"Why did Metallica cross Abbey Road? So they could become the Galatic Cowboys" - useful shorthand for describing the Houston band's musical bent. As bassist Monty Colvin puts it, "We're not afraid to put a blues thing in the middle of a thrash jam."
Space In Your Face to these wax-stringed ears, is an improvement on their debut in that their oddball mish-mash of styles come together more sharply and coherently here. The unnervingly laid-back Colvin chooses his words carefully.
"We did it in a lot shorter time. The first album was done over a period of a year and a half. This one was done in a couple of months. We grew as a band over the couple of years inbetween albums. This album is definitely more of who we are, and making the picture a little clearer."
Space was, once again, produced by Sam Taylor. Sam's appeal is the freedom he allows in the studio.
"He just kinda let's you go in there and do what you want. He mainly helps a lot with some of the arrangements on the songs."
However, Colvin reveals that this will probably be the last album they do with him.
"I think we've explored the avenues that he does now."
The songwriting in the band is pretty evenly spread out, with some of the strongest tracks penned/co-penned by the bassist, such as No Problems and I Do What I Do, one of the most integrated melodic harmony compositions they've ever done.
"It's about not being intimidated, just being who you are. It was kinda that Hard Day's Night type of feeling," he says, referring to The Beatles album and accompanying film.
"That was what I was feeling as I was writing the song. It could have come off that album. I loved that movie when I was a kid."
Lack of space doesn't permit in-depth scrutiny of the record's lyrics, but they cover everything from crop circles (UFOs?), a 'hypothetical' look at murder, strange fictitious women (i.e. Mrs Leslie), and deception in relationships. And sometimes approached with an inimitable degree of quirkiness and endearing silliness from the Cowboys.
Monty stresses the importance of touring with compatible bands, a cause of problems in the past.
"We're going to hopefully get a better match on these tours. We really need that."
And what sort of audiences do they prefer?
"Audiences who appreciate music - more rock 'n' roll - and who don't have some other idea as to why they're there, like just to beat each other up," he replies. "We're about energy, fun, and music. And if you're not into that, then you'll probably not be into us."
Mark Liddell
Riff Raff
July 1993
Space In Your Face to these wax-stringed ears, is an improvement on their debut in that their oddball mish-mash of styles come together more sharply and coherently here. The unnervingly laid-back Colvin chooses his words carefully.
"We did it in a lot shorter time. The first album was done over a period of a year and a half. This one was done in a couple of months. We grew as a band over the couple of years inbetween albums. This album is definitely more of who we are, and making the picture a little clearer."
Space was, once again, produced by Sam Taylor. Sam's appeal is the freedom he allows in the studio.
"He just kinda let's you go in there and do what you want. He mainly helps a lot with some of the arrangements on the songs."
However, Colvin reveals that this will probably be the last album they do with him.
"I think we've explored the avenues that he does now."
The songwriting in the band is pretty evenly spread out, with some of the strongest tracks penned/co-penned by the bassist, such as No Problems and I Do What I Do, one of the most integrated melodic harmony compositions they've ever done.
"It's about not being intimidated, just being who you are. It was kinda that Hard Day's Night type of feeling," he says, referring to The Beatles album and accompanying film.
"That was what I was feeling as I was writing the song. It could have come off that album. I loved that movie when I was a kid."
Lack of space doesn't permit in-depth scrutiny of the record's lyrics, but they cover everything from crop circles (UFOs?), a 'hypothetical' look at murder, strange fictitious women (i.e. Mrs Leslie), and deception in relationships. And sometimes approached with an inimitable degree of quirkiness and endearing silliness from the Cowboys.
Monty stresses the importance of touring with compatible bands, a cause of problems in the past.
"We're going to hopefully get a better match on these tours. We really need that."
And what sort of audiences do they prefer?
"Audiences who appreciate music - more rock 'n' roll - and who don't have some other idea as to why they're there, like just to beat each other up," he replies. "We're about energy, fun, and music. And if you're not into that, then you'll probably not be into us."
Mark Liddell
Riff Raff
July 1993
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