On Thursday nights at the Mix you sit back and enjoy the rockin’ sounds of Jar of Flies — a solid cover band specializing in tunes from the mid-’90s through today. Behind their cymbal crashes and backbeats sits a drummer who has kept a steady pace through a long journey of musical evolution and creativity in San Antonio’s music scene.

When Ken Robinson, 42, isn’t hammering the drums with great ease and precision through Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, and Pantera covers, he is eloquently tapping the skins with Royal Punisher — a straight-up jazz-standards ensemble that plays private functions around town, as well as a few club gigs at places like Carmen’s de la Calle and Luna Fine Music Club.

“I’m not sure if it’s what the kids want to hear, and I don’t see that band playing at the Mix,” Robinson admits, “but for me, playing jazz really works on other parts of your skill that you may not have ever touched before.”

Robinson is also getting ready for the next phase of Chris Smart’s everlasting Mechanical Walking Robotboy with upcoming club dates and a new album set for release in 2010.

“We’ve been having kitchen practices at Chris’ with a drum machine, which Savior Daughters has been doing, too, and I highly recommend it,” says Robinson. “We don’t have to rent a rehearsal space, there’s not all that loudness, and you can hear what the guitarists are doing … so you can just fix things in the kitchen.”

Speaking of Savior Daughters, a reunion for the indie dance band is also in the making after a three-year hiatus.

“It’s electric and dance and exciting,” Robinson says. “I’m excited to be able to pull it off once again.”

Savior Daughters brought San Antonio to its feet from 2004 to 2006 with one CD and a lot of electro-indie-new-wave excitement, but it all began when Robinson first delved into San Antonio’s live underground music scene in the early 1990s.

“I was working at a pet shop next to Planet K on Austin Highway, and Ernest Olivo heard me rehearsing there at night,” Robinson recalls.

Olivo liked what he heard and came over to tell Robinson about a band he was managing called Worm. They were looking for a drummer.

“I think I was a lot different than what they were used to, but they reluctantly took me on and it ended up working out pretty good,” says Robinson.

He has since formed a tight bond with Worm frontman Phil Luna, and the two have collaborated on several other projects over the years.

“Worm kind of had, at that time, what Ken was looking for,” says Luna. “As far as I’m concerned, I just think he’s one of the most solid drummers in town … period. I was looking for solid players and that’s definitely the definition of Ken.”

Dingy dives like Wacky’s Kantina and Taco Land were second homes for Worm and many local bands of the like at that time. It was a spring board for all that came next for Robinson.

Worm morphed into a more focused and progressive post-punk band called 1.0, and eventually into the Shit City Dreamgirls, which Luna and Robinson formed from a line-up born out of jam sessions at a practice space called Cabeza de Piedra.

“When music comes together, it only works for a certain amount of time with a certain group of musicians,” explains Robinson. “If you lose somebody, it can sometimes never be the same, as much as you try.”

Toward the tail end of the Dreamgirls’ career, and after they’d served for five years as the Monday-night house band at Taco Land, Robinson auditioned for Boxcar Satan. By 2001, he was touring and recording with the experimental blues-rock trio, but he’s since left the group under amicable terms.

What Robinson hopes to see for the future of S.A.’s music scene are bands that really step up to the plate, working hard to polish their craft and entertain the crowds.

“We need to get paid more, but musicians need to do more for their job,” says Robinson. “You need to care about it more. Be a band that has rehearsed and worked hard at their craft
onstage.” •