changing assortment of (mostly male) sidemen. Nagy died on January 14 ...
on the second tour.
On the April 29 and 30, 2009, Dex and Sara were invited to record at Jack White's
Third Man Records
Third Man Records is an eclectic, vinyl-focused independent record label founded and owned by Jack White, Ben Blackwell and Ben Swank. The company operates out of three locations—Nashville, Tennessee, Detroit, Michigan, and Soho, London—with ...
in Nashville, Tennessee, and they put out a 7-inch vinyl as part of Third Man Records' new "Blue Series". The sessions resulted in the Romweber original "The Wind Did Move", featuring Jack White on bass, background vocals and the saw, while the record's b-side was a cover of 1930s blues woman Geeshie Wiley's "Last Kind Word Blues", on which Dex and Jack share guitar and vocal duties. It was released on vinyl on June 9, 2009, and on iTunes shortly after. Dexter and Sara also returned to Nashville in 2010 to play a show at Jack White's live venue. The show was recorded onto 8-track reel-to-reel analog tape and is available on vinyl from Third Man Records.
In 2011 the Dex Romweber Duo released their second album on Bloodshot Records, titled ''Is That You in the Blue?''.
Romweber also fronts Dexter Romweber and The New Romans, an ensemble of 7 musicians and 3 female backing vocalists that began in 2006. They have released one limited CD called "Night Tide" and mainly play shows in their home state of North Carolina, more specifically in
The Research Triangle
The Research Triangle, or simply The Triangle, are both common nicknames for a metropolitan area in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region of North Carolina in the United States, anchored by the cities of Raleigh, North Carolina, Raleigh ...
area of Chapel Hill, Raleigh, and Durham. The music is diverse, drawing influences from jazz, surf, early instrumentals,
Bill Haley
William John Clifton Haley (; July 6, 1925 – February 9, 1981) was an American rock and roll musician. He is credited by many with first popularizing this form of music in the early 1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets and million-sel ...
,
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...
, and even
Chopin. The band continues to rehearse and experiment every Thursday night in Romweber's garage.
In 2016, Romweber released the record ''Carrboro'' on
Bloodshot Records
Bloodshot Records is an independent record label based in Chicago, Illinois, which specializes in alternative country.
History
Bloodshot Records was founded in 1994 by Nan Warshaw, Rob Miller, and Eric Babcock, who knew each other from jobs ...
.
Personal life
His older brother, Joe Romweber, was the lead singer for UV Prom, while his sister Sarah Romweber was a member of
Let's Active
Let's Active is an American rock group formed in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in 1981, and often identified with the jangle pop guitar work of the group's frontman and songwriter Mitch Easter. After disbanding in 1990, the group reformed in Augu ...
and
Snatches of Pink
Snatches of Pink was a rock band based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. They also recorded under the name Clarissa. MTV called them "a raunchy rock 'n' roll band and the real thing. Cool as hell. Loud as hell," as well as "the most exciting unknow ...
.
Equipment
Romweber plays the
Silvertone 1448.
Discography
With the Flat Duo Jets:
* ''In Stereo'' (1985)
* ''Flat Duo Jets'' (1990)
* ''Go Go Harlem Baby'' (1992)
* ''Safari'' (1993)
* ''White Trees'' (1993)
* ''Introducing the Flat Duo Jets'' (1995)
* ''Red Tango'' (1996)
* ''Wild Blue Yonder'' (1998)
* ''Lucky Eye'' (1998)
* ''Two Headed Cow'' (2008)
* Wild Wild Love (2017, Daniel 13)
Dex Romweber Duo:
* "Empty Heart"/"Heart Of Stone" (split 7-inch with
? and the Mysterians; part of Norton's "Rolling Stones Cover" series) (2003)
* ''Dexter Romweber Duo and Throw Rag – Twelve Bad Studs'' (a 12-inch split release) with Crash LaResh on Drums (Demonbeach, released c. 2004)
* ''Ruins of Berlin'' (2009)
* ''Live at Third Man'' (2010)
* ''Is That You in the Blue?'' (2011)
* ''Images 13'' (2014)
Solo discography:
* ''Folk Songs: Solo Collection'' (1996)
* ''Chased by Martians'' (2001) with Crash LaResh on drums
* ''Blues That Defy My Soul'' (2004) with Crash LaResh on drums
* ''Piano'' (2006)
* ''Carrboro'' (2016)
References
External links
*
Dex Romweberat
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
Dex Romweberon Facebook
{{DEFAULTSORT:Romweber, Dexter
Living people
Musicians from North Carolina
People from Chapel Hill, North Carolina
1966 births
People from Batesville, Indiana
Bloodshot Records artists
Third Man Records artists