Obscure Hard Rock & Heavy Metal - Galatic Cowboys

[jimmccormick3]

I thought it might be fun to get people's remarks & opinions on some bands that we don't post about often. Some of these bands will be much more obscure than other ones posted on here, but in general are definitely on the rare side of things due to either being forgotten or never really had a huge audience in the first place. I'll go through each band alphabetically.

The band: Galatic Cowboys

Dallas, Texas's Galatic Cowboys hit the wide open rock scene of the early 90's, sounding much like Springfield, Missouri's transplanted to Dallas, King's X. Galatic Cowboys shared their Beatlesque harmonies & hodgepodge of rock influences to the point that one might think they we're directly influenced by King's X, though some songs from the Cowboys tended to have slight thrash elements in them.

Galatic Cowboys put out several albums & my fave of the three I have would have to be their self titled debut. Solid from start to finish this album kicked some good arse, especially the first song "I'm Not Amused," sounding like a marriage of Beatle harmonies, Metallica riffs, King's X musical savvy, with a Spanish back drop! Quite an eclectic brew of influences that ran amazingly, seamless together!

Galatic Cowboys is a band that I need to investigate farther, but the three albums I have are welcome additions to my collection. Now I just need the time to explore.

Your thoughts?

[onering]

I have their first two cd's and really like them both. In some ways though, I find them to be a little TOO close to King's X sound. They definitely have elements that are their own but for the most part I think they outright copied King's X to the extent of sharing the same manager and producer, Sam Taylor.

Fave track is Sea of Tranquility from the debut.

[Scott]

Glad to see this one...


The Galactic Cowboys were a highly original band for the time, I thought. But, they never seemed to be able to shake that "King's X clone" label. GC were much more than that, though. What they were...unlike almost any other band I can think of...really defies explanation. You just have to HEAR it. One thing GC does share with King's X, they never received the recognition they were due. Too bad.

It's funny...the Cowboys bassist/vocalist, and one of their main songwriters, Monty Colvin is from the small Missouri town where I grew up. He went to school with my brother...and I went to school with his sisters. The guy is multi-talented...as much as an artist, as he is a musician/songwriter.

Monty has a post-Cowboys band called Crunchy. Their debut (from 2001, I think) is really pretty good. It's more like Cheap Trick than Galactic Cowboys, though. The follow-up wasn't as good, unfortunately. He is working on a Rock "opera" right now. For anyone that is interested, Monty's website is www.montycolvin.com/. Check out some of his fantastic artwork, too.

[duojett71]

Every song I have heard by the Galactic Cowboys has outright sucked. Granted I have not heard an entire album's worth of material but what I have heard I just didn't like.

btw...I thought King's X was from Houston?

[mak]

Who? never heard of this band sorry!!

[HARD ROCK UNIVERSE]

I really dig their 1st album, especially the last track, the epic 11 minute plus "Speak To Me", very Floyd like, and "Blind" from 'Space In Your Face' is another killer track. They were kinda inconsistent from that point on though, but when they were on, they were great