BEEF MASTERS
Texas Ranger Man
first version released on: |
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| artist: | BEEF MASTERS |
| label: | SOUND VIRUS RECORDS VIRION 003 |
| title: | BEEF MASTERS |
| release: | 1993, USA, EP 33 1/3 rpm with picture sleeve and insert |
| A-side: |
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| B-side: |
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| comment #1: | "Dedicated to Pepe & the Loco Gringos" |
| comment #2: | All songs are also released on CD, except "God's Last Call". |
| both sides of insert sheet: | |
| comment #3: | Sound Virus Records P.O. Box 710726 Houston, TX 77271 USA |
first and second version released on: |
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| artist: | BEEF MASTERS |
| label: | SOUND VIRUS RECORDS VIRION 103 |
| title: | SECRET PLACE OF WONDERMENT |
| release: | 1993, USA, CD [48:01] |
| tracks as printed on backcover: |
Slow Easter Bunny Texas Ranger Man Echo's Luke Perry Sunflower 25 Stutter Jennifer Apocrypha Maysfield Backwards Bridge Clusterphoeck Beef Masters |
| comment #1: | Tom McKinney played bass on "Slow" All songs wrtitten by BEEF MASTERS except Texas Ranger Man written by Doug Sahm Cover Art by Nathan Jones / Richard Newton Produced by Darryl Menkin Engineered and Co Produced by Brian Conner Recorded at Hot Dog Recording, Hou, Tex Mixed by Conner / Menkin / B.M.. Edited by Nick Cooper at Digital Services |
| comment #2: | The tracklist on the backcover is incomplete and confusing.
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| comment #3: | From houstonpress.com Beef Masters The homespun psychedelic hash -- dumb, greasy, and worth a drive to some dive on the outskirts -- that Beef Masters make of Doug Sahm's semi-classic "Texas Ranger Man" makes Secret Place of Wonderment worth a listen all by its lonesome. And by the time I got to "Beef Masters," with its lyric, "Some kinda mutant rock and roll / just a little bit of that Texas soul / the size of the hide doesn't matter / as long as the beef is on the platter," I was perfectly ready to agree. Straight rock here, with indistinct but good-enough vocals, sonics out of the bottom of a reverb pit, and the balls to actually attempt real songs to match the cowboy punk attitude. In national eyes, Texas underground rock is largely associated with Austin's Trance Records lineup and the dense, seamless assault of bands like Ed Hall. But Beef Masters stretch out into wide-open spaces, actually using the dynamics of soft-versus-hard; they aren't in such a headlong rush to prove themselves true punk rawk that they forget to stop and pull up some flowers along the way. "Clusterphoek," which sounds a little too much like something America might have recorded on a bad day, is a good pretty-song example, as is "Apocrypha." In harder territory, "Slow" nails redneck-outlaw lyrics to a post of creosoted guitar crunch, and "Easter Bunny" sounds like something Webb Wilder might have come up with if he were loaded on anti-depressants and trapped inside a cow. Yeehaw. There are as many Texas "sounds" in the underground as there are bands, but damn few of them make me want more the way this one does. -- Brad Tyer |