Big Boys: C or D?

all of it.

The Big Boys' mediocre was most bands' great (their only bum moment was covering "Hollywood Swinging"). But the Dicks were better.

the recently reissued wreck collection is brilliant.

seminal group (as were the minutemen).

more importantly, the Big Boys are FUN. dont people like fun? i hear "fun" is the thing @ ILM.

best band

I used to have the EP (their first one, I think?) where they covered "Hollywood Swinging" by Kool and the Gang. Wish I still had it. Is it worth money now?

. Pretty much the only early 80s hardcore band who was both self-consciously fun and consistently good.

I don't get this, though. The Angry Samoans and Flipper and Red Cross (who all seemed like part of hardcore at the time, whether people classify them that way now or not) all spring to mind, for instance. (And okay, I won't claim the Pop-O-Pies were "consistently good," but I'm not convinced the Big Boys blew them out of the water, or anything.) (And I won't even start on Vancouver and Bloomington bands, but there were plenty of those, too. Though I guess it depends where you draw the "hardcore" line.)

Minutemen are boring.

Ha ha, I don't get this, either (and I'm surprised Tom said it). Though I suppose I've said more outlandish things in my own time, now and then.

combining punk and funk to create the seed that grew into the Red Hot Chili Peppers

Didn't both bands start right around the same time, though?

Big Boys would've had a couple of years on RHCP at least - first single was 1980 I think?

Chuck who are these Bloomington HC bands you're thinking of? I'm sure I've seen you mention this before

Didn't both bands start right around the same time, though?

RHCP were just as much influenced by the Minutemen (Blood Sugar Sex Magik was dedicated to Watt, after all) and likely Gang of Four (Flea talks about Entertainment blowing his mind in the liner notes of the mid-90s EMI reissue). Are they to blame for the mind-numbing awfulness of Californication and Stadium Arcadium too?

Chuck who are these Bloomington HC bands you're thinking of?

Panics, Jetsons, Zero Boys, Gizmos, Dow Jones and the Industrials, Dancing Cigarettes....Okay, those last couple were too artsy to be hardcore probably, and the Gizmos were older guys. But they were all good! And the first three on that list qualify for sure, I think. (Well, except that one or two might actually be technically from Indianapolis.)

Andy Gill produced the first RHCP album, so yeah, a little GO4 admiration going on there.

Big Boys fucking rocked. I remember seeing Buzz'Oven one night at CBGBs and they launched into a cover of "Red/Green" which filled me, and no one else in the club, with wild joy.

The Big Boys are easily one of the best bands to come out of Austin (and one of the only bands that make me proud to be from there). We may have a statue of Stevie Ray Vaughn (ech) but there's a lot of love for The Big Boys here, especially for the recently deceased singer, Randy "Biscuit" Turner. The local punk rock record store, Sound on Sound, is even named after a Big Boys song.

Better than the Minutemen by a mile, I'd say.

And wow, speaking of Austin, wouldn't the Butthole Surfers count as "self-consciously fun and consistently good" hardcore, too? (Though, like pretty much every other great hardcore band, they moved beyond hardcore before long. And moved beyond "good" eventually too, but that was later.) (Maybe they'd be considered too arty and insane, even on their first two EPs, to pass for "self-consciously fun"? But arty insanity was part of the joke.)

Though I guess they never did exclusively slampit punk per se'. So maybe that disqualifies them? I bet they were considered hardcore in Texas in '83, though, and they certainly seemed hardcore to me.

You wouldn't believe this but I needed to get to Austin. Way too late we got there - me and my poor ex- all the way from Hull, England. 2002.I was thinking Buttholes, Scratch Acid, Big Boys, Offenders. Ex neded something other than the fleapit we secured

But met some coolsters in EMos who were like @We'll take you out to biscuit's place- he;d love to meet you.' We saw HONKY and fucked off to fleapit
Too shy

And then laters I read somewhere he's no longer.

He had a colourful house did Biscuit

I can't believe I never posted on this thread before. I love this band.

Anyone who doesn't have both the Fat & Skinny Elvis CDs should at least download them.

The Dicks are still my fave Texas band tho

i am the human beat bah hahox

so fucking classic.

xhuxk, they had an EP and an LP before the one you are thinking of which are collected on the Skinny Elvis CD.

search: the version of "Damage 43" from the Cottage Cheese From The Lips Of Death comp, it's a different take which isn't on Wreck Collection.

oh, and I love all those Bloomington bands too cuz I lived there in the 80's.

Hey Poo

how could I forget the Dicks!

What was it with all those Texan bands moving to San Fransisco too?
Dicks,MDC,Rhythm Pigs,DRI

On the basis of Lullabies Help the Brain Grow only, which is all I have to go on, dud dud dud.

No, wait. Just one dud.

been listening to side b of wreck collection, and marvelling at it. sorry i came so late to these guys; they're wonderful.

god I also love the Dicks AND Big Boys. punk fuckin rock.

the big boys rool.

I always forget about the Big Boys! I know nothing by them. Shameful.

But echoing accolades for the Dicks, big time.

also tim kerr is a pretty inspiring painter:
http://www.timkerr.net/gallery_art/olympics.jpg

and jeezus did the lord high fixers rock

Just picked up a zine-sized DIY book(let) about the Dicks at Extreme Noise, which I guess came out in 2008. It's great!:
http://www.halfletterpress.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=49

Was there too late to see The Big Boys but did get to see Biscuit perform several times with a later project, Swine King. He was an amazing frontman.

hey, i'm listening to the big boys right now!

someone brought in a copy of no matter how long the line is at the cafeteria, there's always a seat. sounds great.

anyone ever heard the kamikaze refrigerators? texas band that spot produced and was a fan of. big boys covered one of their songs. i have the posthumous vinyl release. not really punk, but kinda interesting.

kozik album cover:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-ZoQRrzoz2U/RoAYvR_HJzI/AAAAAAAAAs0/sbcKHvg6b_4/s320/kamikaze+refrigerators+front

I vaguelly recall getting a nice thank you note in the postal mail from the Big Boys after giving them our fanzine Thrillseeker way back when(between 82 and 85 I guess). They wanted to know more about DC go-go. I saw them once in the DC area but was out of town and sadly missed the legendary in DC gig they did with Troublefunk and Minor Threat.

i don't know why i never checked out this band before

it's like minutemen meets fugazi meets X

best band

― chakles, Saturday, January 26, 2008 7:54 AM (7 years ago)

came here to post this to find i posted this 7 years ago

:)

yah this rules

NIGHT BEAT! i gottitinmyfeet
NIGHT BEAT! icantstayinmyseat

in one of the Cd reissue booklets there is a great little anecdote from Ian Mackaye about Minor Threat making the mistake of going on after the Big Boys... "we were fucked" sez Ian, "next time we opened for them, as it should be"

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/08/arts/music/texas-is-the-reason-punk-photos.html

you might as well retitle this post you have taste in music (true or false) unabidlingly classic.

― simon 803 (simon 803), Tuesday, July 29, 2003 4:09 PM (seventeen years ago)

still otm

Sound on Sound is all time but nothing else by them is as great to me.

This prompted me to check and yup, the two Elvis comps are on Bandcamp via Touch and Go ending up there:

https://bigboys.bandcamp.com/

I forget how great this band was