The line comes from "Mekong," a fan-favorite Roger Clyne wrote after a stint teaching English in Taipei, busking with his guitar at night to make rent. Two decades later it's become the toast of the whole RCPM community.
Roger Clyne, drummer PH Naffah, guitarist Jim Dalton, and bassist Nick Scropos have spent thirty years turning punk energy, Americana twang, and mariachi horns into one of the hardest-touring live shows in the country — all without a major label behind them.
It started with The Refreshments, the Tempe quartet Clyne and Naffah formed in the '90s. Their debut, "Fizzy, Fuzzy, Big & Buzzy," turned into a cult classic on the strength of "Banditos" and "Down Together," landed the band on Conan, and led Clyne to write the theme song for Mike Judge's "King of the Hill."
When label politics pulled the band apart, Clyne and Naffah went looking for a reset in the Whetstone Mountains near the family ranch in southeastern Arizona — and came back with a new sound and a new name. Their independently released debut as Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers, "Honky Tonk Union," opened at No. 1 on Billboard's Internet Album Sales chart in 1999, ahead of Santana, Creed, and Nine Inch Nails that same week.
Eight more RCPM albums followed the same pattern: independently released, chart-topping, built by fans rather than radio. In 2019 the band was inducted into the Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame alongside Linda Ronstadt, Alice Cooper, and Stevie Nicks.
