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I saw The Reivers (then Zeitgeist) for the first and only time in October 1984 at an amazing Halloween bash at the Theatre Gallery in Dallas. We were totally enthralled, what a great band! I will never forget that magical night--it was an ultra cool scene. Unfortunately I was a broke art school drop out and didn't get a chance to go down to Austin or catch up with them again, but sure wanted to.
- Tammy Guidry (July 28, 2008)

I was just browsing YouTube and found out the Reivers had had a reunion show, so I come late to all this. I saw them about 7 times over the years starting (1985?) with while they were still "Zeitgiest" at a little pub in San Antonio called "Tacoland". I was still in college and I and my friends would drive down from San Marcos to eat Chinese food at "Hung Fong". We were about the only ones at the bar, and were able to sit arounds and get to know the band for a while. They were fixing to start thier 1st tour. The band was very sharp and everyone (including us heheh) was dressed in black. Fast forward several years and I'm in Grad School at UTSA, as a sideline I did roadie and Lighting tech work for a band named "Innocent Bystander" in San Antonio. Often we would also do the lights and sound for other bands we were friends with like the "Bleeding Mummies" from Austin. The Reivers played on St. Mary's strip at a club called "Wacky's" several times and I always tried to be there. The club was usually packed wall to wall. On one occasion we were covering them on lights and sound. There was this drunk guy standing on top of a little round table next to the stage blocking the view from behind on the right side. He was totally oblivious to the people yelling at him from behind. He was yelling "Reev-ers Ree- vers" over and over. I was trying to watch Cindy on Bass who this guy was mostly blocking, and I noticed she was kind of "signaling" with the neck of her Bass towards this guy, and then pointing the neck towards the large "Mosh pit" in the center. I swear that she then mouthed the words "Get rid of him". Being the obiediant soul that I was I observed that the table the guy was standing on was pretty unstable as it was and it was remarkable that he was able to stand on it at all as drunk as he was. I moved from the lights to the right of the little table and with a very little pressure was able to send "Ree-vers Ree-vers.... TIMBERRR. ..he fell smooth in the middle of the "Mosh pit" which instantly swallowed him up whole and I never saw him again. I turned and saw Cindy with the most evil laugh I ever saw her do. I didnt have a chance to ask her about that and didnt see her again for over a year. When I finally did have a chance to ask her about the event she reflected quietly and then told me she felt empowered by it, but that it was a perfect case of "absolute power
corrupting absolutly". In any case I hope the guy survived and it was a very comic moment for all involved! :)
-shadow1773 (July 7, 2008)

my first zeitgeist song was "blue eyes", on a db records compilation called "jericho go". i think! that was in '86. then i found the 7" single "electra",and realised that this band were real good!

i used to travel down to london to buy records, from my hometown of ipswich, in the county of suffolk, and in '87 i managed to pick up a copy of "translate slowly". i wasnt disappointed. i didnt expect to find anything else, so i was elated when, in the virgin megastore in londons oxford street, i picked up a copy of "saturday" by the reivers. i was looking for lps by rem at the time! i loved this lp, and hoped that the band would play some gigs in england. but alas,they never did. to my knowledge.

eventually i got the 3rd lp, which i thougt was better than the last one, and it wasnt until '92, whilst visiting friends in brisbane, australia, that i heard the last album. they copied it onto a cassette! my mission, when i returned home, was to find "pop
beloved" on cd. but i never did.

the story ends, now in '08, with me transferring all my vinyl onto cd/mp3, so i can now play these fine tunes all over the place! including our radio/internet show, every thursday 11.30 till 1pm on www.icrfm.co.uk.
-Mark Scott (May 27, 2008)

In 1986 I was living in Kansas City but anxious to make a move to another, more interesting, place. My choice was constrained by the profession for which I was trained, Water Resources Engineering, so it was pure serendipity when I received a job offer in Austin... for I had just read an article in Rolling Stone Magazine singing the praises of a college rock outfit called Zeitgeist. My first priority on arrival was seeing the band live, and this happened at the Continental Club, the "old version" of the club where the monstrous pool table sat right in front of the stage. I remember maneuvering continuously about that pool table trying to find the best spot from which to absorb the spectacle I was seeing and hearing. It's an understatement to say I was blown away. The bold audacity... to play that loud yet remain that calm!

I saw Zeitgeist/The Reivers maybe a dozen times over their short career, never tiring of nasally John and angelic Kim's intriguing vocal
interplay, the jangly guitar lines, and the elliptical "why rhyme" songwriting. Shortly before "Saturday" was released, I was in a rental
car line at Mueller Airport and got to talking with a chap who had just flown in. It turned out he was a Capitol Records representative in town to deliver The Reivers first advance. He even opened the envelope and showed me the check!

A couple of years later, the record release for "End of the Day" was held in the parking lot of the old Waterloo Records on South Lamar. It was about 30 degrees that day, yet John sported nothing but his usual one-size too small short-sleeved shirt. The "single" off the record was "It's About Time" and begins with John uttering "Well I" a cappella before the guitars join in. From his perch high on that raised stage, into the cold clean air, I can still hear that two-word vocal to this day.

The last Reivers show I saw was at, of all places, Pearl's Oyster Bar on Research & Burnet shortly after "Pop Beloved" came out. I can't remember if they had announced it was their swan song or not. If they had, I must have thought "what a shame." If they hadn't, well, I thought they sounded as tight as ever and material this good was bound to really launch them.

It's my everlasting regret that we live in a society and under a system which exalts the latest nausea-inducing American Idol runner-up, but starves those like The Reivers. With nods to Willie and Stevie Ray, for my money the Reivers are Austin's best act ever, and I miss them.
-Stu Wilson (Jan. 10, 2008)

Wow, can't believe its been almost 23 years since I first heard the first notes of Zeitgeist. The first show I remember seeing them at wasn't really a show but a house party on Avenue G in Hyde Park off 45th st. It was a hot summer 1983or 84 night and the music filled the air as I rode my bike by looking for some fun. I can't remember if Kelly was playing bass or Cindy....I think it was like the first show with Cindy Toth...we had become friends earlier when she played violin with another more jazz funk quintet and they would walk across Airport to the convenience store I worked at to buy beer. I used to almost always have my camera with me and in 1984 I began working with John Croslin at the Half Price Books on Burnett Rd. He hooked me up with Michael Hall and together we got the first article published about Zeitgeist (he wrote the article and I provided the pix) in some short lived Dallas rag at the time I think named the Press, it was the first time I got published and PAID for my photos. The only other notariety I got for my photos was a few years later as I did the album cover photos for Randy "Biscuit" Turners then new band CARGO CULT. Anyway back on track....In 1985, I left UT and went to Minneapolis to go to school for a year. I remember Zeigeist was headlining at this little club in the basement of Prince's First Avenue. Its the same place that the Butthole Surfers had played about a month before. Opening for Zeitgeist that night was a guy named MOJO NIXON and Cindy and I thought he was the funniest drunkest fool we had seen in some time. They went on to be pretty good friends on that tour, any way that what I always figured as it wasn't long before Mojo moved to Austin. I also remember telling John the bad news that night in Mpls, that there was another band named Zeitgeist and they already had an album out. He frowned and said he had heard rumors. By time I got back home to Austin the first album was out and I remember going to Waterloo for the record release party, after I signed Cindy's cast (broken leg) she signed my album. (That album has since been stolen twice by bad roomates and recovered each time....I track this precioius thing down!) But alas 4 years ago I had to move back to Houston from Austin.....While packing the truck and making trips to storage room all of my CD's were stolen, more than 300, fifteen years of music, some irreplacable like my brother's Dead Horse albums, or some of Poi Dog's limited editions, or like 13 years of KLBJ LOCAL LICKS LIVE by LORIS LOWE. The Reivers were on more than one of those cd's if I'm not mistaken. I felt like I had been raped. I was such a part of the 80's and early 90's Austin music scene and after losing so much music, I felt like a part of me died. Now it's a perfect time for a Reivers Reunion! I'm so excited to find out before hand so that I can be there. I miss Austin very much......and I miss running into my old friends Cindy Toth and John Croslin. I can't wait to see you, hear you, and hug you.
-Lorrie Price (Jan. 10, 2008)

[The following is from Kelly Bell, original bassist for Zeitgeist, who later went on to form Go Dog Go and The Shivers] :

I was introduced to John by his then-girlfriend Lucinda Scott (herself a musician) in early June of 1983, backstage at a show at Club Foot. John was forming a band and needed a bassist. We had our first rehearsal in the lobby of the State Theater very shortly thereafter. John already had lined up Kim and Joey Shuffield (later of Big Car and Fastball, and who had previously played in another band with John called The Make, from Dallas), so we were ready to go. Joey quit while still in rehearsals and was replaced by Garrett. We played our first show with our rehearsal-space-mates The Dharma Bums within a few weeks thereafter at a club on S. Congress (I'm drawing a blank on the club name, but they used to host, and had started, the annual Spam-O-Rama event for which it was locally famous). The two bands were each other's enthusiastic audience, but it was a blast. I was 17 years old, having just graduated form high school, and was about to begin my first semester at UT, where all three other bandmates also attended. I played all the early shows with them at places like The Beach, The Continental Club, and various other bars around town, including an opening slot for Love Tractor, which garnered early industry interest in the form of Russell Carter Management (Atlanta, GA - the dBs, Indigo Girls, Love Tractor, etc.). We parted ways due to personal differences between John and myself in spring, 1984. We had, at that time, already gained a lot of local fans and interest from the local music press. The entire set were recorded during practice before we parted ways, (I assume with the intention of teaching my parts to Cindy, though whether that happened or not of course I can't be sure). I can attest to the fact that in their first show with Cindy (Continental Club, but I don't remember the date, sorry), the bass parts in all the songs were identical to mine, with one exception, the bass part of the verse sections of "Things Don't Change" was played by me on the D and G strings low down the neck (on the second and third frets), and Cindy played it on the E and A strings high up the neck (not a musical-note difference, but a tonal choice which had been suggested by John but which I had elected not to follow, opting for the better tone and attack afforded by using the placement closer to the nut. I also used a pick - on that song only - and Cindy used her fingers. Again, a difference in tonal choices).

After living in Mpls, Portland, San Fransisco and New York I moved back to Austin in 2002. Kim's eldest son, Max McDermott (with Joe McDermott, legendary children's songwriter and performer, producer and ex-leader of Grains of Faith, with whom we played many a show), and my eldest, Gryphon Graham, went to school together at McCallum for a year, and sort of run in adjacent circles, which is no end of amusing to Kim and myself. Gryphon is an excellent musician (multi-instrumentalist), songwriter and recording engineer and producer (Tran Tram, Hey La La!, Yatsuzaki, Golden Triangles, Kosovo, etc.) - I think he passed me up in most ways at about 16 - and has a remix recently featured in Pitchfork, as well as an article in The Chronicle written by Margaret Moser ("These Kids Have Come for Your Gigs"). Max is an artist and filmmaker. He's an awesome kid - really talented. Max is slightly older than Gryphon - Kim was the first of our circle to get knocked up <grin> and Gryphon just turned 20, so I bet Max is 20 or maybe just turned 21.

Since moving back to Austin I played briefly with Michael Dubose (with Gryphon on lead guitar) and recorded and performed with Spilltoy and with my son in his self-titled band, but have been mostly recording and writing new material for a project (I'm calling it Lotus Solus for now). Music is more than a vocation, hobby or pasttime. It is a way of living, one which never leaves us, as long as we don't leave it. My kids were raised for many years on the road touring with my band, and while it's not usual, they've always treasured that time (as have I), and it's influenced their lives and points-of-view tremendously, in really positive ways. If I had it to do over, I wouldn't change a thing.
-Kelly Bell (Jan. 5, 2008)

On their very last tour, I was fortunate enough to see them in Atlanta at a club for which I cannot remember the name. I had always thought that The Reivers were something special that I shared with a few friends. Well, that night, I realized just how much the Reivers meant to others.
I was up front with some pals and the band were playing "Cowboys" when I turned to my right and saw that everyone, and I mean everyone was singing along. I just remember the look of pure happiness on everone's face. I don't know why but that stuck with me. So everytime I hear that song, that's the picture I see in my head.
-Joe Graves (Dec. 15, 2007)

The long, cold winter of 1986-1987 was hard on me. I was crippled by raging, untreated depression (I'm OK now), alone in Denton, desperately poor, in deep trouble, and without prospects. But when I heard "Electra" from _Translate Slowly_, I felt like a human
being for three minutes and five seconds. "Blue Eyes" further cemented my love for Zeitgeist, and by the time Saturday came out (with that great Don Dixon sound!) the Reivers were my favorite band.

Today, I'm happy, healthy, and fine. That sad, frigid winter is only a bad memory now ¡½ but when I hear the Reivers on live365.com's 70's 80's Jangle Radio! channel, I suddenly remember how those great songs were among the best of the few happy things that happened to me back then.

And so, here's a heartfelt "thank you" to the guys and girls of Zeitgeist/The Reivers. Your music helped me, and I'll always be a fan.
-Bruce Lewis (Oct. 11, 2007)

I was at UT Austin from '89 to '93. The last few weeks of the summer of '89 were a blast - I was 17, just out of high school, finally out of the folks' house and far away from there, with free time before classes started. Hung out with other kids living on the same floor in Jester dorm. We explored Austin, spent late summer afternoons at Zilker park, weekends at Lake Travis, partied a lot, no money, no worries... We took in as much of the local music scene as we could, and it was amazing. One of the guys down the hall (Kyle) grew up in Austin, and he raved about this band called the Reivers. He raved about their music, and had quite an infatuation for Kim Longacre! I'm not sure if I'm remembering this right, but we went to see a 10000 Maniacs show at Liberty Lunch, and I believe the Reivers was the opening band. It was a great show, and I remember hitting it off with a friend of Kyle's who was a real cutie. Alas, summer came to an end, and that cute girl went off to college in another state. I never saw her again, but the Reivers' music is the soundtrack for some of my most fond memories...

Needless to say, I caught as many Reivers shows as I could during my first couple of years at UT. One of those shows was an informal gig at the UT student union, and for an encore they did a smokin' cover of Rolling Stones' "Shattered". Wish I had a recording of that one! And yeah, the Peanuts tune was always a crowd-pleaser...

I was extremely happy to read that Amazon carries the reissues of End of the Day and Saturday, since my old cassette tapes of those recordings have long since disappeared. I just ordered the End of the Day CD, and I'm listening to Translate Slowly as I write this. Thanks for facilitating my little trip down memory lane!
-Andrew Zenk (April 5, 2007)

Imagine my surprise to see a site dedicated to one of the best bands from the 1980s that's ever been shafted by their label (and that's a lot of bands).

I found Zeitgeist when I pickup up their cover of "Atlantic City" on the "Cover Me" Springsteen compilation album (sorry Bruce, their version kicked the crap out of yours)! I still have the LPs of "Translate Slowly" by Zeitgeist, and "Saturday," along with the 45 of "In Your Eyes." The literacy of the work, combined with the emotions and the harmonies in the performances on the albums was what stood out for me. And the live shows were a hoot (love the Peanuts theme).

I was lucky enough to see them three times, once in Pensacola at the September 1991 show at Sluggo's, and twice at Einstein A-Go-Go in Jacksonville Beach. I had play lists and tickets from the shows, which I kept with my CD collection; all stolen back in 1993. I remember a show in the spring (March or early April) 1990 at Einstein's, as part of their trip to spring training for the Texas Rangers in Port Charlotte. The other show was in the fall (?) of 1987 (?). What I remember from the show was a lot of songs off of "Saturday," and that Kim Longacre was pregnant. The friend that went to the show with me was an audiologist, and she kept whining about how the unborn child might be damaged from the music. Anyone that had been to Einstein's knows how crowded it would get, and how unpretentious the place was, so the hundred or so that were there could still get pretty close to the stage.

If the band members read this: America wasn't ready for your music, and that's their loss. Thanks for helping keep me sane.
-Robert Mathis (Jan. 20, 2007)

I certainly did not realize that this band had such a lasting effect on so many people. For me, it was, and is, the ease with which I can relate to subject matter of the songs and the uncomplicated way the music was matched with the lyrics. I am not a musician, so I have to say the overall sound of the band caught my ear, which then led me to pay close attention to what they really had to say.

My “discovery” of the band occurred in San Antonio, Texas while listening to a college radio station. This was probably late 1980s, about the time that “End of the Day” was released. I am from Fort Worth and was going to school at the time. I have always had a fondness for songs about places/events with which I am familiar. Well, the song, “Star Telegram” struck a chord with me for obvious reasons. I purchased the other two albums out at that time (Translate Slowly and Saturday) and started “wearing them out”, becoming a huge fan of all of their work. The band’s name change really did not affect me, as my discovery of them happened right around the time that issue was being resolved, at least legally. I had heard that the band was formerly known as Zeitgeist, but unfortunately, I tuned in a little late. I then moved back to Fort Worth right around the time that the band’s last album was released, and embarrassingly, was not even aware of it’s existence until now. I hope that I can locate a copy so I can “rediscover” the band.

I only saw them “live” once, at a bar on St. Mary’s Street in San Antonio. I was one of the “crazies” up at the front acting silly. Man, that was fun. The band seemed to be having a lot of fun and sounded great.

It is sad, but true that things do not last forever (i.e., the band being together). But, I cannot wait to get home and “plug them in”!!!
Morgan Burkhart ( Dec. 18, 2006)

I "discovered" the Reivers (then Zeitgeist) late one night while home on break from boarding school on IRS's the Cutting Edge w/ Peter Zaremba, if I remember correctly. Mid-80's. I then procured a tape of Translate Slowly that summer at a Record Bar in Myrtle Beach, SC while I was living down at Pawley's Island. In retrospect, I find it amazing that such a sucky record chain would have that album.

By the time I got to see them in person, I had turned all my friends onto them, and they were about to put out their last album, unbeknownst to me. This was in 1991 I think, and I was then a student at USC in Columbia, SC. Someone had seen in the local free paper that The Reivers were playing down in Charleston that weekend, so we loaded up 2 SUV's of kids and road tripped down to Chas. This was also the year Guns & Roses, who I hate, put out some double album, which was a big deal to some people, because I remember listening to it returning from the show at full volume with everyone but the driver and myself passed out somehow, with Axl Rose yelling at 150dB.

The show in Charleston was at a place called the Music Farm, which nowadays is legenday in SC and is in a great venue. In those days, however, before it moved to a spacious and suitable location, it was located in a converted building that had hosted a pizza place and dry cleaners on East Bay St. Very plush and impressive digs. The building has since been razed.

But there was a smattering of fans at the show; our crowd overshadowed everyone else, and being young, drunk and blown away by the experience of actually bumping into this band in our lifetime, our presence was very known, much to the chagrin of probably everyone there, including the band. But they took it in stride and were great sports.

The last song was Electra, and a friend of mine and I were allowed to join one of the gals(don't remember which one now, 15 years later) onstage and slur along, which was one of the best times of my life up to that point, and won me many points with my date, who obviously had more to imbibe than I.

As the band packed up afterward and we lavished praise on them, I managed to make off with John's Fender guitar strap, which still makes me feel like a common thief, as I still use it on my acoustic guitar. However, I'm consoled by the fact it's one of those cheap straps that Fender practically gives away, so I figured he should upgrade anyway, plus I think they only performed once or twice after that anyway. Sorry, and thanks, John! Your strap's right here, keeping my acoustic in place!
-Michael Musgrove (Dec. 9, 2006)