FLEA MARKET HOOKERS



 Flea Market Hookers 2021 

Morri Hartgraves SXSW 1988   Austin, Texas

Old Spring Break rockers Joe King Carrasco and Morri Hartgraves     "I'm Nacho Daddy"

FLEA MARKET HOOKERS

The Flea Market Hookers are a quirky troupe of jihadists at war against the oppression of comedy. Because of the current rampant oversaturation of shitty music, The Flea Market Hookers vow to do their part to continue making even shittier music than the world has ever known.  

The Flea Market Hookers were created by former stand-up comedian Morri Hartgraves as an anarcho comedy rock band. They are the weird band that was playing outside of the court building singing upbeat songs from The Manifesto during The Unabomber trial. They are also the band that played the house warming party for the Branch Davidians in Waco.   The Flea Market Hookers became a crowd favorite at African American skinheadesque variations of The Baldies in Minnesota and Illinois. The Flea Market Hookers continue on as a sardonic party rock band.

Hartgraves won the 1984 Best Stand-Up Comic in Texas competition. In 1985 Hartgraves went on to win the crowd favorite award at the The Best Stand-Up Comic of the Southwest competition; losing the overall competition to the judges favorite "Bisquits" the cowboy poet.  Hartgraves was known as the originator of the Anarcho Comedy Movement of the 1980s. He was known for his "politically uncombed comedic stylings" as he traveled across the United States playing established comedy clubs and underground fringe gatherings.  During this time Hartgraves used various pseudonyms and became an underground cult hero.  Hartgraves will forever be remembered as “the man who made Kurt Cobain laugh.”

The Flea Market Hookers are known for their inspirational songs such as "My Life has Gone to Shit," "Pues Que Chingao," "Kretinite," and "Wipe Your Ass to the Music."  Morri Hartgraves concocted a potion from the ingredients he called conjunto surf and emo tejanobilly. He then ran the mixture through a wah-wah unpotentiometer to create what music critics dubbed "ganado truck" and "cattle truck" grunge."

The Flea Market Hookers gained prominence in the late 1980s at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas.  During this time Morri Hartgraves and the Flea Market Hookers were also Spring Break favorites on South Padre Island.  In 1991 The Flea Market Hookers, along with Austin’s Big Car, were two of the first bands offered recording contracts by Irving Azoff’s Giant Records.

Hartgraves formed the band in San Angelo, Texas.  He then moved the band to Austin, Texas before finally settling in the Fry Street area of Denton, Texas.  He also had stints in Los Angeles, California; New York City and Loco Hills, New Mexico

The early recordings featured Jimmy Carl Black (who was the original drummer for Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention).  Texas roadhouse blues legend Rollo Smith was on lead guitar.  Rita the Sexy Gothy Mexican played conjunto accordion. Yony Toung, the Asian Cowboy, played bass and engineered the recordings.  Morri Hartgraves wrote the songs, sang vocals and played rhythm guitar.

In a couple of years Hartgraves turned the band all “mysterio.”  The Flea Market Hookers began playing and continue to play exclusively at strange, abandoned places.  These places include decrepit shopping malls, foreclosed skyscrapers, mental hospitals, boarded-up amusement parks, and old nuclear missile silos to name a few.  The band also makes unannounced appearances at tent rivals and backwoods swap meets.  The band members primarily consist of Amr Diabolic (a lopsided tribute to pop singer Amr Diab), Dulce Calaca, Scrap-Iron McFly, Rita the Gothy Sex-Mex, and Street Man the Homeless Wonder.

HATE US OR LOVE US WE ALWAYS BRING THE PARTY TO THE AUDIENCE

The original tagline from the Flea Market Hookers read:

This band of gypsy losers met on the flea market circuit.  In addition to making music together they sell hemp products, mounted butterflies, and antique bongs.  They recently returned from their national aluminum can tour where they made more money peering into dumpsters than they did with their music or products.

Help an old hard-aged hooker.  Buy some of this shit we are trying to sell.