George Reiff never stopped rocking. Since his days on stage alongside Cummings as a member of the Crowns, he has played bass with Kelly Willis, Ian Moore, Charlie and Will Sexton, ex-Skunk John Dee Graham, Beaver Nelson and Michael Fracasso. He also bakes a mean cake.
Reiff is a self-taught guitarist and chef. He admits lying his way into his first chef gig in a Dallas restaurant where he waited tables. He was given a week to prove himself and a second career was born. In Austin, his pastry has graced the tables of the Granite Cafe, Shoreline Grill and, for six year, Jeffrey's.
"They were amazingly good to me," Reiff said of Jeffrey's. "They allowed me to come and go as I pleased, which allowed my music career to flourish as well as my pastry career."
The two fields have more in common than might be apparent.
"I get the same instant gratification rush baking as on stage," Reiff said. "On stage you have to be in the moment. In a restaurant the menu changes every day."
Reiff says his creativity can sometimes go over the heads of people who, when it comes down to it, are looking for a good piece of pie. But the creative juices he honed in the punk scene won't stop flowing.
"We were a bunch of D.I.Y., expressive people who wanted to create with their hands or minds," Reiff said. "In '78 the weapon of choice was a guitar. Those same people might have been visual artists,
architects or writers."
Randy "Biscuit" Turner, collage artist, actor, film set decorator
Randy "Biscuit" Turner closed the chapter on another band, the Swine Kings at their final performance. And he made the final mortgage payment on his South Austin home. Is the former front man for the Big Boys finally growing up? Not hardly.
His house is overflowing with more than 100 of his bright and quirky collage pieces he describes as "psychodelic Mexican folk art."
Turner moved to Austin from East Texas in 1970 and the city hasn't been the same since. The Big Boys were formed when he and some skateboarding buddies got together and combusted into a band.
"Our goal was skateboarding and rock 'n' roll as much as our little brains would let us do," he said. "We were not trying to do anything but have fun."
The Big Boys defined Austin punk to the rest of the nation, thanks to extensive touring and outrageous stage presence.
These days, in addition to his visual art, Turner has starred in low budget films like "Night of the Killer Pinatas," and has targetted film prop work as his future goal, aided by his extensive collection of
boomarang ashtrays and poodle statuary.
"I've not got time to get all of things done that I want to get done," he said.
