the needies started as a solo project by travis nichols. shaun jones recorded the first show at j&b coffee in lubbock, tx. shaun later played drums with travis for a couple of shows, but then he moved to north carolina and then to houston to be with his ladyfriend like a total weiner. then travis made his mother cry by telling her that he was going to not have a real job anymore, and shaun and travis turned the needies into a duo. shaun's addition created an alt-country flair to the needies' anti-folk/post-punk/power-pop sound. god, listen to me drop sub-genres names. look at me, everybody. i'm cool. the needies did lots of fun things for a few years while living in two different cities (austin and houston), and then ended up giving more attention to other projects and life things.

in the active years, the needies lived, loved, traveled light, slept in gross places, slept in really nice places, made amazing friends, wore matching outfits, laughed, fought, scrambled, ate well, danced, schemed, dreamed, and were genereally cleaner than most touring indie bands.

posed needies photographs (jumping, laundromat, bridge) by the enchanting emily driskill.

so then what happened?

shaun married amy, and they have a wonderful farm in praha, tx. see their website and blog at goingtothecountry.com. shaun is also doing graphic design. shaun-jones.com.

travis writes books for children and young adults. the first was a funny how-to for indie bands originally inspired by needies tours. it's called punk rock etiquette. punkrocketiquette.com. the rest of his art, writing, and goings-on can be found at ilikeapplejuice.com.