I first met Buzz Moran roughly 9 years ago when I briefly filled in on drums for Lonesome Dave’s band, Heroes of the West (I think). I had one or two weeks to learn songs for an Emo’s gig opening for Old 97’s before they rode the “alt-country” wave to the big time. Anyway, all of the guys in the band were very cool people, but Buzz still sticks out in my mind. He has sort of a Weird Al Yankovic quality to him. I ran into him once doing sound at the Continental Club a few years later, but then lost track of him.

When I stumbled on this article in the Chronicle late last summer (the photo is from the article), I thought that his new project, Dionysium, sounded like a pretty cool idea. On first glance, it looks like something that could be a little too pretentious, succumbing to its own sense of self-satisfied hipness, but with Buzz at the helm, I don’t think it’s possible. Their next monthly meeting convenes this coming Tuesday, June 7 at a new location, Alamo South Lamar. The overarching topic this month is Juneteenth.

Admittedly, I haven’t yet been to a meeting myself, so somebody who doesn’t have kids go check this thing out and let me know how it goes. I’m guessing you won’t be disappointed.