Galactic Cowboys have been one of the most important bands of all time for me, but as so often happens with my favourite bands or artists, they remain completely unknown to the general public.
I’m Not Amused is one of those mind-blowing songs that is so unexpected that when the last chords are silenced, the listener is left wondering for a moment what just happened. Flamenco guitar, metal, multipart harmonies and melodies, blues with harmonica solo and after all of that, a fast thrash metal closure. It’s all there in this beautiful song.
When I heard the song on the (Finnish!) radio in 1991, I was just started listening more of melodic punk a’la Bad Religion and at the same time, my earlier thrash metal phase was slowly fading into the background. But then Galactic Cowboys offered even more beautiful polyphonic harmonies than Bad Religion, but also that metal … and much more.
Signed by the Nirvana’s Geffen A&R guy – what could go wrong?
Galactic Cowboys were possibly very close to a real breakthrough when their debut album came out, but fate intervened. As this blog will show, for many bands, fate was grunge and Nirvana in particular. In the case of Galactic Cowboys, Nirvana’s popularity was particularly fateful.
In 1991, Galactic Cowboys were signed to Geffen Records, the same label where Nirvana went from Sub Pop. Both bands were signed by A&R guru Gary Gersh, the man responsible for bringing Sonic Youth to the same label. Gersh told Galactic Cowboys he would do everything he could for the band and Geffen, as a company, seemed to be fully behind the band to conquer the world.
Galactic Cowboys’ critically acclaimed debut album of the same name was released in August 1991. Nirvana’s Nevermind was released the following month. The former’s intriguingly strange blend of metal, prog and catchy Beatles harmonies was overshadowed by the grunge tsunami. Many other musical genres were overshadowed by the grunge as well.
“They were too heavy for melodic rock fans, they weren’t heavy enough for the thrash metal crowd, and prog was in a commercial lull”, Prog magazine wrote in 2017.
Many great albums to listen to
The Galactic Cowboys story didn’t end there, as they continued to release albums at a good pace. Space in Your Face (1993) was the last album released for Geffen, followed by Machine Fish (1996), Feel the Rage (EP, 1996), The Horse That Bud Bought (1997), At the End of the Day (1998) and Let It Go (2000) on Metal Blade Records. The band made a comeback in 2017 with Long Way Back to the Moon, released by Mascot Label Group. All of these albums have a recognizable Houston metal sound – heavy riffing and catchy choruses with multipart harmonies. Like in “I’m Not Amused”, influences are drawn to bands albums from a variety of sources, including folk, punk (bassist Monty Colvin is Dee Dee Ramone’s cousin!) and hard rock.
The members of Galactic Cowboys have been posting photos together on Facebook as I write this blog, so hopefully the band will get active again!
And if you want to know more about them, just watch this video by The-Art-of-Guitar.
