We Got Soul

Okay, I've calmed down a bit about the NHL season being cancelled. That said, there's been some chatter that the season may actually not be done. Apparently, there's some maneuvering going on behind the scenes between players and owners, and ESPN reported that Gary Bettman said he'd be open to revisiting the decision to cancel. So we shall see.

On to the rock. This week, I'm featuring a song from an early '80s Austin-based punk combo that came and went fairly quickly but had a lasting impact on the scene. The Big Boys mixed in funk with their punk--two great tastes that taste great together--long before it became fashionable. They pretty much did whatever they felt like, rather than abide by a particular sound or look. Singer Randy "Biscuit" Turner would often play wearing a tutu or a clown suit. Here's a good interview with the band's guitarist, Tim Kerr, who continues to play in various bands.

The band was only together about six years ('78-'84), but they all went on to play in some fairly influential punk and rock acts including Scratch Acid, Rapeman, the Skatenigs, the Monkeywrench, Ministry, Poison 13, and Tad. My brother J.P. turned me on to them; he lived in Austin in the mid-'90s while in law school and gave me the Big Boys comp The Fat Elvis one year as a gift. He's 4 1/2 years younger than me, but he's influenced my listening tastes quite a bit over the years. I definitely got him into the classic rock and metal stuff I listened to while he was a little kid, and then he got into punk while at college and turned me on to a lot of cool stuff like Fugazi, Flipper and the Big Boys. Anyway, We Got Your Money is a Big Boys classic off 1983's Lullabies Help the Brain Grow and later The Fat Elvis. Check it out, and then buy a Big Boys album. You shan't regret it.