Fans of Minutemen, Red Hot Chili Peppers, DK etc. will love the Big Boys

[Against Will]

The Big Boys, and Austin punk/hardcore in general, gets passed over in most discussions of classic old school hardcore (probably because most of the good Texas bands ended up in California). But everyone should check them out, I read a critic gushing about them a month or so ago and figured they were worth a look. It's really pretty fantastic music and their songs run a gamut of styles; early hardcore, snotty punk, white-boy funk, and even some stuff that sounds like mid-80's college rock. The great thing is that it doesn't sound gimmicky because they aren't trying to impress anyone. They were doing all these different styles when they began as a band, so when they change styles it doesn't sound forced. The lyrics and music are great, high energy but not amateurish. Check them out!

http://homepages.nyu.edu/~cch223/usa/bigboys_main.html

[Masher88]

I wish that site had MP3's on it.

[uglycicles]

I had an album (!) of theirs back in the early-mid 80s that had a song called "History" - cool tune. Despite having lost the record years ago, I still find myself singing the song frequently.

You're right - the guitar and bass parts are very reminiscent of early Minutemen stuff.

I picked up Skinny Elvis/Fat Elvis off of eBay a few years back - if I remember right, those 2 CDs contain alot of their material...

[Against Will]

Originally Posted by Masher88

I wish that site had MP3's on it.

The Huge Big Boys Uber-site has an MP3 of "Full Speed Assault" which is one of their more hardcore songs, it's unfortunate, though, that that's the only song, the others are covers. I haven't listened to them, but I didn't expect them to be very true to what the Big Boys were. You can find their stuff on soulseek as well, both Fat Elvis and Skinny Elvis (together, the two form the band's discography) are available on them.

Edit:There's a Big Boys Myspace page that offers a few examples of how diverse the Big Boys sound can be, I'm not a big fan of "Hollywood Swinging" but "Fun fun fun" and "Sound on Sound" are good examples of straight up party punk and the more indie rock edge of their sound.