Conference napalm::heavy_metal

    Dont bother mate.
    They are very boring to listen to.

    
    	I wouldn't say 'boring' ... although the lyrics leave something
    	to be desired in "Over My Head".
    
    	Do u have the album?
    
    							GTI
    

    I have their first album "Out of the Silent Planet" which has a
    few good tunes on it, my favourite being "King".
    
    I believe they have a new album out called "Gretchen Goes To Nebraska".
    
    Don't think I'll be buying it, but I wouldn't mind borrowing it
    for a coupla' nights...
    
    By all accounts, their recent support slot on the UK Anthrax Tour
    won them many new admirers. They seem to be more of a live act...
    
    Gm.
    

    I saw a video of theirs several months ago but I don't think it was the
    one mentioned.  At the time, I thought they sounded pretty hot.
    
    They played here in Co. Springs a few months back.  I'm kind of sorry I
    didn't go check them out.
    
    gh

    
    I can't believe the luke-warm reception to this band...
    
    I've got the "Gretchen..." album and have hardly stopped playing
    it in two weeks. I borrowed "Out of the Silent Planet" and rate
    that as well.
    
    But the greatest thing about King's X was seeing them live at the
    Marquee. This band kick @$$ without trying. Doug Pinnick is a truly
    great frontman. They are tight, professional, and one day they are
    going to be BIG. My only objection to the live show was that in
    the fast and furious numbers the bouncers only let one guy do any
    stage diving - Scott Ian.
    
    See this band, listen to the records LOUD. They are not traditional
    heavy metal, but even that genre has to progress. Give them a chance...
    
    Paul the Contractor
    -------------------
    

    
    I've had the album for ages now - I listened to it and wasn't
    impressed at all.
    
    I'll dig it out again tonight.

    Hi all, 
    	I saw them on the support slot with Anthrax, and was very impressed-
    I really just went to see them . I thought they were excelent mainly
    because of the good sound they had.
    
    	Favourite were :	Shot of love
    				King
    				And the one that goes - Stand behind
    				you and watch you from a mile away.
    

    Howdy!
    
    Just thought I would let ya'll know they are from Houston Tx.
    
    SLAM

       I just got their latest, "Gretchen Goes To Nebraska". Still has
    yet to do anything, but I think that's because I'm not used to the
    style. Definitely different, I think it's gonna grow on me. 
        Spaceknight
    

    
    
    So the consensus says its worth my money??
    
    Just want to double check.
    
    I think "over my head" is neat-o.
    
    F.

    
    	RE: Francine
    
    		Weeeellllll, let's just say this ... I got the CD
    		the same day I got "State of Euphoria" (what a coin-
    		cidence, eh?) and since then I've listened to it
    		ONCE.
    
    		"Over My Head" is great ... the rest of the album
    		is practically full of ballads.
    
    							GTI
    

    
    
    Oh poop.
    
    I *hate* heavy metal ballads too!  (well in general anyway)
    
    maybe I'll get the single if its around.
    
    Thanks.
    
    F.

    Decent article on these guys in the new issue of CCM.  I guess they are
    all Christians in the mode of Stryper (secular label).
    
    Mike

    King's X - "Faith, Hope, & Love By King's X": not released yet but
               should be out soon.

    I picked up a copy of "Gretchen Goes To Nebraska" on sale at lunch
    today and boy am I happy that I did!  I remembered one of their videos
    from a long time ago that I really liked and decided to take a chance
    on it since it was cheap.  I've only gotten through about 3/4 of it so
    far (the rechargable batteries in my Walkman died during side 2) and
    I'm am HYPED!
    
    Some of it's got a real funky feel to it, especially in the bass lines. 
    It's definately not your traditional heavy metal sound.  More like
    something like Living Colour (who I also love), but maybe more of a
    metallic type background.
    
    I went back and read the previous replies in this topic and I'm really
    kind of surprised more people in here didn't like them. 
    
    gh

      I heard a song by them on the radio the other day. They have this new
    thing they started down here called rock wars. Sorta like what ya'll
    have up there. They were put up against the Lynch Mob and lost. They
    didn't sound bad IMO, but I must admit I liked the Mob's song better.
    						The KER
    

    Lynch Mob won a "rock war" against ANYONE???  Gimme a break...
    
    After listening to "Gretchen Goes to Nebraska" a few more times I'll
    say that I still really like it and will probably be listening to it
    for quite awhile.  
    
    I will temper my comment about them sounding like Living Colour, as
    they don't *sound* like them much at all.  What I ment is that there's
    a similar feel to some of the songs.  
    
    It's not like Living Colours material, it's more textural and minor
    sounding.  I wouldn't call it "metal" either, more like some kind of
    progressive rock.
    
    gh

    Their latest video "It's Love" has jumped into medium rotation on MTV. 
    Pretty good for a band that most Christian labels turned down for a
    recording contract 5 years before their debut on "Out of the Silent
    Planet".  
    
    Now that I know their names, I've seen their drummer (Jerry Gaskill)
    and bassist/lead vocalist (Doug Pinnick) on tour with Phil Keaggy
    before.
    
    Another band to check out would be "The Awful Truth" on Metal Blade
    records.  They are good friends with King's X and sound similar.
    Also, "Galactic Cowboys" which has 2 former members of Awful Truth.
    
    Mike

    BTW - the new issue of CCM has a review of the new album in it.  The
    editor's bottomline:
    
    "One can only guess at where King's X will be when it makes number 4,
    but for now, this is the greatest arty hard rock album (or hard art
    rock album) that I've ever heard."    - Brian Newcomb

      Greg, you may be glad to know, or not glad to know, that the Mob was
    beaten out by Warrent.
    					The KER
    

    
    	I got "Faith Hope Love" [used] the other day, and it's about
    	comparable to "Gretchen ..." as far as content.  A couple
    	rockin' songs and alot of "slower" stuff.
    
    	"Moanjam" is probably the best one on there ... some wailing
    	guitar.  There's another one I liked almost as much, but I'll
    	have to listen through again to remember what it was called.
    
    							GTI
    

    I found out yesterday that, in addition to touring with Keaggy, these
    guys also played on his "Underground" album.
    
    Mike

    I actually heard these guys on the radio last night!  I was shocked, as
    the station I was listening to isn't known for playing a lot of
    groundbreaking new stuff.  They didn't say what the name of the song
    was, but something about it being "a new one from Kings X".

    Like Shawn said, this song sounded pretty reminiscent of the material
    on Gretchen Goes to Nebraska.  That's cool with me, 'cause that's the
    one tape of mine that's been getting the most airplay over the last two
    of three weeks.

    gh

    Just caught a new Kings X video on MTV.  It's ok, but not terribly
    eventful, as videos go.  I like the song, it's the same one I heard on
    the radio a coule of days ago, "It's Love".  
    
    One little quip that Martha Quinn said right before playing it was that
    Roger Glover of Deep Purple says that Kings X is one of his favorite
    bands.
    
    gh

    
    And this proves it...  8*)

re: -< No account for taste...Good one, anyways... >-
    
    What on earth are you talking about?
    
    gh

    
    RE: Roger Glover's comment on KX...
    8*)
    
    BTW, I thought one was supposed to get wiser in the old(er?) age, not
    dimmer...  ;^)
    
    Slant

    re: J.
    
    I like Kings X, it doesn't surprise me terribly that other people do
    too...
    
    Or are you trying to insult me or something?  Quite honestly, I
    wouldn't expect you to like KX, you tend to like things that are a
    little more mainstream.
    
    gh

    
    Dude...  Notice the smilies...  
    
    and again... 
    8*)
    
    And...  Mainstream?  Why thank you for confirming I have a good taste.
    8*)
    
    Slant

    NO J., gh didn't imply that you had good taste. gh implied that you is
    a LBTB (tm). 
    
    Yo METALord, I seen dat vid too, but was unable to pay much attention
    to it. 

    I picked up Kings X's latest "Faith, Hope, and Love" while I was on
    vacation.  While it's a pretty good album, I was kind of disappointed
    as it's not as powerful as "Gretchen Goes to Nebraska".  The best song
    on it is "It's Love", the one getting airplay right now, most of the
    rest of the songs aren't that memorable.
    
    Kind of funny, this months issue of Guitar World had a review of the
    album which said almost the same thing I've been thinking...
    
    gh

I've only heard "It's Love" so far, but I like that song. My only complaint
is that the production seems pretty weak. Except for the vocals (which sounds
awesome), the rest sounds like a decent demo tape, nothing more. And 
particularly disappointing is the guitar sound, which is real wimpy. How's
the rest of the album?

Also, does GGTN haev the same kind of harmonies like on "It's Love"? They
sound awesome!

alan

    re: Alan
    
>I've only heard "It's Love" so far, but I like that song. My only complaint
>is that the production seems pretty weak. Except for the vocals (which sounds
>awesome), the rest sounds like a decent demo tape, nothing more. And 
>particularly disappointing is the guitar sound, which is real wimpy. 
    
    Have you heard it on a good stereo?  I would never call that Ty Tabor's
    guitar sound wimpy!  It sounds really thick and lush to me, what makes
    you say it's wimpy?
    
>    How's the rest of the album?
    
    It's good, but not as good as Gretchen IMO.  

>Also, does GGTN haev the same kind of harmonies like on "It's Love"? They
>sound awesome!

    Yes!  Kings X has amazing harmonies on both the albums I have,
    especially considering that they're a three piece, they all must sing
    very well!
    
    I was listening to a tape of another band the other day while making a
    Kings X tape and kept switching back and forth between the two and it
    blew me away how intense Kings X sounded in comparison. 
    
    gh

    I don't wanna sound crass, but they guy uses a strat, WHAT do you want
    the guitar sound to sound like?

    re: Buck
    
    That was the same comment that Coop made about it.  I didn't think it
    sounded "Stratty" in the way I think of a Strat sound, but maybe I'm
    just losing it.  I think it sounds real dense, but with clarity for the
    notes.  
    
    But, I thought he was using some kind of Yamaha guitar these days...
    
    gh

     He's endorsing Yamaha...i know he used REAL strats on GGTN, but
    I'm not sure if he used the Yam's for the new lp?  It's a strat
    anyways...so...
    
    No, I think it sounds good...clean, clear, meaty...fwiw

Well, maybe its just that I expected it to be a bit heavier. Its not a bad
tone, just not what I thought it would be - its sounded sorta pop-ish to
my ears.

I'm psyched to hear that the harmonies are already there - I gotta go pick
up both these albums!

alan

    King's X is one of my other fave's!!!  I like EVERYthing they've ever
    done.
    ----However, I agree that _Faith Hope & Love_ was not quite what I
    expected.  To be truthful, I was hoping they would "be more metalish"
    too, but you can't always get what U want!!!  They're cool anyway!
    
    Later'
    'april
    

    After listening to both albums a LOT, I think I like "Gretchen .." the
    most.  These guys are great ..... thanks Greg !
    
     Scary ...

    CCM reports that King's X has received the opening slot on AC/DC's
    nationwide tour.  This leg will take the bands from Canada down through
    the Northwest, across the Midwest, and into the South.
    
    Mike

    First of all....
    King's X are one of my all time favorites.
    
    They are playing with AC/DC right now, they just played in 
    Chicago with them.  I attempted to see them on GGTN tour
    (they were playing with Billy Squire...hum....)
    But got stranded in an ice storm on the way to the Club in
    Chicago.  I moved out east before the last show in Chi town,
    and to this day have been denied seeing them.
    
    Hope they head out east soon.
    
    Question: 
     Anyone else think that the solo at the end of "It's Love"
     is a bit strange, like a few mistakes almost?
    
    Jim

    The solo at the end is alittle sloppy,but could be intentional.
    The abrupt stop to the song doesn't fit well with me tho..no biggy.
    
    One wonders if it was a good idea to have them tour with AC/DC.
    I mean,it's a great gig and the exsposer should be good but the
    bands are quite different.
    I heardin a resent interview with the guitarist the he has already
    been hit it the face with a dirty sock while he was on stage by
    an AC/DC fan.It shook him up abit,but he said it made him more 
    determained to win over some new fans.
    The band also said that  they get their"faith"from the road,not a 
    church.
    
            Crazy_Good-Luck_to_EM_Al

    I don't see a problem with Kings X opening up for AC/DC, in fact, if I
    were to only see one show this year, that would be the one I'd want to
    see!
    
    I think Kings X rips and I've loved listening to AC/DC for years!
    
    gh (who likes the cut off ending of "It's Love")

    They played King's X latest release before the REZ concert last Friday
    night.  That was my first taste of the band and I really liked it.
    
    Mike

    I have a feeling this band has a much 'harder' sound live than on
    record.

    Yeah, I think they'd hit ya pretty hard live too.  Mother's Finest was
    the same way ... their studio stuff was pretty hot, but they blistered
    live !
    
    Scary (another Kings X fan .. thanks Greg !   8^)

    We listened to some of GGTN in Greg's car today.  Really unique!

     I tell ya'll what I am seeing AC/DC and King's X next weekend so my
    review will be in that Monday morning when all of you come to work.
    					The KER
    P.S. I can't wait, I love going to concerts. Load up the party wagon
    boize, we gotta road trip. Yahoooo!
    

    Don't get me wrong H_M'hum_er_ders.
    When I said that the promoters might have made a bad move at puttin
    these two groups together on the same bill,I didn't mean to apply
    that it wouldn't be a great show.When then come my way(East Coast USA)
    I'll be out there.
    What I meant to suggest is that every AC/DC concert I've been to,
    the opening band had a hard time with crowd appreciation.
    Even the last one I went to(3 years ago)L.A Guns opened and twas quite
    calm for them.I know,the kids didn't really know them then(Vidio wasn't
    on MTV much then).
    
    What I'm tryin to say is that The YOs(t.m)(Younger Ones)might be all
    fired up to see AC/DC and not want to hear some band that says on
    MTV that they have strong "believes"in "something relating to religion.
    
    Does anybody know if King's X  opened for AC/DC in the U.S show where
    those kids were crushed to death?OHIO?      guess.
    
    I think so.
    If so,I bet they are learnin alot about the road,myfriends.
    
         Crazy_I_hope_I'm_wrong_Al
    
    

      B.A. I don't know if I'm hell on wheel but, instead of falling off
    the band wagon I like to fall in it. Pass me another brewski dude.
    
    re.-1 I've been to the last two tours AC/DC did. The last one I was at
    (Heat Seeker) had White Lion open for them. Although I am not a White
    Lion fan there seemed to be plenty LGTB(tm.) there to cheer them on. I
    don't remember off hand who opened for them on the Fly on The Wall but,
    it seems that they weren't to bad. 
    						The KER
    

    
    I haven't really heard much of Kings X, only what I have heard on the
    box.  What albums do you recommend for a sampler?
    
    
    GAZ

      I don't have any of there albums yet, but from things I have read it
    seems a lot of people recommend Gretchen Goes To Nebraska. What do you
    think Greg. This the album to start out with?
    					The KER
    

    well dudes there's olny 2 albums 2date.......
    
    Gretchen Goes To Nebraska is absolutely a MUST!
    
    Faith Hope Love is the next best thang........
    
    moi
    

    Haaaay, Don't forget 'Out of the silent planet' - their Debut !!

    Out of the silent planet is a song on Gretchen ain't it?

    Yes, but it's also their first Alb.

    Gee, that's funny cuz I never heard of it, and I'm a big King's X
    fan.....
    
    Is it an Ep or somethin'??   How old is it?????

    dunno about the age (3 years at a guess), and nope, it's a full blown,
    mature, pension collecting album. (quite good too, 'though not as cool
    as Gretchen).
    
    Maybe, just maybe (If it is, god knows why), it's summat to do with you
    being in the States while I'm over here in the (snowy) UK? - deleted
    perhaps...
    
    					Andy.
     

    
    Not as big a King's X fan as you thought, are you 'priss?!  8^)
    
    Flip
    
    ps.	It's not snowing anymore and none of it settled.  8^(

    I'll agree with the rest of the recommendations, Gretchen Goes to
    Nebraska is my recommendation for the first Kings X album to get.  Give
    it enough listens through to let it grow on you too, if you put it away
    after one listen you're liable to miss out on something you really like
    (I know I would have).
    
    gh

    re-few...
    
    	Have these guys really been around 8 years like I heard on an
    interview the other night? Must be...if they said it!
    
    B.A.

    -1
    
    Well, consider the FACK(tm) that Faith, Love, Hope is their
    *3rd* lp!!

    Buck, its Faith Hope Love................
    
    Silly boy!

    Prior to their 1st LP, they did studio work for other Christian
    rockers.
    
    Re: AC/DC
    
    Is this version 2 of the "Heaven & Hell Tour"? ;-)

    Mike, I'm not sure. I thought it would be The Razor's Edge tour to
    promote their new album. I'll check out the t-shirts(I always do) and
    see what they are saying.
    					The KER
    P.S. It's not a real concert t-shirt unless you get it at the show.
    

    the first couple of times I heard "over my head" I thought it sucked
    but its grown on me....is the rest of the albun like this?
    
    
    
                                           Staynz

    
    	No, not really.  Most of the album is comparable to "It's Love"
    	from the new album.
    
    	Basically slower-type stuff, but still not too bad.
    
    							GTI
    

      Will give review of concert tomorrow. After reading over 500 messages
    I'm to wore out.
    				The KER
    

      Ok, heres a little more of a review. To start with in all fairness I
    had lousy seats, so this may have made a slight difference. I don't
    know the names of all the songs, but the only two I could understand
    were the one about listen to the music and the one that gets all the
    air play It' love or whatever.  Anyhow the group sounded very sloppy
    and muddy. I like their albums, but was not at all impressed with their
    live show. In a word disappointing.
    						The KER
    

    What is a king's x?
    
    Mike

    I kmow it may sound stoopid (it will), but a friend calls them Kings
    Cross, and it could just be a pun on the station name.
    
    			Mental Ramblings,
    
    				A.

    I have no idea where they got their name from, but I do not consider
    Kings X to be a "Christian rock band".  My defination of "Christian
    rock band" is a rock band that actively trys to sway peoples opinions
    toward their beliefs.  This differs in my mind from a band that has
    members who profess that religious belief, but don't actively try and
    convert people to it throught their music.  I'm not making any comments
    on the subjective goodness of either approach, just stating the
    distinction as I see it.
    
    gh
      

    On the other hand, a LOT of Christian rock bands don't try to convert
    people through their music.  They write about what influences them.  If
    God is a major influence on their lives, positive lyrics (not
    necessarily 'gospel lyrics' either) will come into the picture.
    
    If you look at most bands, they sing/write about what influences them. 
    Some just have influences that don't appeal.  Take Deicide for example
    ;-)
    
    Mike

    re .80
    Well said, Even if you don't call them a Christain Rock Band,
    at the very least they are a rock band with Christain members,
    a Christian name, and religous overtones in their lyrics.
    
    /Jim

    I bought GGTN yesterday.  I love this tape!  These guys are too cool
    and have a really tight sound.  I'm going out to buy the new one today.
    
    Something Greg pointed out to me that I hear in more songs than just
    the couple we listened to:  a LOT of the solos sound like they're
    improvised (to me anyway), that makes them extra special.
    
    I've heard they've been booed off stage during the AC/DC tour.  All I
    can say is that AC/DC fans have NO TASTE!  
    
    Mike

    I wouldn't think your stereo-typical AC/DC crowd would get into their
    music - it's not for head bangin' at all.  I can appreciate the
    improvised solos too, 'cuz I never structure one out before I cut it
    loose.  
    
    Scary

    A few of the solos sound double tracked (listen to Over My Head).
    That's pretty cool if he can just improvise and then double it.
    I might guess that he structures solos a bit more than they sound.
    
    It would probably be hard for an AC/DC fan to appreciate the vocals
    in King's X, at least in comparison to the vocal god known as
    Brian Johnson (heavy sarcasm).
    
    If you think about it, doesn't Brian Johnson sound exactly like
    Donald Duck?  In fact, have you ever seen them in the same room
    together...?
    
    /Jim
    

    Well I was going to add that they might sound improvised, but I think
    he could repeat them (i.e., some structure).
    
    I have Faith, Hope, & Love now too.  I'll post comments later since I'm 
    still listening to it.
    
    Mike

    
    	"Moanjam" has some wailing guitar in it!!
    
    	Listening to the Z-ROCK 50 on 94.1 Sundays, they always
    	skip that song ... I'll have to get the CD out if I want
    	to hear it.
    
    							GTI
    

    Moanjam is one of the best on FHL, love it...
    
    	Andy. (who still prefers GGTN to FHL)

    
    	I finally broke down and listened to "Moanjam" again last
    	night ... and it was as good as I remembered.
    
    	And King's X is being sued by someone who claims to be
    	a former manager of theirs.  [I think that's the story.]
    
    							GTI
    

    >	And King's X is being sued by someone who claims to be
    >	a former manager of theirs.  [I think that's the story.]
    
    Bummer!!!  Anyone got any details?
    
    ggh

    I know I have different musical tastes, but I like Faith, Hope, and
    Love as well as GGTN.
    
    go figure,
    Mike

    
      One of my favorites is 'the garden'..off the GGTN release...and the
    'Mission'..
    
                              R.B.

>      One of my favorites is 'the garden'..off the GGTN release...
    
    Oh YEAH!!!  Also one of my favorites too!  The vocal harmonies on that
    one just put be away.
    
    re: Mike
    
    I think if you listen to them for awhile you may find that the songs on
    GGTN grow on you more then the ones on FHL do.  That was my experience. 
    Of course, I got to know the stuff on GGTN really well before I got FHL
    and perhaps that biased me to think that the newer stuff wasn't as
    fresh and original sounding.
    
    gh
                                

    their last single here,it's love or something like that did nothing for
    me.It was a bit....lifeless.Nice harmonies,but nahhh!wasted on a scuzz
    ball like me...8)the video was quite funny.
    
    
    
                              Staynz(music & video critic)

    I think GGTN might be a little better, but I think FHL has its moments
    too.
    
    Anyone want the GFTPM notation for Over My Head?  Send me mail.
    
    Mike

    After a few times thru both releases, I'm starting to focus more on
    the lyrics.  As I read them, I don't see how you couldn't consider
    them a Christian band.  There are LOTS of Judeo-Christian overtones in
    what they write, even though the direct references to God are few.
    
    In that sense, they are exactly like every other Christian band I
    listen to.  Not too many artists write with direct references today.
    
    Mike

    -1
    
    Mike (honestly), what do you mean?!?

    
    	A little more info regarding the court case:
    
    	King's X is being sued by a guy who claims to be their
    	former manager, and claims that the band owes him money.
    
    	The trial/case is in Houston TX.
    
    							GTI
    

>    Mike (honestly), what do you mean?!?
    
    Buck, you should know that people involved in special interests
    (Coasters) or hobbies (Music), and even religions (Christianity in this
    case) have their own special jargon or language.
    
    I see a lot of Christian phrases in what they write.  Take "Out of the
    Silent Planet" for example (from GGTN):
    
    "perfect peace
     mountains robed in glory
     coming into view
     father speaks
     son becomes the story
     essence of all true"
    
    There's only one person they could be talking about here.  Many of
    today's Christian rock lyricists write in very similar ways.
    
    Mike

    
    	RE: .98
    
    >There's only one person they could be talking about here.  Many of
    >today's Christian rock lyricists write in very similar ways.
    
    
    	Icarus?
    
    							GTI
    

    Istill don't get it.  How come you said they're not a Christian band.
    i mean, I don't have any king's X lp's, but from reading your lyric
    insert, they look like a Christian band to me.

    That's not what I said.  You'll have to read .95 again.
    
    Mike

    OHhhhhhhhhhhhh
    
    How you COULDN'T...
    
    sorry...dyslexia...

    

	The Beat (Boston music rag) had an interview with Doug Pinnick 
    in a recent issue.  He briefly discussed the band's feelings about
    religion and how it influences the band.  If the interview hasn't been 
    thrown out yet (tomorrow is trash day 8^)), I'll bring it in. 

	I would pick through the trash for it tonight but then I won't 
    have anything to do this weekend. 8^)


    Paul

    Well, I guess I'm probably behind the times or something, but all the
    "Christian" bands I've heard have had really overt religious lyrics.  I
    will admit that I haven't heard a lot of current Christian rock.  While
    the lyrics that Kings X has could be construed to have some sort of
    Christian connotations, they are very subtle.

    When I think of a "Christian band", I think of someone that's playing
    music as a "ministry" (or to try and persuade others to their beliefs). 
    I think of this as being different from people who play music as a
    business and are at the same time have Christian beliefs.

    I knew a guy when I lived in Phoenix who was a musician and also a
    Christian and he made a strong distinction too, because he was not a
    "Christian musician" (not playing music to proffer his beliefs).  He got
    a lot of grief from other "Christians" who didn't like his business
    (playing instrumental jazz music in night clubs and studio work), or
    didn't like the fact that he wouldn't play at their church for free (he
    considered music his business and didn't like to be constantly demanded
    to do his business for free), or generally harassed him.  His point
    was well taken with me.  The problem was that he had considerable
    talent and too many people took advantage of him because he was a
    Christian.

    gh

    There was an interview in Rolling Stone with Kings X, and they were
    denouncing some of the ways that 'christians' work, in such that,
    everything they see that is 'bad' (ie not good in their eyes), they
    try to turn around, instead of being original.
    
    FYI: I was brought up as a christian, and now hate it, and all that
    goes with it, it is hypocritical trash, but this is not soapbox....
    
    ...But I Lurve Kings X.
    
    				Andy.
    

    
    I went out and bought GGTN last night and gave it a spin when I got
    home.  Excellent!!!  Can't say enough about it.
    
    On being a Christian band or person or whatever.......  King's X is
    without a doubt a Christian band, however, regardless of how they feel
    inside, they express themselves thru their music in a positive way by
    painting pictures with their lyrics AND music.  Not all christians go
    overboard with their opinions about how people should express
    themselves.  Too much of any particular thing is not good.....  You
    wind up immersing yourself in your nitch and loose perspective with the
    rest of life.  There are several "so called" christians here at work at
    they are so two-faced it makes me want to barf.  On the other side of
    the coin is a couple of christians who also work here and are NOT a
    complete pain in the @ss and are just regular folk.  It's always the
    few who ruin it for the many for any given lifestyle, belief or way of
    life.  To tie it all together.... the same goes for music.  MTV plays
    too much rap music.  It's the "thing" now.  A vast majority of the
    people I know hate rap so how can it be so damn popular???  WTF????
    
    
    
    King's X is still one of my favorite bands.....  no matter what the
    lyrics have to say..................
    
    
    -Tunes-

    re .105
    
    What issue of Rolling stone was the interview in ?
    
    Thanks,
    /Jim

    It had Robin Williams on the cover (it could only be 1, possibly 2
    issues ago).
    
    					A.

    
	Copied from the Beat 3/7/91 (w/out permission)

	
	Beat - Where do you fall into the spirtual picture in terms of 
	       religious affiliations?

    	D. Pinnick - We're all Christians.  The basic thing.  We don't 
		     associate with the Bakkers and the Swaggarts and
                     that kind of stuff.  We alienate ourselves from 
		     that, which is obvious.  But we believe in the basics.  
		     Love your neighbor as you love yourself.  The whole
		     Jesus thing, ya know?  But we're not preachers or 
		     anything.  We never meant to be and don't want to be. 
		     We sing what we feel.  Sometimes it comes out spiritual
		     but we're very adamant about not being stuck on the 
		     bandwagon with the Swaggarts or whatever.  We are who 
		     we are. It's our right.  We're just being ourselves.
    

    re: .109                           
    
    I think that quote by Doug Pinnick pretty much says it all.  I guess
    that's what I was trying (not terribly successfully) to capture in my
    previous replies.
    
    It just seems like a lot of "Christians" expect that anyone who's a
    Christian and in the entertainment business should be a preacher and
    I'm opposed to putting that kind of pressure on a person.  If they're a
    preacher or not is between them and God and it's not right to condem
    someone for the profession they do.
    
    gh

    Yeah, kinda like Stryper ... they used to come across as this squeaky
    clean image, though bumble bee clad.  Now, they just rock - their music
    sinks in rather than being pounded in.  Much better approach ...
    
    I was into Kings X before I knew they were a so-called "Christian"
    band, hasn't biased me one way or the other.  I like the music, just
    like I like King Diamond.  What they do off the stage/album is their
    own business ... IMHO of course ...
    
    Scary

    Like I've said, most of today's Christian rockers are just as subtle in
    their approach.  Most bands learned a while ago that every song does't
    have to have God in it ;-)
    
    Greg, look at the REZ songs I sent you.  They're all subtle and are off
    their current album (released last summer).  Holy Soldier is just as
    subtle, as is Mastedon.  Most of the groups on the Christian HM Sampler
    are like that.
    
    Even Phil Keaggy is like that, but he's been that way for at least a
    decade.   Some of the pop artists like Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith
    have been writing that way for at least 3 years.
    
    The REAL fundamentalists Christians flame them (and sometimes me too
    ;-)) because they think they're selling out.  But they're a minority
    now, especially after the Bakker and Swaggart fiascos.  The majority of
    us just want a positive alternative to groove to.  If they happen to
    achieve mainstream success, more power to them.
    
    I'm tellin' ya, we've come a LONG way,
    Mike

     
    If I remember correctly, Phil Keaggy was with or formed the band 
    "Glass Harp".  I have both of the albums they produced under this 
    band title.  You can certainly hear the "christian" influence, but I
    still like the music and the lyrics and several of the songs rock like 
    #ell!!  
    
    
    -Tunes-

    Re: Glass Harp
    
    Yup that's him.  He's put out some excellent guitar work that past 7
    years!
    
    Mike

    RE: Mikey
    
    The REAL Fundamentalists flame EVERYONE who isn't a REAL Fundamentalist!
    ;^)

    re: Mike         
    
    Oh I believe ya (that they're mostly subtle these days), but I think
    most of the Christian bands like REZ will claim that they're doing it
    to preach, and they do definately preach at you during their live shows
    (at least they did in '85 anyway).
    
    The distinction I see is the band like Kings X, whose beliefs influence
    the music they produce somewhat, but they don't persue a career in
    music because of their beliefs.
    
    In any case, we're both saying essentually the same thing...  The
    distinction that I see between the two probably isn't important to
    anyone except me.
    
    gh

    Greg, why would it matter if their beliefs influenced their music or
    they felt God calling them to a career in music to spread the Gospel?
    
    We (as a consumer) still have the final choice.

    I guess that's what I was trying to say in my last reply, it really
    doesn't.  
    
    In the words of Steven Tyler "Let the music do the talkin'"!
    
    gh

    A few days ago I picked up Gretchen Goes To Nebraska, and I just can't
    get over how incredibly great this band is!  Great overall sound, great
    vocals, great quitar work, excellent compositions! I love 'em!!
    
    King's X barely qualifiles as a heavy metal band.  Certainly not when
    compared to other members of the head-smashing genre.  If it weren't
    for the guitarist getting that "certain" (you know what I mean) sound,
    that causes critics to instantly catagorize a band as heavy metal,
    King's X would just be a great pop group.  The complex compositions and
    3 and 4-part vocal harmonies are elements of style that would normally
    result in a band that is too mellow to be classified as heavy metal;
    but that is not the case here, as these guys use these elements to their 
    best advantage. They really rock!  I'm not trying to say that this unusual 
    combination makes them better than other bands, but merely different from 
    what you might expect from a group that has been labeled HM.
    
    If I had to compare, I would say that King's X reminds me most of mid
    '80s Utopia (w/ Todd Rundgren).  Even the similarity between Ty's and
    Todd's guitar sound is uncanny.  They both get that sort of Hendrix-ish,
    Arbiter Fuzz Face/flanged cleanly distorted tone that sounds really
    cool.  Likewise, both bands use a heavy dose of vocal harmony on most
    of their arrangements.
    
    Like Utopia, I think that King's X's material is a little complicated
    to fall in love with at the flistening.  If you're looking for an
    album full of catchy pop hooks, then you probably wouldn't find what
    you're looking for here.  On the other hand, the progressiveness and
    depth of the material make each sucessive listening more rewarding, and 
    I find the more familiar I become with the songs the more I like them.
    Also, after repeated listenings,  you begin realize the tremendous amount 
    of work that must have went in to making this album.
    
    King's X is truly my new fav-o-rite group! In a word, I think they're
    awesome, and I am planning on buying their latest release; Faith, Hope, 
    and Love. 
     
    My only regret is that I read they're going to be opening for AC/DC;
    this is surely the kiss of death for them.  I hope they wear their riot
    gear!!
    
    -Stevie D
    

    
    Steve, 
    
         I couldn't have said it better myself.  I think King's X is an
    excellent band.  Faith, Hope and Love is not quite as strong as GGTN,
    but it's still got the same type of approach to their music.  I'm
    looking around for their 1st album.  Didn't I read that in here
    somewhere????
    
    
    
    -Tunes-

    Hey!!! I went to their show w/ living colour!!  They kicked some
    serious butt!!!
    
    My friend threw her bra up on stage...
    
    I got their 1st cd "out of the silent planet"  Kicks a$$!!!
    
    c-you guys may 11, if your up 2it that is...

    The latest issue of CCM magazine says they're doing some West Coast
    dates with Living Color while AC/DC takes a break.  They'll reunite
    with AC/DC for the Europe and beyond tour.
    
    Ty Tabor has picked up Yamaha as an endorsement since he uses one of
    their RGX series guitars.
    
    Mike

    What does CCM mag think of Kings X touring with AC/DC??
    
    I mean, after all that stands for After Christ, Devil Comes!  ;^)
    
    Seriously, what do they think of the pair?  AC/DC gets a bad rep for
    ahving songs with titles like "Hell ain't a bad place to be", "Hells
    Bells", "Highway to Hell", etc.  Personally, I think they totally rock
    out!

>    I mean, after all that stands for After Christ, Devil Comes!  ;^)
    
    Gimme a break, that's almost as much of a stretch as saying "Kiss"
    stood for "Knights In Satans Service".
    
    gh (who's heard enough of that kind of propoganda to not even joke
        about it)

>    What does CCM mag think of Kings X touring with AC/DC??
    
    They've said absolutely nothing about it except that they were touring
    together.  
    
    As for AC/DC, they may rock, but their lyrics leave a lot to be desired
    from a Christian's point of view.  Something's wrong when someone puts
    so much emphasis on Hell.
    
    Mike

    RE: Emphasis on Hell
    
    Well, it'snot a direct reference...
    
    Like Highway to Hell is a metaphor about drink n drug abuse, and where
    it leads you.  The whole life-in-the-fast-lane-while-on-tour idea.
    Sure enough, singer Bon Scott died of alcohol poisoning!
    
    Hell ain't a bad place to be is about staying in a bad relationship.
    
    Hells Bells is the only true "satanic reference" one of the lot.
    
    As for the AC/DC repitoire...it's sex, booze, and voilence.  Pretty
    std R&R fare if you ask me.

    Re: opening for Living Color
    
    This will be only for 3 weeks.  They will then join AC/DC in England
    and Germany for their tour dates there.  King's X will return to the
    states in May.
    
    A King's X home video will hit the stores by late spring.  The band's
    latest video is "We are Finding Who We Are".
    
    Mike
    

    I bet King's X can't wait for this"break"to open for Living Coulor.
    A whole NEW type of"audiance"(sp?)
    
    It looks like they are tough.And can still withstand the ROAD.
    I believe that this first leg of the road with AC/DC has been 
    just another "test"for them.      I believe they will win.
     
     For those who see this match up----Don't MOOOSCH too much when they
    play..
    
           Crazy__Yeah_right_Al
    

    I was at the local music store the other day and they had the just
    released tab book for GGTN.  I think it's done by GFTPM.
    
    Mike

    Many Christian artists are influenced by author C.S. Lewis in a big
    way.  King's X is no exception here.
    
    C.S. Lewis wrote the "Space Trilogy," a science-fiction trilogy
    about a man who travels to other planets and finds creatures living
    there, and a stronger basis for Christianity - a little like a high-tech
    Narnian Chronicles.

    The names of the books in the trilogy were "Out of the Silent Planet,"
    "Perelandra," and "That Hideous Strength."

    Mike

    
    Ugh, terrible series of books...
    

    You've read them?  I've never read any of his works, but the more I
    hear, the more curious I become.  Phil Keaggy's (another fan of his
    books) latest album (just released last week) is a theme album inspired 
    by one of Lewis' books.
    
    Mike

    
    
    More like I struggled through them, or at least until I quit halfway
    through the second book, but you know, that was a long time ago.  I
    have them sitting downstairs, perhaps I'll give them another shot since
    I have nothing better to read right now (I don't have the $$$ to pick
    up Heir To the Empire, book 4 in Star Wars series.  Takes place 12
    years after the Emperor's death.  And in case anybody is interested, we
    should be seeing a new Star Wars movie that focuses on the Clone Wars
    and the Emperor in 2 years or so.  This obviouslt takes place prior to
    the current 3.  If anybody is really interested, I have more info...)
    

        From what I heard back unpteen years ago when Star Wars 1 was
        released, was that  it was `going' to be a triple trilogy.  I
        have the first one in paperback. :^)
        
        Yeah Rob, send me some more info please. . .
        
        METALord"'

    
    	Didn't C.S. Lewis also write the fantasy series "The Chronicles
    	of Narnia", about a parallel universe that was "discovered" by
    	a girl walking through a hall closet?
    
    	I have that series ... I loved all 5 or 6 books.  [Not in order:]
    
    	"The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"
    	"The Magician's Nephew"
    	"A Horse and His Boy"
    	"The Silver Chair"
    	"The Voyage of the Dawn Treader"
    	"The Last Battle"
    
    							GTI
    

    Last night (wednesday, 6-5) around 9:00  94.1 FM (Boston) broadcast a live 
    acoustic King's X show.  I was in the car and heard pieces of it.
    Did anyone happen to tape it, I would really like a copy of it.
    
    (p.s. I don't think it had anything to do with Mtv unplugged)

    Re:  Shawn, yes that is correct.  CS Lewis wrote some very good, older,
    childrens books in the fantasy genre.  The BBC made a very good TV
    series out of these books called 'The chronicles of Narnia'.  If it is
    ever screened in the US I would tape it if I were you.  Also, of course
    there was a cartoon version of 'The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe'
    made several years agor.
    
    I don't know much about CS Lewis other works, but the feel of Kings X
    'Out of the Silent Planet', which is the only one of theirs I have, is
    certainly CS Lewis.
    
    
    GAZ

    Another Christian group, 2nd Chapter of Acts, has a theme album "Roar of
    Love" that is entirely based on the "Chronicles of Narnia".
    
    Phil Keaggy's brand new release, "Beyond Nature", is also a theme album
    based on "Transposition and Other Addresses" by C.S. Lewis.
    
    Re: Star Wars
    
    That's great news!  I love that trilogy.  
    
    Mike

    
    Matt, yep, there were originally goinf to be 3 trilogies.  I'm sure you
    noticed that at the beginning of each movie it says part iv, v and vi. 
    part i will be next.  first lucas got bored and didnt want to do them,
    then he divorced his wife who was claiming that she helped develop the
    future movies he planned, so if he made them, $$$ would go to her, so
    that held him up.  anyway, ill mail you the rest.
    
    shawn, there were 7 books in the chronicles of narnia.
    
    - rob, bookaholic from hell -
    

    
    	RE: Rob
    
    	Which "Narnia" book did I forget?  I thought I got them all.
    
    							GTI

    
    I dont know ehich one you missed, but I'll list them all here:
    
    The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
    Prince Caspian
    The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
    The Silver Chair
    The Horse and his Boy
    The Magician's Nephew
    The Last Battle
    
    

    
    	"Prince Caspian".  Thanks.
    
    							GTI
    

    Actually, just heard on the radio that it was an 18+ show.... might
    have been a mistake though, when I bought my tickets the Channel
    schedule showed it as a 21+ show.  Ida know
    
    Jim

    Hey, anyone catch the King's X show at the Channel last night??
    
    How bout a review?  Ididn't make it down there.

     I saw them at the ritz about 2 weeks ago and they
    were total personality/charisma....tight and had
    the whole audience in thier pocket and proceeded
    to stomp a rather pathetic "saigon kick" completely
    into the ground. I would love the opportunity, but
    I don't really envy the opening act at their shows!
    -Bill
    

    .re -1
    I agree, I saw them about a month ago in Boston and it was one best
    shows I had been to in years.  A truly great band, and I think
    Doug Pinnick is my favorite hm vocalist.  "Saigon Kick" kinda sucked, 
    didn't they?
    
    Hey, I read somewhere in here that King's X have a song in
    Bill and Ted's Bogus movie, does anyone know what song it is.
    
    Jim
    

    The new song in Bill & Ted's movie is "Junior's Gone Wild".

I gotta add my $.02 here.

I was at Ace loads the other day and found the Faith, Hope and Love CD
for $5.  I remembered Greg saying they were pretty hip, and I had a fiver 
burning a whole in my pocket so I grabbed it.

Boyoboy, am I glad I did.  Very refreshing stuff.   Sometimes I get really
tired of the same ole stuff nowadays.  These guys remind me of an updated 
Beatles.

I really appreciate the guitarists tone too.  Sounds like a strat, a cord,
and a marshall - very cool!!

jc (Who's diggin' it !!)

    Oh man, if you like FH&L, you have *got* to hear "Gretchen Goes To
    Nebraska"!!!  Come over and borrow my tape or something, it rips!
    
    I'm a little surprised, Jeff, I didn't think you'd really get off on
    it...
    
>I really appreciate the guitarists tone too.  Sounds like a strat, a cord,
>and a marshall - very cool!!
    
    I love Ty Tabor's guitar sound!  It's so different from what anyone
    else is using.  Very bassy and super thick.  Kind of a fat grinding
    sound.  All his solos sound improvised too (I like that).
    
    He definately plays Strats (or Strat style guitars by other vendors,
    but all single coil pickups for sure).  I read an interview with him
    not long ago where he said he used a certain type of preamp that isn't
    made anymore.  He wouldn't tell what kind it was, but said he looked
    around for them everywhere he went and bought all that he found in case
    his broke down.  
    
    The vocal harmonies and the incredible thickness of the band just blow
    me away, they're a three piece!
    
    gh

Yeah, I knew they were three peice. 

>    I love Ty Tabor's guitar sound!  It's so different from what anyone
>    else is using.  Very bassy and super thick.  Kind of a fat grinding
>    sound.  All his solos sound improvised too (I like that).

My point exactly.  It's different.

Now Greg, you should know that it's my JOB to blow your mind.

What can I say ??  I love KingsX !
jc
 

    The bass player plays one of those strange 12 strings made by Hamer. 
    One reason for their FAT sound! 
    
    Wait until you hear GGTN, you'll freak!
    
    gh

    If you like GGTN, then you must get their first one, Out Of The Silent
    Planet.  You'll have to order it though...
    
    'pril

    
      re: .162 Gee I use a preamp (KH) and full systems (KH & REXX) that 
    aren't made anymore either. I think I should drop Ty a line. We could
    swap war stories about getting parts.
      I've heard some of the Kings X stuff on the radio. "It's Love" comes
    to mind. I agree that the guitar sound seems to break a new mold, 
    somewhat refreshing these days. Maybe Ty Tabor is using a REXX, it's
    got incredible low end, and an impressive solid state distortion.
      As far as guitars, Ty Tabor uses and endorses Yamaha RGX Customs.
    
    							-B()()M-
    						

>      As far as guitars, Ty Tabor uses and endorses Yamaha RGX Customs.
    
    Endorces, but he doesn't use them exclusively (yet), according to a
    recent interview in GP.
    
    gh

     yep, ty has got the sound.....but a real lot of the thickness comes
    from the bass....he's biamped and has the low end thru svt's and the
    high end thru fender showman reverbs...he uses the amp's distortion
    and also choruses and flanges the high end...I've been doing almost
    the same thing and it sounds hot!
    -Bilbo the Magnificent
    

It doesn't....
:)

NOw, it's okay...

I like FHL the best...

jc

    I disagree with Coop.  I think that OOTSP is right up there with GGTN,
    which is my favorite of theirs.  If I had to rank them in the order of
    my preference I'd put it like this:
    
    Gretchen Goes to Nebraska
    Out Of The Silent Planet
    Faith Hope Love
    
    I think FHL gets too mellow and too monotonous at times.  The others
    are more lively.
    
    One thing I have noticed about people that like Kings X, they tend to
    like the album they heard first the best.  I think it's because the
    albums tend to sound very similar and you tend to compare the others 
    to the one you heard first.  When you're hearing that first one, you
    don't have anything to compare it to.
    
    gh
                                         

    OOTSP is the best IMO.  But then again, (IMO) the first lp's are always
    the best... Like VH, LZ...so on, so forth...

    
    Anyone got the new release?
    
    flip

    
    Yes, it's in the shops and appears to be nameless.
    
    

    
    
    Heard a song off it on the radio yesterday.. sounded ok... 

    Jim....Isn't the new single called "Black Flag"?
    
           Frizkid
    

    
    
    Yup, You Gots IT! I heard it once, I actually did'nt mind it.. 
    I'll hafta hear it a few more times to give it a real review!

Me thinks the new CD is roolin'...

It reminds me a lot of FHL, and that one is my fave...

We played it consistently on set breaks last week at Union Station.
Rippin' band.

jc

    Which album?

It makes me think of Faith Hope Love.

jc (who likes it)

    I believe a Concertmate 650 is a consumer keyboard.  Yamaha maybe?
    
    gh

    Ummm,
    
    Well, I really dug the Gretchen lp, but all I heard off of FHL was the
    single, was I thought was DROOLIN (or I was just sick of it, it had a
    cool solo).  The new single, Black Flag totally rips, so I bought the
    CD, and I love it.  I went back and bought the rest of the albums 'just
    in case', and I really dig where these guys are coming from.
    
    You see, one bad single can ruin your career!  8^)

    I've heard  that song "Black Flag" a couple of times on the radio and I
    have to say that it's outstanding!  Even after only hearing it a time
    or two, I still find myself going around humming it!
    
    gh (who's gotta get this album)

    - taken without permission from Rolling Stone Magazine, issue 629.
    
    RECORD REVIEW
    
    
    King's X - Atlantic        * * * 1/2   (three and a half stars)
    
    
                                 
    There's a tiny demon with an afinity for Muzak who sometimes visits
    artists while they're working on their albums and whispers grim,
    dangerous things into their ears.  "Lower the guitars," he will say
    helpfully, or "Fellas, fellas, what's with all these offbeat chords
    and jarring rhythm changes?"  If the MOR monster was around on any
    previous albums by King's X - *Out of the Silent Planet* (1988),
    *Gretchen Goes to Nebraska* (1989) or *Faith, Hope, Love* (1990) - the
    band wasn't buying.  This time, though, the group slipped up and let
    the demon get his homogenizing little hands on one track, "Not Just for
    the Dead," a sitar-laden pseudoballad that sounds like Toto if you're
    having a bad day and Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill" if you're having a
    good one.
    
    Elsewhere on *King's X*, there's a lot to be happy abut, as is usually
    the case with this Texas trio.  Robin Trower meets the Beatles on the
    hypnotic "What I know About Love", the most dazzling track on the
    album, a slow and sinister blues that finds bassist-supervocalist Doug
    Pinnick - flanked on the chorus by the ethereal harmonies of drummer
    Jerry Gaskill and guitarist Ty Tabor - busting a gut on pearls like "I
    work so hard/Just to keep this treasure chest of traaaaash!" "Lost in
    Germany," a paean to tour burnout, is King's X at its finest - all
    choppy rhythms, rangy melody and sublimely pretty vocals.  The band's
    choirboy approach can border on the saccharine if care isn't taken to
    have the guitars like "Germany" and the deliciously fat and lumbering
    "Ooh Song," the band and longtime producer Sam Taylor give axes and
    arias equal time.  The result is a cloud of sound dense enough to
    wallow in.  
    
    While *King's X* doesn't offer any radical departures from the band's
    instantly identifiable musical approach, the lyrics are another matter
    entirely.  On three tracks - "Silent Wind," "Lost in Germany" and
    "Black Flag" (during which Tabor wrestles with what he thinks is
    depression, only to decide it was just a bad 'tude) - the band comes as
    close as it every has to actually sounding disturbed about something,
    and it's about time.  In the past, the group's tendency to shy away
    from everyday angst often made its lyrics hard to relate to.  Getting
    angry *is* human, after all - and it's a relief to know that the
    members of King's X are, too.
    
    
    
    
    Goddess F.

>    This time, though, the group slipped up and let
>    the demon get his homogenizing little hands on one track, "Not Just for
>    the Dead," a sitar-laden pseudoballad that sounds like Toto if you're
>    having a bad day and Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill" if you're having a
>    good one.
 
    Hey!  I *love* Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill"!  That's a beautiful
    song.  It's anything but "homogenized"!
    
    gh         

    RE:  .205
    
    CCM's review perspective provides an intersting contrast to the
    album/band review recently done by People magazine.  CCM's review,
    naturally, highlights the band's Christian musical beliefs, while
    People mag mentioned NOTHING about the band's faith in their music.
    
    I've taken note of several different reviews of King's X, the band,
    and their respective albums, and it's interesting to note which
    sources pick up on the band's spirituality in music and which do not.

I watched King's X on the Dennis Miller show Friday night.

It was not a "live" performance (i.e. not live in front of Dennis' audience
when the show was taped) but, rather, pre-recorded and the video was shown
to the audience during the show.

They played "Black Flag" (what else would they play right now? :-)

The mix was bad and somebody kept mucking with it during the whole
song.  It was good at times, but mostly really muddy.

All in all, I was disappointed.  It was good to see them on TV, but I
fear that some people who've never heard of them before ended up with
a bad first impression.

Now, maybe if they got on the new "Tonight Show"...

--
Kevin

    I was *pissed*!  We must be on a different syndication stream then the
    rest of the world, 'cause I stayed up Friday night and watched TWO
    Dennis Miller shows and King's X wasn't on!  I really wanted to see
    'em too!
    
    AAAAAAAAAAGGGHHH!!
    
    gh

	Couldn't help to notice the reference on the Pearl Jam base player's	
	forehand...

    Huh?  What did he have?
    
    Greg

    
    
    	Re: Greg
    
    	Pearl Jam's bass player had "King's X" written on his hand during
    their "Unplugged" performance.
    
    
    Paul
    

    Wild...

    I bought "Out of the Silent Planet" quite awhile back and never ended
    up really giving it a good listen.  I played it once or so and put it
    on a back burner 'cause I'd gotten a bunch of other new music around
    the same time.  
    
    I finally got back to it today and I just *had* to come put in a
    comment about it.  This is an EXCELLENT album!!!  All you King's X
    heads that only have the last couple should definately get this one
    PRONTO!  The solo/jam in the middle of "Visions" is totally outta
    control!  Worth the price of the tape all by itself.
    
    The guitar sound is a little more up front on this one then the others
    and it sounds great!  Wish I had it on CD so it would last longer.
    
    (If you never ended up getting this one, Mike, DO!)
    
    gh

Yeah - I've had OOTWP for quite a while and it DOES RIP !!!
I love KingsX!

Caught King's X on Dennis Miller re-run last night(guards let me wat him...)
YAAAWWWWWNNNN.

They also had a very poor sound man, bass couldn't be heard at all!!!

J-"currently resting"-mystr

    Probably was heard just fine, but not recognized...
    
    The bassists sound is so much a PART of the melodies...
    He plays an 8 string.
    
    jc

Nope!!! Bad mix.  I could hear him just fine during guitar solo, but
the rhythm was squashing him.  I heard nothing close to what his 
fingers were indicating, just guitar.

Sheesh!!!  Guitarists!!!   8*)

Jmystr

    Oh MAN!  I wish I'd known that was on!  That's twice now that I've
    missed that one.  Someone else had mentioned the bad mix, but I don't
    really care, I'd just like to see 'em.
    
    gh

    Yeah, Out Of The Silent Planet is my favorite!

RE: .221

<    Oh MAN!  I wish I'd known that was on!  That's twice now that I've
<    missed that one.  Someone else had mentioned the bad mix, but I don't
<    really care, I'd just like to see 'em.
    
Nanny,nanny, p**, p***!!!  8*P

And that's the second time I've caught them, and second time I've been
disappointed...

Jmystr  Dennis_Miller_fan

>Jmystr  Dennis_Miller_fan
    
    Yeah, I was too.  I was really bummed when they cancelled him.  I
    thought his show was the best of the late night talkshows!
    
    gh

RE: -.1

Yeah, Poor Dennis was really bummed his last week.

I've caught a few "interesting" acts on that show, tho.

Jmystr

    
    	Well, after a few listens through the new album, the only song
    	that really stands out [IMO] is "The World Around Me" ... and
    	if I don't end up liking anything else on the rest of the album,
    	that song more than makes up for it.
    
    							GTI
    

    I thought you couldn't post entire song lyrics in here?!
    

    Correct.
    
    And someone tried to tell us the Mods didn't have to read *every* note
    in here awhile back...
    
    gh

    Cool interview, Mikey!  Hope you didn't type that yourself...  8)
    
    'pril

    The Xmen are pondering the release of a live album!

	*********************************

	The DEFINITIVE King's X Interview

	*********************************

		Pinnick in Petra???
		Jerry and Doug meet on the Phil'ip side??? 
		Plagiarising The Edge???
		Who's Svengali???
		'Working' on a used-car lot???
		Ty's vocal voyages???
		King's X booooooed off the stage??????????

	These questions and more answered ----- read on!

from:  Harvest Rock Syndicate, Volume 6, Issue No. 3, pp. 16,25

		King's X - COVER STORY

       copyright(c) 1991 Harvest Rock Publications

       (note:  the below info is over a year old, things may have changed)

	Business Office:
	2804 W. Belmont
	Chicago, IL  60618
	(312) 583-3900

	Subscription info:
	Harvest Rock Syndicate Subscriptions
	P.O Box 5369
	Palatine, IL 60078
	
	One year (6 issues) $5.95


'It's Just Not Our Cross to Bear' by Bruce Brown


"But I'll live on/And I'll be strong/'Cause is just ain't my cross to
bear..."  That sad wail distinguishes one of Gregg Allman's great moments on 
vinyl; those same words have no doubt flashed through the minds of Jerry 
Gaskill, Doug Pinnick, Ty Tabor and Sam Taylor - the King's X collective - more 
than one time.

	It's been three years since King's X released its first album, 'Out of 
the Silent Planet.'  The title alone was enough to pique the interest of astute 
Christian music fans, having been borrowed from a book by Christian allegorist 
C.S. Lewis.  Song titles such as 'Power of Love,' 'King' and 'Shot of Love' 
also aroused the curiosity of many.  'Gretchen Goes to Nebraska' followed, 
containing a Lewis-styled allegory - seemingly unrelated to the music of the 
disc - of a young child's passage through dangers to a mysterious heaven-like 
promised land, 'Nebraska.'  Soon the word was out on the Christian music 
grapevine about this amazing new hard rock/metal band.  Further research into 
the background of the members revealed that - voila!- they were believers!
	And what was even more exciting, King's X was recording on a secular 
record label! ('Oh wow, man!')  Suddenly, the Christian cognoscenti forgot 
about U2 for five minutes; they had found a new champion!  This Texas trio was 
going to march into the boardrooms, radio stations and stadiums of the 
mainstream music biz and undo decades of bias that had built up against any 
religious expression in music.  Only one problem with that scenario - it's a 
job that King's X never asked for and doesn't want.
	As much as some may want King's X to beat the heathens of the rock 
world into submission, that is just not likely to happen; at least, not on the 
grand scale for which many hope.  True, the group has logged impressive sales 
figures; nearly a half million units for its three albums (about half of those 
for the latest - 'Faith Hope Love by King's X' - alone).  But as of this 
writing, 'Faith Hope Love,' the highest-charting King's X album to date, had 
dropped out of 'Billboard's' Top 100, after peaking in the 80s.
	That descent may reverse itself when the band undertakes a projected 
club tour later this year.  But King's X is one band you believe when the 
members tell you that , although commercial success woudl be welcome, it must 
be ont he group's terms, and it has never been their primary goal.
	Drummer Jerry Gaskill, bassist Doug Pinnick, and guitarist Ty Tabor 
have been friends and band mates for over ten years.  Their producer/manager, 
Sam Taylor has been as associate for over five years.  Tabor and Gaskill were 
attending Evangel College in Springfield, Missouri, when Pinnick hit town, 
hoping to become part of a new version of Petra.  That didn't materialize, but 
Gaskill and Pinnick joined Greg Volz as the rhythm section for Phil Keaggy on 
his 'Phil'ip Side' tour.  (A recording of their 1980 Evangel College concert is 
one of my favorite bootlegs.)  Pinnick and Gaskill linked up with Tabor to form 
the first version of The Edge.  (Pinnick swears he hadn't heard of U2 at the 
time.)
	Gaskill remembers, "when we first got together, there was a second 
guitarist, who left after only one gig.  Then we had another guitar player who 
left maybe a year and a half or so later.  We realized that the three of us 
were actually the ones who had the same vision and we stuck it out and 
continued to be a band.  I guess when we first started, it was pretty much like 
what we're doing now; we were just trying to play the music that we felt.  We 
tried to do all original stuff, then we found out that we weren't able to get 
any gigs.  So we could survive, we started doing some cover tunes and got 
caught up in that.  The people said, 'you gotta write a song that's a hit; you
gotta do this, you gotta do that.'  For six years we were 'wandering around in
the desert,' knowing that the promised land was somewhere out there.  Then we 
met Sam Taylor around 1986."
	During the decade long struggle, it would have been easy for King's X 
to cave in to pressure to become more commercial.  But Jerry Gaskill claims 
that the tough times made the band more determined to succeed on its own terms. 
"After so many years of struggling, we came to the point where we realized 
we're gonna do it the way we want to do it, the way that it is inside of us, or 
we just won't do it at all.  I think that common vision we had is what actually 
kept us together.  We believed - together- in this thing which became
King's X."
	Some accounts of the band's association with Taylor have painted him as 
a 'Svengali' figure, shoehorning the group into his own private vision, or 
producing them in a musical direction with which they were uncomfortable.  
Gaskill maintains that Taylor simply provoked the group to examine the music 
that was already within them.  "Sam came along and said, 'hey look, you guys 
need to just go inside yourselves and play what's in there.  Be real, be 
honest, be true to yourselves.'  That was a revelation to us; it opened up the 
floodgates, whatever you want to call it.  That's when King's X was born."
	Ty Tabor is even more forceful in explaining the band's relationship 
with Taylor.  "There's been a lot of stuff written about Sam, and a lot of it 
has been pretty bogus.  Sam is an equal member of the band to us.  We all sit 
in a circle and hash things out, between the four of us.  Before Sam came 
along, we had problems with people who tried to press the band in a certain 
direction, for sales reasons, or whatever.  It's been my perception that that 
happens quite often in this business.  People who don't necessarily have any 
idead what they're talking about are trying to run the music part of an 
artist's career.  Basically he helped us to forget alll we had been told by 
so-called 'managers' up to that point."
	"Sam tried to de-program us from all those years of trying to please 
someone else.  We'd never had a manager do that.  Matter of fact, we'd never 
known a manager to do that with anybody.  It was refreshing to have someone 
want to pull out the best of what was already inside us, instead of change us." 
Gaskill adds that, "We all have ideas, we all have visions of our own.  
Somehow, they interconnect.  When they all get together, that is the force that 
turns out to be King's X."
	But the 'salad days' of King's X were not over quite yet.  Even though 
a contract with Megaforce/Atlantic was looming, the four realized that the band 
was not yet ready to enter the studio.  Thus began a period of almost 18 months 
of "woodshedding" - rehearsing, writing, talking, writing, and rehearsing some 
more - every day, for as much as 10 hours.  Gaskill recalls, "That was a 
wonderful time, and it was a very hard time.  It was a period of us getting to 
know each other, and realizing these are the people we want to be with.  There 
was a point when we were rehearsing at this office on an old used car lot.  It 
was during that period that Sam realized, 'yeah, there is something here, this 
is what I want to do,' and we somehow belong together and should work 
together."
	The band borrows liberally from progressive rock sources, such as Rush 
and Yes, adds Beatle-esque harmonies and chord twists, and lays it all over an 
aggressive, sometimes metallic rhythm.  Jerry Gaskill says none of the members 
can cite a particular musical 'epiphany' where the King's X sound was born.  
"When we first got together, I wasn't doing any singing at all, and Ty was 
doing a very small amount."
	"Sam was the one who said, 'Look you guys need stronger vocals, that's 
important.'  So we all started singing and it kind of evolved into what it is.  
Yet, at the same time, it's always been in us - those harmonies, those 
melodies, the things that we're doing now - have always been somewhere in us."
	Ty Tabor recalls flirting with that sound before the band met Taylor. 
"I remember I wrote the song 'Pleiades.'  It had some wierd Beatles vocals in 
it, and real heavy guitar and stuff.  It ended up on the 'Gretchen' album.  For 
me, that was the turning point.  I had decided to write something I felt 
inside, regardless of whether anybody else would like it or not.  I remember I 
played it for Doug and Jerry and they really liked it.  And at the same time, I 
think they were feeling the same inspiration to do the same thing.  It just 
kind of all fell into place at the right time.  I think it was time for all of 
us to head in that direction, but we just had not actually done so yet, in an 
organized way.  Sam came in and helped us to throw away those rules we'd had 
pounded into our heads for so long."
	Ty Tabor says the work habits instilled in King's X in those days have 
carried through tour rehearsal, as well as recording sessions for all three 
albums. "We usually do pre-production recording and rehearsing 'til we feel 
like we're ready to record the final product.  The rehearsal period for 'Faith' 
lasted a month.  We went in everyday, eight hours a day.  Between us and Sam, 
we tore all the songs apart, and everbody reinterpreted what was written in 
their own way, and changed things to fit the way they would play it, or the way 
they saw it.  The music eventually ended up being something different that all 
of us had put ourselves into.  When we got in the studio, we had a good idea of 
what we wanted to do, but we never consigned ourselves to that; we always felt 
free to try other things."
	The diverse elements in the music of King's X make it a most difficult 
band to describe.  Ultimately, the inability to pigeon-hole its sound is what 
may keep the band from achieving the commercial breakthrough its creativity 
warrants.  But Gaskill says the band is pleased that its success has consisted 
of slow, steady growth.  "We just kind of take it as it comes.  With each 
album, somewhere in us, we think 'Yeah, we really like this.  Maybe this one 
will catch on.'  But at the same time, we realize if it doesn't, it doesn't.  
We can't predict or tell people how to react to our music.  I'm happy with the 
way things are going.  It seems to be a nice, gradual kind of process."
	Ty Tabor has a more guarded attitude toward the band's popularity.  "To 
be truthful, I've tried not to expect anything, so that whatever happens, I 
just take it for what it is. I'll say this year has been full of surprises.  
We've been accepted much better than my 'non-expectancy' attitude might have 
anticipated.  When something good does come our way, I have to say we're 
usually pretty surprised that it's even received at all."
	Another hallmark of the King's X musical approach is its bigness; there 
is an almost panoramic wall of sound created, both on record and on stage, by 
only three musicians.  But big, in the case of King's X, is not necessarily 
just loud, as Ty Tabor explains.  "It may sound full and complicated, but it's 
really basic.  There's never more than three vocals happening 99 percent of the 
time, and there's never more than one bass, guitar and drum part happening in 
99 percent of the cases.  Whatever you hear on the record is what we can do 
live, exactly.  You get what we're doing, mistakes and all.  Some of those 
humans errors add the emotion to it that we like.  We try to be spontaneous and 
just keep it."
	"Like 'Moanjam.'  We've had that one around for years; we even recorded 
it for the other two records, we just never kept a take.  For 'Faith', we just 
went through it and said 'what the heck, we say we're going to keep this one 
every time, and we never do.'  So that one pass is what you hear on the album."
	It's always difficult to run a band as a democracy, particularly when 
one member, as in the case of Doug Pinnick, seems to be emerging as the ad-hoc 
'front man.'  Pinnick's gospel-tinged growl - owing bits and pieces to Sly 
Stone and Ray Charles - is, indeed, one of the most enjoyable aspects of the 
music of King's X.  But Ty Tabor's McCartney-esque lead and harmony parts also 
play a key role in the band's sound, never more so than on 'Faith.'  Still, 
Tabor maintains that his assuming more of the lead vocal chores on this album 
was not a conscious decision by the band.  "When we record, we never think of 
things like that.  We just do what we do.  Usually the stuff I write, I like to 
hear Doug sing.  But a lot of the tunes I write, he can't sing.  And some of 
the things I write, he just doesn't find the right emotion, or he doesn't feel 
comfortable with it, so I'll go ahead and sing it."
	Much has been made of the past association of King's X member swith 
artists in the Christian marketplace.  Although the trio has never attempted to 
make those connections a secret, they maintain those previous assocationas are 
simply not essential to an understanding of where the group is at today.  Jerry 
Gaskill explains that, although it would have been easy for King's X to accept 
the offers that were tendered by Christian record labels, it would not have 
been honest of the band to follow that path.  "In essence, that would have been 
the hardest thing we could have done because it wasn't the truest.  We realized 
from being in that industry, and seeing it for what it was fro us, that that 
wasn't the truest expression of who we are."
	"So we had to, I guess you could say, break away, although we continue 
to follow after what we believe to be true.  We all had thoughts of the 
Christina industry, because that's what we learned about when we were younger.  
We just grew in a different direction."
	Still, Gaskill adds, there were many positive lessons learned in those 
times.  "I think that everything that came out of it was positive - it's just a 
matter of perception.  We could have taken it and destroyed ourselves with the 
lies we saw and the hypocrisy, or we could take it and say 'this is the way it 
is; we've got to use this, we've got to become stronger, we've got to become 
truer to ourselves.'  Just like with a marriage, or anything you give your 
whole self to.  There's hard times, and those are usually growing times.  And 
this band is like a marriage.  You give your whole self and you grow together 
and you experience things together, and that's going to be hard.  But it's 
going to be very rewarding too."
	A key to the current popularity surge for King's X has been major 
tours, opening for AC/DC and Living Colour.  Despite the fact that the headline 
acts were polar opposites, Gaskill seems to feel that King's X somehow reached 
both crowds.  But he admits winning over certain audiences was not easy.  "The 
first two shows on the AC/DC tour were in Vancouver.  Both nights, we'd end a 
song, and all we heard was 'Boooo!'  The first night was especially 
discouraging, because we hadn't played in awhile and this was our first real 
tour for the 'Faith' record, and it was the biggest tour in our career, so far. 
And the first night we go out there, everybody hates us.  The next night we 
went out there, we played really well, and the same thing happened.  So, I 
think our presentation is always gonna be the same.  I think we'll go out there 
and do the same thing, no matter who we're playing for."
	Ty Tabor concedes there's a down side to the rigorous touring schedule 
of King's X; especially for he and Jerry Gaskill, who are both married and have 
children.  "We always keep our family life as the priority, because if anything 
goes, it's the band, not the family.  And that's just a matter of fact in our 
organization.  But our families also understand that there's some sacrifices 
we're going to have to make in order for us tobe together more later.  This 
year we're going to be away from our families more than we ever have before.  
It's just too important a time for us to get out and work, to help build our 
future, so that we're all working together on it.  But we do as much as we 
possibly can to see our families as often as possible.  It's a hard thing to 
balance it out."
	The spiritual symbolism on King's X albums may seem thought-provoking 
or confusing (or just annoying) to the non-believer, while many of the band's 
Christian fans seem to feel there's more room for the band to be more explicit 
in its lyrics.  Ty Tabor says he's hard-pressed to pinpoint exactly what it is 
about the groups lyrics that intrigues listeners.  "Truthfully, I don't have 
the slightest idea what attracts people to our songs.  Personally, I find 
myself attracted to any kind of art, whether it's a painting or a book, or 
other music, where someone is trying their hardest to just be honest, and 
express themselves as truthfully as they can.  When we write, we're not doing 
anything but trying to express, as honestly as possible, who we are and what 
we're going through, 'cause that's really all we have a right to talk about!"
	Jerry Gaskill feels it's the lack of "pushiness" that is the band's 
main selling point.  "Whatever quality King's X has that's different, people
seem to notice.  We're not pushing anybody into anything, or telling anyone how 
to live their lives.  We're just sharing what we believe to be true in the best 
way we can see it.  I think when anybody does that, when they share what's 
truly inside them, it's gonna be there for those who have ears to hear.  For 
those who don't, it'll just kind of go right past them."  Because King's X has 
previously been metaphorical in lyrics about its Christian faith, many people 
were amazed to see 1st Corinthians 13 quoted on the liner notes of 'Faith Hope 
Love.'  Ty Tabor says that should be no surprise to anyone who understands what 
hte band is trying to accomplish.  "We've never felt we haven't been open about 
our faith.  People say 'well you're saying more on this album.'  Maybe so, but 
we don't view it as being 'more open.'  I feel we've always been totally open 
on every record.  It just seemed the scripture was the right thing to do this 
time."
	Megaforce Records estimates that only about 10 percent of King's X 
album sales have been "within the Christian community."  While that figure may 
indeed represent the number of units that have been moved through Christian 
stores, a 'straw poll' of mainstream outlets would seem to indicate that a 
higher percentage of their sales are to believers.  Tabor and Gaskill agree, 
based on their mail and personal feedback, that they have a significant 
Christian following.  Mindful of that audience, King's X has been inundated by 
offers from Christian music promoters wanting to stage a tour or a series of 
festival dates.  And rumors continue to circultae throughout the industry that 
Megaforce will be leasing the band's albums to a Christian label for 
distribution in that marketplace.
	But Ty Tabor maintains that King's X simply doesn't base its 
songwriting or touring plans on the result of 'marketing strategies.'  "The way 
we look at it is, our record company puts our music out, and our booking agent 
tells us where to go to play that music.  How they want to sell the music is 
their business.  We don't worry about it - sales isn't our job.  We try to 
concentrate on making music.  And we want as many people as possible to hear 
that music."
	(I can hear Mr. Allman moaning 'I have not come here to testify....')

    
    Moanjam..............awsome song

     #       @  __ _*_ __  +      *   .  |     Originated by:
          .       \\ //     .            |     Pat Madden
              K  I >N< G' S   .  .       |     pmadden@cslewis.helios.nd.edu
 @            ____//_\\____ .      +     |	
                                         |     Summer news edited and
            THE SILENT PLANET            |     compiled by:
      ::    _    _     _   __  +       . |     Barry B.
           /_\__/_\___/_\_/__\     @     |     n8846069@henson.cc.wwu.edu
	  || \__/ \___/ \_/  \\          |
   +  *  // EMAIL INFO NEWS- //  '     . |     Join the King's X Fan Club!
         \\ LETTER ISSUE #17 ||   .      |     As it says in your albums,
         <<                   \\      .  |     send a s.a.s.e. to:
    '    //    MARCH 29 1993   ||        |     King's X official fan club
  *   . ||                     // * .    |     PO Box 968
       . \\ from your friend  //        +|     Katy, TX 77492-0968
          >>   Pat Madden     ||   .     |       
     .    //                   >>  o     |     This PO Box still works.  But it
  . .   .||  pmadden@cslewis. ||       + |     may take them w while to respond.
        <<    helios.nd.edu   \\  *      |    
         \\   `0'             <<         |     
        * ||  ())   ___       ||    @    |      
  +       \\^--^/\--\  \/_\-^//          |     
    . .    \^--^/\--^\__\ \-^/   #    .  |     
*    .     .  +     .       .            |     
   .  .                  *         .    *|		      
             +       .         *         |     Important Date: 	4/27 Galactic
                               _____     |     			Cowboys - Space
     //~~         ,,,,,       |     |    |      		in Your Face   
    ///  |       {{~~~}}   -~----^------ |  
   ///^|^ )    {{{ o-o }}}   /{ o-o }\   |    
   |// ~ |*    {{}  U  {}}   {{  V  }}   |   
  (()( _/(    {{{}  -  {}}} {{}\{-}/{}}  |     
  ())(   (    {{{} \_/ {}}}  {} ||| {}   |      
               {{}     {}}               |
*********************************************************************************
CONTENTS:
Pat Rambles
Thoughts on the CS Lewis Connection
Galactic Cowboys Question
Galactic Management Change
Rolling Stone Article
*********************************************************************************
PAT RAMBLES
*********************************************************************************
This issue took probably too long to put out.  Sorry about that.  Please keep
on sending in things to post and it'll make it a lot easier and faster.  In
this issue you'll find a very informative Rolling Stone article from over 2
years ago, along with some more CS Lewis stuff and more mention of the Galactic
Cowboys.  Still haven't bought their album?  Well I can't recommend them enough.
Their first one is one of my favorites in my whole collection.  Next issue will
be completely dedicated to the GCs.  I will include a review of their newest
album called "Space in Your Face" (a preview I guess) with a song by song
rundown and overview.  Also included will be a long press release that 
accompanied their first album which came out in 1991.  As for King's X, I
hear that they are now in the studio recording their next album.  Other than
that not much is new.
*********************************************************************************
THOUGHTS ON THE CS LEWIS CONNECTION
*********************************************************************************
From se-bkg@lea.csc.ncsu.edu (Kyle Brown):

This is my first submission to the King's X newsletter, although I've been
avidly following it for a LOONGG time.  I first discovered King's X with
the album "Gretchen Goes to Nebraska" and was taken by both the powerful
music and the incredible lyrics.  Maybe I can shed some light on more of
the C.S. Lewis references on that album.

The Track "out of the silent planet" evokes (for me at least) the sounds
of the heavens as C.S. Lewis envisioned it.  It's sort of the "music of
the spheres".  You can hear a dark, brooding theme that I think represents
our "bent" eldil at the beginning, but then the main theme kicks in with
the Lyrics that represent the rest of the eldil rejoicing in the presence
of God, and relating his deeds.

The song "the differnce (in the garden of St. Anne's on the
Hill)" refers to the last book in the trilogy, "That Hideous Strength",
where the Pendragon, (Dr. Ransom) lives in a mansion (St. Anne's on the
hill) where things have been returned to their pre-fallen state.  Less
obvious, but still in that vein is the song "Summerland", which refers to
the Arthurian legend of the kingdom of summer, where Arthur reigns over a
land similarly returned to its Edenic state.

 [ summerland is definitely about Jackson/Pearl Mississippi, but maybe 
   has the underlying theme of Avalon - pat]

I would definitely recommend the entire trilogy to anyone interested in
King's X or C.S. Lewis.  However, don't read it as sci-fi, it just won't
cut it.  Read it as allegory or fantasy with a purpose.  Remember that
C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were the best of friends (in fact you might
catch a few Tolkien references in "That Hideous Strength"), and that they
influenced each other's thinking and writing styles.

Also, Pat, here's a request for you:  I appreciate the King's X and
Galactic Cowboys info, but would also like to know if anyone out there has
information on tours or albums by Sam Phillips and T. Bone Burnett. 
Anyone who listens to the lyrics on King's X albums would probably also
enjoy Sam & T.Bone's lyrics as well.  The music style is a bit different,
but who listens to metal all the time anyway?  (Not that King's X is all
metal, anyway!)
*********************************************************************************
GALACTIC COWBOYS QUESTION
*********************************************************************************
From grahams@uwwvax.uww.edu (Steve Graham):

OK, I've seen alot of posting about Galactic Cowboys and my curiosity is
roused.  I assume they have a somewhat unique sound (like KX) but what are
the lyrics like?  I like the thought provoking lyrics from King's X and 
would be interested in the Cowboys if they have a similar approach.  What
I'm getting at is I don't want to waste money on a tape if it is just 
mindless dribble about chasing "babes" etc.  Can someone enlighten me?

 [GCs have a similar hint of Christianity and relevant songs about problems
  in the world or memories of the past or whatever, and they have some
  pretty humorous spacy songs too.  Definitely no songs about babes. - pat]

Also, regarding one of the songs on Gretchen, there is a line "I saw the man 
stare in silence why can't he be honest with who he wants to believe a cry
for help were the words written on the cover of the magazine" (or something
close to that).  Any speculation who the man is and what magazine is being
refered to?

 [Anyone?  I don't really know, but it might start a good discussion. -pat]
*********************************************************************************
GALACTIC MANAGEMENT CHANGE
*********************************************************************************
From dfx@nuchat.sccsi.com (Jesse Dryden):

  [stuff deleted]
  they've just had to push it back due to the management 
  change. Did I mention that yet? That GC left Sam Taylor and are now
  with the manager of White Zombie and Pantera? 
*********************************************************************************
ROLLING STONE ARTICLE
*********************************************************************************
From phils@phrog.att.com (Phil Schuhmann): 

       from Rolling Stone, issue No 598, February 21, 1991, page 28
       copyright 1991 Straight Arrow Publishers Inc.
       ===============================================================

       KING'S X
       by DAVID FRICKE

       ----
       "I read the Bible.  I know what he did.  Man, the guy was
       cool!"

       Doug Pinnick is talking excitedly in a Dallas restaurant and
       stabbing a fork emphatically into his steak 'n' shrimp combo
       platter, setting off a noisy chain reaction of clinking and
       clanging by the multiple zippers on his leather jacket and
       the half dozen or so thin silver bracelets on each wrist.

       "Here he is, sitting with the worst people in the world,"
       Pinnick continues, ignoring the curious stares coming from
       adjacent tables, "all the ones that nobody else would touch
       or come close to.  Here he is, talking to them.  And he's
       not telling them to get their lives together.  'Don't feel
       guilty' - that's basically what he said.

       "And that's all we're saying - 'Don't feel bad about what
       you're doing,'" Pinnick declares, peering intently through
       the shaggy overhang of his jet black mohawk.  "The hardest
       thing about living in this world is feeling good about
       yourself."

       The "he" Pinnick's referring to is, of course, the He, Jesus
       Christ.  The "we" is King's X, the biracial hard-rock trio
       from Houston whose critically applauded blend of muscular
       progressive metal, Beatlesque vocal sunshine, AOR melodic
       savvy and utopian optimism is making chart waves via 'It's
       Love', the breakout track from the group's third LP, "Faith
       Hope Love by King's X".  And Pinnick, the band's outspoken
       black bassist and lead singer, is explaining how he,
       guitarist Ty Tabor and drummer Jerry Gaskill weathered ten
       years of writing, gigging, recording and, for long periods,
       starving together - and succeeded in doing the seemingly
       impossible.  That is, reconciling their own devout Christian
       beliefs - and attendant missionary responsibilities - with
       the baser thrills of rock & roll, the wordly temptations of
       pop stardom and the harsh realities of both the secular and
       Christian music industries.  Not to mention the
       contradictory expectations of their rapidly growing
       audience, composed largely of equally devout metalheads
       whose idea of a new messiah is more likely to be Danzig or
       Slayer.

       "This is what we're supposed to be doing," Pinnick insists,
       "what they're all supposed to be doing," taking a poke at
       his more puritanical brethren.  "Being themselves in the
       world.  Feeling the friction.  We come out and play, we feel
       one way, maybe the crowd feels another.  But we rub against
       each other, we understand and learn.  And we disappear after
       that.  But still, something happens."

       That something can be simple air-guitar nirvana.  Later that
       night, at the City Limits, a heavy-metal watering hole in
       suburban Dallas, King's X roasts a capacity crowd with
       repeated bazooka blasts of what Pinnick likes to call "the
       pound", an appropriate euphemism for the explosive compound
       of thundering hard-rock classicism, wily hooks, speed-metal
       zoom and startlingly soulful vocal interplay.  Flashes of
       the band's disparate influences - early Rush, U2, Sixties
       Brit pop, progressive soul, no-nonsense thrash - whiz by,
       shoehorned into rib-rattling, sing-along torpedoes.  One
       minute, the band is driving head bangers into fits of
       spasmodic ecstasy with the staccato James Brown-cum-
       Metallica time changes of 'We Were Born To Be Loved'.  The
       next, Pinnick, Tabor and Gaskill are executing the delicate
       stair-step harmonies of 'I'll Never Get Tired Of You' with
       the cathedral elegance of the Beatles on "Abbey Road".

       It's easy to miss the message amid the top-drawer mayhem
       like 'Power of Love', a buzz-bomb pledge of spiritual
       allegiance from the band's 1988 debut, "Out Of The Silent
       Planet", or the frenetic hallelujah 'Moanjam' ("I sing this
       song/This one's for you/You're the story....You're the
       glory"), which roars like Van Halen at Bad Brains speed.
       There's more epic spirit than specific doctrine in Pinnick's
       gritty, robust singing; imagine Bono speaking in R&B-gospel
       tongues (particularly that of Sly Stone).  And over three
       albums, King's X has mentioned its savior only once by name
       in a song, the pulverizing 'Over My Head' from the 1989 LP
       "Gretchen Goes To Nebraska".  Even then, it was only in
       passing - "Music music/I hear music....Oh Lord/Music over my
       head."

       But that is because King's X is not a Christian band,
       "playing the game of using the right words here and there,"
       as Ty Tabor brusquely puts it.  Rather, the members of
       King's X argue, they are simply a band of Christians, less
       interested in parroting dogma than in celebrating life and
       blowing minds.  And so what if the devil has all the best
       tunes?

       "I like a lot of bands whose lyrics or lifestyle I might
       question," Pinnick says without apology.  "Like Black
       Sabbath.  The core of a lot our music is Black Sabbath.
       Yeah, the guy's talking about Satan and stuff.  But that's
       just what he's singing about.  Hopefully, that's what we get
       across, that we just play music."

       "The spiritual aspect that people always tie to us includes
       everything," Jerry Gaskill contends.  "It includes that
       Saturday-night-party thing."

       Their one-two punch of candid spirituality and exploratory
       hard-rock verve has paid off handsomely outside the
       Christian corral.  The band's three albums have sold nearly
       300,000 copies combined (half of those by "Faith Hope Love"
       alone); Gary Waldman, vice-president of the band's label,
       Megaforce Worldwide, estimates that only five to ten percent
       of those sales have been within the Christian community.
       With 'It's Love', which went Top Ten in AOR airplay, King's
       X has been sharing needle time with heavy-metal elders like
       AC/DC and ZZ Top.  Some of the band's most vocal fans are,
       in fact, other musicians, such as Living Colour's Vernon
       Reid, who often applauds King's X in his own interviews.

       The group's enthusiasm for heathen noise has also gotten
       King's X into trouble with fans on the fundamentalist side
       of the fence.  Not too long ago, Doug Pinnick was
       buttonholed by a young man handing out religious antirock
       tracts in front of the Summit Arena, in Houston, where
       Pinnick was going to catch a thrash-metal spectacular
       featuring Judas Priest, Megadeth and Testament.  The guy,
       who also happened to be a King's X fan, was outraged that
       Pinnick would even think of attending such a satanic ritual.

       "I tried to talk him down," Pinnick says, shaking his head
       sadly.  "He didn't understand.  Because I had shattered his
       dreams.  And I don't want to do that to anybody.

       "Rock & roll is very important in my life.  But the most
       important thing is to give people things they need, like
       love and attention.  We all need that friendly handshake or
       hug.  That's what keeps us going, and that's what I want
       King's X to represent.  I want people to be able to put one
       of our records on and feel like 'Yeah, I can deal with
       today.'"

       Doug Pinnick was in his late teens before he was introduced
       to the healing properties of heavy music.  Born in Joliet,
       Illinois, "the illegitimate child of an illegitimate
       granddaughter," Pinnick was raised by his great-grandmother,
       a strict Baptist who had "the Pentecostal holiness attitude,
       where everything was wrong.  Except sitting at home and
       reading your Bible all day and going to prayer meetings."
       His great-grandmother didn't get a television until he was
       twelve.

       In high school, Pinnick fell in love with Motown and, when
       he got to college, Led Zeppelin.  "I finally realized I
       could be myself," he says.  "I have a deep basic faith.  I
       really do believe.  But it's not something somebody taught
       me or ingrained into me.  I realized that there was a way of
       life in it that could work for me."

       It took Pinnick, now forty, several years before he found
       that way of life with King's X.  He lived for a time in a
       Christian community in Florida, handing out pamphlets on the
       street and staging religious pop concerts that, most of the
       time, barely drew flies.  Bored and frustrated, Pinnick
       returned to Joliet and formed an evangelical art-rock band
       that generated a large local following, out of which he
       actually founded his own church, the Shiloh Fellowship.  "It
       was like a hippie-community thing," Pinnick says.  "We got a
       pastor - he was really cool, he was at Woodstock.  The
       church grew, and I felt really good about it.  But then it
       got to the point where, again, I started seeing 'the box'.
       I had to move on, because these people weren't.  So I said a
       prayer: 'Lord, open the doors and I am out of here.'"

       God answered his prayer - sort of.  In 1979, Pinnick got an
       offer to move to Springfield, Missouri, and join a re-formed
       version the popular Christian band Petra.  That lineup,
       which included New Jersey emigre Jerry Gaskill, broke up a
       month after Pinnick arrived.

       The seeds of King's X were sown a year later, when Pinnick
       and Gaskill - who had found employment as the rhythm section
       with Christian-rock guitar hero Phil Keaggy - met Ty Tabor,
       a guitarist (and serious Keaggy fan) from Pearl,
       Mississippi.  Along with a short-lived second guitarist, Dan
       McCollom, they formed a group called the Edge and embarked
       on a long career of playing Midwest bars for peanuts.

       "The first several years, we were constantly concerned with
       being original," says the thirty-year-old Tabor.  "But the
       thing is, we only ended up copying other original people."

       One group, not surprisingly, was U2.  Pinnick says the Edge
       was gigging long before he'd ever heard of U2, but he
       clearly remembers the day he bought U2's second album,
       "October", took it home and dropped the needle on the
       opening track, 'Gloria'.

       "Here Bono was singing in Latin this beautiful text, 'Gloria
       in Excelsis Deo'," Pinnick says.  "And I thought, 'That dog!
       He got away with it.'  He did it in an artistic way.  That
       was the day U2 changed my mind about a lot of things and
       encouraged me.  Because if they could do it, we could do
       it."

       Nevertheless, Pinnick confesses, "on the early demos, you
       could always tell where I stole from."  'King', which was
       later recorded for "Out of the Silent Planet", "sounded
       exactly like a Bow Wow Wow song," he says.  "'Shot Of Love'
       sounded like a Yes tune.  We did it a couple of times that
       way, and it just fell apart."

       The bond that kept the band from falling apart was its
       mutual faith - and mutual distrust of organized
       Christianity, in and out of the music business.  "We hit it
       head-on," says Gaskill, 32, "the whole Christian world-
       versus-the-devil thing, saying you couldn't do this or be
       that."  Gaskill and Tabor had both dropped out of Evangel
       College, a Christian university in Springfield.  "I left the
       school very angry at the hypocrisy there," Tabor says
       sharply.  And Pinnick was just tired of singing for the
       converted; King's X, he says rather proudly, has never
       performed on the Christian concert circuit.

       "I get so disgusted when I see these T-shirts with MEGALIFE
       and it looks like MEGADETH," Pinnick says.  "I'm going, 'Do
       something original!  If you Christians do something
       original, maybe people would respect you.  But all you do is
       take everything you see that's successful, and then you turn
       it around and want to tell people, "This is real." This is
       bullshit.'

       "When we started, I said, 'I want to form a band with people
       who believe the same way I do, who just want to play rock &
       roll - period.'  That's all I wanted.  And as a result,
       maybe we could make a statement in a meaningful way.  Not
       that the band hinges on the success of people getting turned
       onto what we say but that we can be free to be who we are,
       without being ashamed or ridiculed for it.

       "Because Christianity is ridiculed.  I don't want to say, 'I
       believe a certain way' and then have people go, 'Oh, man,
       get outta here, he's a Christian.'  I'd prefer they just go,
       'Hey, he's a Christian, they believe that way, and it's
       cool, because they stuck to what they believed in.'"

       The group's diligence was eventually rewarded but only after
       they lost another second guitarist, changed their name
       (regrettably) to Sneak Preview and released an independent
       LP which they'd all much rather forget.  In 1985 the band
       moved to Houston - originally at the behest of two local
       Christian-music entrepreneurs who soon flaked out - and met
       Sam Taylor, a fellow believer, musician and former ZZ Top
       management associate who agreed to work with them.

       Taylor subsequently became the band's manager, record
       producer and video director.  Indeed, he's literally the
       fourth member of the band.  "I don't have a management
       agreement or production deal," Taylor says.  "I'm a four-way
       partner.  That's the way they wanted it."  Taylor also came
       up with the name King's X - originally the name of "the cool
       band in town when I was in high school," he says.  "I guess
       I was waxing philosophical at the time too, thinking about
       the relationship between God and Christianity, and that we
       have a mark on us."

       It was Taylor's idea, more recently, to underscore that mark
       by including an unusually explicit reference to the band's
       Christianity in the credits of "Faith Hope Love": a lengthy
       excerpt from St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians, in
       the New Testament, which reads, in part, "Though I have the
       gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all
       knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could
       remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing."

       "I'm glad it's in there," Pinnick says.  "Because it's not a
       statement from the Bible to me.  It's a statement about
       life.  We've lost sight of what really is."

       "As corny as this may sound, it's like the Michael Jackson
       song: You gotta deal with the man in the mirror," Tabor
       explains.  "If you do that, that's your little part of
       changing the world.  Because you're in the world.  We write
       about people dealing with themselves, not going out to
       change others."

       "You've got to feel the love in you heart," Pinnick says.
       "You've got to recognize what love is, you've got to
       understand it.  How am I going to love God, something I
       can't even see, when I don't even know what love is?  This
       is the quest.

      "Jesus says if you just love your neighbor as yourself, you
       do well.  And I just want to be able to do well."

Newsgroups: rec.music.christian
From: skyhawk@cwis.unomaha.edu (Chad Vice)
Subject: Dogman (King's X)
Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha
Date: Sat, 1 Jan 1994 16:45:13 GMT
Lines: 84

I have the first title track "Dogman" on tape now.  A friend of mine works
at a local radio station here in OMaha which received the first single two
days ago.  

The sound of this recording is tremendous!!!  Some of the funkiest stuff the
group has ever done!  I was falling into the groove from the first bar!

The words, as best I can tell, are as follows:

Give me a dollar 
Or give me 50 cents.
Let me take it back, 
If that ain't what I meant.

Give me a coat
Or give me a bite.
Give me a light bulb
And make sure it's bright.

Give me the mood
Or give me everywhere.
Give me some powder
To spray up in the air...
Or in the air (heir?).

Let me take my thoughts away
To think about another day
Remembering the times I pray
To help me deal with me...
To be the dogman.

Give me some attention.
Lend me your ear.
Give me what you do
And get me out of here.

Give me a book;
Give me something to read
Give me a horserace
And give me (...) need.  (these two lines were hard to deciper)

Let me take my thoughts away
To think about another day
Remembering the times I pray
To help me deal with me...
To be the dogman.

Bridge:
All the sleeping never waking
All the leaves in need of raking
All the business undertaking
All my bones and muscles aching
Thoughts and mind are surely flaking
Over oceans sands (sins?) are shaking
Purity of no mistaking
Girls and homes and glass is breaking (girls and homes is very suspect)

Give me a dollar
Make it black and white
Give me a newspaper
Tell me if it's right - TEll me!

Give me a nail
Or give me a bat
Give me a skillet
Or give me a fact (?!?)

Remembering the times I pray
To let me take my thoughts away
To think about another day
TO help me deal with me...
To help me deal with me, yeah...
To be the dogman.

---------------------------

Sorry for the inaccuracy of the lyrics, but I had a hard time picking them
up by ear.

-- 
 ______________________________________         :^\            ______    .
|      Chad Vice (AOPA 01127947)       |        |__`\________-'__:__;\___| 
|        Private Pilot -- ASEL         |________`\_  cessna              |) 
|         Instrument Airplane          |           `~~~~~~~~~---\\---\|-'|

From:	DECPA::"n8846069@henson.cc.wwu.edu" "BarryB" 20-JAN-1994 09:11:08.75
To:	distribution:; (see end of body)
CC:	
Subj:	The Silent Planet (Issue 20)

     #       @  __ _*_ __  +      *   .  |     ...for the latest KING'S X
          .       \\ //     .            |     and GALACTIC COWBOYS news
              K  I >N< G' S   .  .       |
 @            ____//_\\____ .      +     |
                                         |     Editor
            THE SILENT PLANET            |     ------
      ::    _    _     _   __  +       . |     Barry B.
           /_\__/_\___/_\_/__\     @     |     n8846069@henson.cc.wwu.edu
	  || \__/ \___/ \_/  \\          |
   +  *  // EMAIL INFO NEWS- //  '     . |
         \\ LETTER ISSUE #20 ||   .      |     Originated by
         <<                   \\      .  |     -------------
    '    //    Jan 10 1994     ||        |     Pat Madden
  *   . ||                     // * .    |
       . \\ from your friend  //        +|
          >>    Barry B.      ||   .     |     Fan Club Address
     .    //                   >>  o     |     ----------------
  . .   .||  n8846069@henson. ||       + |     King's X
        <<      cc.wwu.edu    \\  *      |     14755 Ventura Blvd. #1-710
         \\   `0'             <<         |     Sherman Oaks, CA 91403
        * ||  ())   ___       ||    @    |
  +       \\^--^/\--\  \/_\-^//          |     Galactic Cowboys
    . .    \^--^/\--^\__\ \-^/   #    .  |     P.O. Box 540
*    .     .  +     .       .            |     Katy, TX 77492-0540
   .  .                  *         .    *|
_           *   __    __        .      _ |
_--------------^   ^^   ^--------------_ |     FTP Site
              O | |  | | O      .        |     --------
   *            <> || <>                 |     cs.uwp.edu
          #      |^  ^|   :         ~    |     back issues, lyrics, articles
    *             \||/                   |     pictures, and press releases
         .        ||||       '           |
                  /oo\                   |
*  o             .         @        '    |
                               _____     |
     //~~         ,,,,,       |     |    |
    ///  |       {{~~~}}   -~----^------ |     KING'S  _DOGMAN_
   ///^|^ )    {{{ o-o }}}   /{ o-o }\   |     The new album is out NOW!
   |// ~ |*    {{}  U  {}}   {{  V  }}   |
  (()( _/(    {{{}  -  {}}} {{}\{-}/{}}  |
  ())(   (    {{{} \_/ {}}}  {} ||| {}   |
               {{}     {}}               |
                                         |
=============================================================================
C O N T E N T S
=============================================================================
Editor's Notes
GC Characture Contest
New Album Preview
Dallas Morning News Article
Sat Night Live
The Official GC Newsletter
GC Banned in Canada!
Concert Shorts
Mrs. Leslie
Toy Subs
Heaven's Metal Interview
DGC Drops GC
Postcard from Doug

=============================================================================
Editor's notes
=============================================================================
Hello there!  After what looked like a quietus, the newsletter arises once
again!  Thanks everyone for being so patient.

We now are over 300 subscribers!  Somehow, without even any advertising, I
have received over 100 new subscription requests.  The list's existance has
even been published in serveral 'Internet-guide' books.

Tonight while I was working on putting the newsletter together, I heard
that the new King's X album, _Dogman_, had been released a whole week
eariler than anticipated.  I literally drove as fast as I could to pick
it up before the store closed.  I got there just mintues before they
locked the door!

Anyway, I'm listening to it now, and my first impression is very positive.
This is the biggest 'sound progression' the band has ever done between
albums.... heavier, funkier, even rap-like vox,  ...yet, the trademark vocal
harmonies are still present and many of the mellower songs give nods
back to the time of _Gretchen_.

So go out and get it!  And be sure to send me your comments for inclusion
in the newsletter.

-BarryB


=============================================================================
GC Characture Contest
=============================================================================
We've always been keen on the Galactic Cowboys here at the Silent Planet,
so I think it's about time we made a characture of them for the title
page.  Pat did a fantastic ASCII protrait of Doug, Ty, and Jerry.
Now we need ASCII's of Dane, Ben, Alan, and Monty.

"What do I get if I win?"
Well, I was going to give the winner a rare _Awful Truth_ CD, but I still
don't have the extra copies like I thought I would.  So, for now, you
get to have your initials and work proudly displayed in the title page.


=============================================================================
New Album Preview
=============================================================================
From robnpam@delphi.com (Pamela Pociluk):

The track listing for DOGMAN, the new King's X album scheduled to be
released January 25, is as follows:
 
        Dogman                         Sunshine Rain
        Shoes                          Complain
        Pretend                        Human Behavior
        Flys and Blue Skys (sic)       Cigarettes
        Black the Sky                  Go to Hell
        Fool You                       Pillow
        Don't Care                     Manic Depression
 
The album was produced by Brendan O'Brien and has a heavier, more
straightforward sound than their work with Sam Taylor.  Doug does all
the lead vocals this time.
 
"Two thumbs up, way up" from me and hubby. :)  My impression is that
most of their existing fans will find lots to enjoy here, and hope-
fully, IF Atlantic promotes them properly, they'll win over some new
fans as well.

 
=============================================================================
Dallas Morning News Article
=============================================================================
Transcribed w/o permission by Tyler Weaver, weaver@spdc.ti.com:

KING'S X HOPES TO SHED CULT IMAGE
Band changes managers, tries stripped-down sound

from Dallas Morning News, 12/16/93
By David Sprague
Billboard

NEW YORK-- While a lush, elaborate sound often described as "the Beatles
meet Metallica" has won King's X a dedicated cult following, it's never
translated into mainstream success for the Houston-based hard-rock trio.
  But with its stripped-down fifth album, _Dogman_, which Atlantic will
release Jan.25, the band may surprise longtime followers and --in hopes
of label and band-- change the perception that King's X is merely "a
musician's band."
  Much of the transformation, it would seem, stems from the band's split
with manager Sam Taylor.  For eight years, Mr. Taylor not only handled
the band's business, but also produced its albums, directed several highly
conceptual videos, and played an unusually large role in the creative
process.  But two months into a 1992 tour supporting its self-titled
fourth album, the band left the road for what singer/bassist Doug Pinnick
called "a period of reassessment," and ended up severing the relationship.
"We'd been together for so long that there was really no way to change the
way we worked together," says Mr. Pinnick.  "No knock on Sam, but he was so
analytical about things that we'd end up going over every detail to the
point where the initial spark was sometimes lost."
  Rather than return to the road, the band focused on the future (a decision
that Atlantic executive vice president and general manager Val Azzoli says
contributed to the disappointing sales of _King's X_).  The group signed
with manager Ray Daniels (sic), who also handles Rush's affairs, and made
a conscious decision to relinquish some of the tight creative control 
upon which Mr. Taylor had insisted.
  "When they asked us what we thought would be a good single," Mr. Pinnick
says by way of example, "we said, 'It's up to you guys-- we like all the
songs.'"
  The band's new philosophy also has rekindled enthusiasm at Atlantic, 
where support for King's X has run deep since the release of its acclaimed
1988 debut, _Out of the Silent Planet_.
  "This is a new chapter in the band's life, not so much because of new
management as (because of) the array of things that come with it," says
Mr. Azzoli.  "Whether (Mr. Taylor) was good, bad, or indifferent doesn't
matter.  The fact is simply that now you have all these new creative forces
coming together.  By the very nature of that, you're going to get a whole
different vibe.  Plus, the band has realized what their strengths are--
they've become far more succinct."
  Indeed, _Dogman_, which was produced by Brendan O'Brien, peels away not
only the multiple sonic layers that characterized previous releases (on 
1991's _F,H,L_, the band employed a dizzying array of orchestral instruments),
but often the mystical veneer of the songs.  From the title track-- which
will be released Jan.11 as the first single-- to the blistering cover of
Jimi Hendrix's _Manic Depression_, the 14-track set is the most aggressive
King's X album to date.
  "This is always what the band sounded like live," says Mr. Pinnick, who
now handles all lead vocals.  
  The incomplete video for _Dogman_ likewise will emphasize live footage--
a first for the band, whose previous clips (such as last year's MTV staple
_Black Flag_) were eye-catching but sometimes esoteric.
  "There's no smoke and mirrors on this one," says Atlantic vice president
of product development Vicky Germaise.  "It's a live clip that clearly
imparts their intensity.  As simple as it sounds, we've never had that
before."
  Ms. Germaise says taking to the road ("but not a club tour; they've done
enough preaching to the converted," she says) is the key to expanding
King's X's record sales, which have averaged about 200,000 units per project
(_FHL_, which reached No.85 on the _Billboard_ charts, exceeded that figure,
but its follow-up slipped significantly).
  And with manager Daniels' capacity for breaking bands through relentless
touring, the group looks to spend most of 1994 on the road-- first as an
opening act, then headlining a theater tour.
  Ms. Germaise adds that Atlantic is taking its case to the information
superhighway, tapping into computer bulletin boards via the band's fan club.
  "We did something similar with Rush and, on another level, Clannad," Ms.
Germaise says.  "We drop items in for awareness.  It's an unofficial thing,
since we think it's better to have it come from the people, so to speak."
  While radio has been a sticking point in the effort to break King's X
more widely (only _It's Love_, from _FHL_, has cracked the Top 5 on 
_Billboard's_ Album Rock chart), Mr. Azzoli cites the new set's depth as
an indication that _Dogman_ will make inroads both at album rock and at the
label's secondary focus, modern rock radio.
  A revitalized Mr. Pinnick-- who concedes that a conscious effort to "write
singles" may have hampered the band in the past-- professes commitment to a
long-term push behind _Dogman_, as does Atlantic's promotion department.
  "Since I've been at this company, King's X has been the one band everyone
wants to break," Mr. Azzoli says.  "Now there's finally a sense that all the
elements are in place to do it-- I've never seen people as excited as they
are about this album.  It's pretty close to perfect."


=============================================================================
Saturday Night Live
=============================================================================
From emsiwek@iastate.edu (Elizabeth Siwek):

If you hadn't heard, there is a King's X fan club called
Fans in Action.  The woman administrating it is trying to get
publicity for King's X that is long overdue.  
Contact:	Sue Johnson
                118 Elkview Road
                Lincoln University, PA 19352

She told us that Pat Madden had sent her back copies of the
Silent Planet and asked us to watch the net for other fans,
ideas, and rumors.

Sue is also spearheading a letter writing campaign to Saturday
Night Live, to try to get King's X on SNL in the spring.  
Write to:	Lorne Michaels
                c/o Saturday Night Live
                30 Rockefeller Plaza
                New York, NY 10112

She suggests to write more than once -- volume.
Be creative by sending cards, postcards, etc.
But, be brief in the letter (so they don't have to
read too much), but be to the point as to why they'd
be a great guest and remind them about the Jan release.


=============================================================================
The Offical GC Newsletter
=============================================================================
From: "Big Ed" <EMW107@psuvm.psu.edu>

                       Cosmotron Digest
            An Interplanetary Periodical Publication

              P.O. Box 540    Katy, TX  77492-0540



Greetings and salutations from Galactic Cowboys! Welcome to our
newsletter.  As our first order of business, we'd like to apologize
to all of you who have written to us over the past four years
wondering why there is no fan club.  Until this point, we felt as
though we had nothing to say and besides, it took us four years to
come up with a name for the newsletter.  As of right now, there is
still no official fan club but we're hoping that this newsletter will
hold you people over for a while.  In the spirit of co-operation,
tolerance, and multi-culturism, we've chosen to steer clear of subjects
that might alienate some of out fans.  Therefore, we've included such
features as, "The Handyman's Corner," "What Eye Did For Summer Vacation,"
"The Calendar In Retrospect."  In the same way, we excluded articles
entitled, "Four White Guys In Space Suits," "Why We Don't Have A Chick
Singer," and "Buy American Or Die."
    In all seriousness, Galactic Cowboys wish you a hearty "Hi Ho Silva'
Away!"


 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


What Have People Been Saying About the Galactic Cowboys' New Release?
--------------------------------------------------------------------

     'It's fantastic, they'll have it at Wal-Mart!'
            -Bud Colvin (Monty's Dad)


     'You don't know how excited I am about this!'
            -Donna McKenzie (New Texas Radio)


     'It'th betta' than "Cat'th."  I'd th'ee it again and again!'
            -Andy Gould (Concrete Management)

   * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

                    The Calendar in Retrospect
                    --------------------------


   Aug 91       Album release and party

   Oct-Dec 91   Overkill Tour. 'nuf said.

   Dec 91       enjoyed Kenny and Dolly Christmas special

   Jan-Mar 92   Ben does home renovation as band looks on

   Mar 92       band takes trip to Tuscon, AZ to film video for
                "I'm Not Amused."  While there they enjoy volleyball,
                swimming and roof jumping.

   May-June 92  toured with King's X

   July 92      Monty does a personal appearance at the Wal-Mart in
                Nevada, MO (punch and cookies were enjoyed by all)

   Aug 92       began pre-production on new album

   Sept-Oct 92  recorded album entitled "Space In Your Face" at
                Rivendell Recorders in Houston

   Nov 92       Monty, Alan and Sam go to NYC to mix album with Andy
                Wallace. Ben gets job at horse ranch. Dane struggles
                with US involvement in Somalia. Monty shoots some hoops.

   Dec 92       Monty visits Bud and June; Alan vistis Jerry & Barbara;
                Dane visits Mitch & Nancy; Ben visits Benny and Carol.
                Everyone enjoys the Kenny and Dolly Christmas special.

   Jan 93       Ben renovates back porch while the band watches intently.
                Alan takes job delivering hot and tasties door to door.
                Dane struggles with the thought of US intervention in
                Bosnia.

   Feb 93       David Koresh locks himslef inside the Mt. Carmel
                compound.

   Mar 93       Band officially leaves Wilde Silas Artists Management.
                Picked up by Andy Gould and Concrete Management.

   April 93     Ben quits job at horse ranch. Alan quits delivery job.
                Dane struggles with FBI intervention at the Branch
                Davidian compound. Monty sustains toenail injury while
                shooting hoops.

   * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

FAN CLUB INFO COMING SOON along with our favorite recipes. Get on the
  mailing list. Send your name, address and shoe size to:

        Galactic Cowboys
        P.O. Box 540
        Katy, TX  77492-0540

  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

                         Handyman's Corner
                         -----------------


   How many times has this happened to you? A bulb goes out in your
living room ceiling light fixture. A common household repair, but
you have to call a neighbor to replace the bulb because you have what
has become commonly known as Ladder Use Deficiency Syndrome. That's
right, LUDS. In an act of great charity, Galactic Cowboys would like
to do their part to counteract this dreaded scourge in our society. So,
with no further ado, Handyman's Corner presents:

How To Put Up A Ladder

   Step #1  Locate level surface.
   Step #2  Unfold ladder making sure fingers are not caught in hinges.
   Step #3  Ladder is ready for use! Good luck!

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

               What Eye did for Summer Vacation...
               -----------------------------------

    (This section of the newsletter contains four photos of the GC's
with none other than Elvis (twice nonetheless!), Michael Jackson, and
Rodney Dangerfield. All photos feature the GC's with the celebrity
appearing as a cut-out. Rather funny stuff.)

  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


This publication was reproduced WITH permission from Ben Huggins. Cool, eh?


=============================================================================
GC banned in Canada!
=============================================================================
From: ad750@Freenet.carleton.ca (Eric Raeside)

Did you know that the song _If I Were A Killer_ has been banned from 
MuchMusic (Canadian video station) because its lyrics were politically
incorrect!  The managment decided to ban it because it would have most
likely offended pro-choice supporters in the abortion debate.  Furthermore
the band strong belief in Christianity has also upset the station.
My view is just play the video and let the people decide!!  I wonder
if MTV will follow MuchMusic's precedent?

[At the concert I was at, Dane metioned this prior to playing the song.
 He said something like "We've been banned in Canada and I don't know
 why!  We are sick and tired of this total disrespect for human life...
 like Jack Kavorkian..."   -BarryB]

=============================================================================
Concert Shorts
=============================================================================
From: 00bwanderson@leo.bsuvc.bsu.edu (Bruce W. Anderson)

Woof...oy, am I *tired*.  I just got back from seeing the Cowboys in concert
down in Indy--HIGHLY recommended...8^)

It was a short, short set (only about an hour--that's short for the Cowboys)
but they managed to get a lot of good music into that hour.

A couple of interesting little note, for them of you as what cares (don't
lecture me about grammar--I'm an english major) about the band too much:

	1) Ben Huggins drinks Michelobe
and
	2) Dane Sonnier chews Bazooka Joe bubble gum. 8^)

Irrelevant, but true.  I shook hands with Dane (big deal)...;)  The person I
was with (hi, blanche) shook hands with Ben and the lead singer of Dream
Theatre.  Whoopie...;)


From: peetj@ss11.comm.mot.com (Pete James)

Thur 9/9/93 at Avalon on Belmont, was spose to be at China
Club, but got moved to Avalon last minute cuz of a fire at
China. $5.  Got on a little before 1am. Played till just after
2am curfew. Mix of 1st and 2nd album.

from 1st:
I'm Not Amused
Kaptain Krude
Sea of Tranquility
Killing Floor (opened with)
Pump Up the Space Suit (deamed the happy song)

from new:
Space In Your Face
If I Were a Killer (said they are getting lots of heat for this
      anti abortion song)
About Mrs Leslie
Circles In The Fields (Encore)
You Make Me Smile

didn't play blind off the new, my fav....bummer

Bassest Monty was his usual monster crunky bass wild self. He is
awesome on sea of tranquility (kind of a bass lead).

Guitarist Dane Sonnier had a small fake flinstone type bone in
his beard and in his hair. He (his playin actually) impressed 
me alot more than the last two times I say them with King's X.
He also was more animated.

Lead singer Ben Huggins, was usual mad man, with the humorous
anotations. The started the show with the partrige family theme
playing (go on get happy...thers a song that were singin...) Ben
did sort of a Martin Short/Ed Grimly dance thing. It was riotus.

Crowd was small (40) but very inthusiastic. Alot of fans, who 
knew words and sang, and thrashed. It was a great show.

[Saw them myself last Spring in Vanacouver, Canada.  Best concert
 I've ever been to!  Very intimate and moshing.  -BarryB]


=============================================================================
Mrs. Leslie ?
=============================================================================
From: warrenjr@NeXTwork.Rose-Hulman.Edu (John R. Warren)

A few days ago someone wondered aloud, "Just what is the dark little  
secret that Mrs. Leslie is hiding?"  Well, after listening to the song a  
few more times (and enjoying each listen thoroughly), I have a couple of  
theories:

1)  She killed her husband.  (I like the line about "serving tea and
    crumpets to a fashionable crescendo.")

2)  She faked her husband's death and he is being held captive in the
    belfry of the house while she enjoys his money.

3)  Mr. and Mrs. Leslie conspired together to fake his death.  They 
    collected the insurance money and he is a willing resident of the
    belfry.

Personally, I like number two.  The lyric about Mr. Leslie (alive and  
healthy/ living/ in a belfry) seems to rule out number one, although at  
the beginning of the song he is thought to be dead.

I was very pleasanly surprised by the whole _Space in Your Face_ album.  I  
wasn't crazy about the first Cowboys album, but this one is excellent.


From: EMW107@psuvm.psu.edu (Big Ed)
>2)  She faked her husband's death and he is being held captive in the
>    belfry of the house while she enjoys his money.

    This seems to be the current belief of mine as well. It doesn't seem
logical to me for her to be 'living a life full of regret' as 'the word is
going round' just because she AND her husband conspired. If this was the
case, the title would be more like 'The Leslie's' thus not singling out
Mrs. Leslie. Great song though, especially live with Monty lurking :)

>I was very pleasanly surprised by the whole _Space in Your Face_ album.  I
>wasn't crazy about the first Cowboys album, but this one is excellent.

    I was very pleased with the first album, and now I'm really impressed
with 'Space In Your Face', it's good to hear a refreshing different sound.
I must say the production on this new one is also much better than the first
one and they seemed to keep the crunchy sound as well. At times, this new
one seems both more harmonious AND heavier in the same breath.


=============================================================================
Toy Subs
=============================================================================
From: edc@evolution.bchs.uh.edu (edward s. chen)

Just before the start of the Dream Theatre tour, Alan Doss, drummer
of the Galactic Cowboys spent some time in the studio behind the board
with a Houston-area band, Toy Subs.   The name should be familar, as Alan 
wore the bands' shirt in the "If I Were a Killer" video, currently playing on 
MTV's "Headbanger's Ball."   While Toy Subs are more inspired by Tom Petty than
Metallica, the sterling guitar work, and gorgeous harmonies are really not
that far removed from something like "Do What I Do," the first single from
the Cowboys' most recent release.

Toy Subs are currently looking for a record deal, and have had some of
their previous work produced by Steve Ames, a man who also worked on older 
recordings from both King's X, and Galactic Cowboys.

A tape of the sessions Alan Doss helped with has just been released by the 
band, and is available in Houston at any Toy Subs show.  Alan does not play
on the tape, but contributes to it by working behind the console.

Out of state, requests may be sent directly to the band (Toy Subs, 
1111 Herman Drive #24F, Houston, Tx. 77004), and "The Red Floor Sessions" may 
be purchased for $6.00 + $1.00 p&h. [ The tape must be requested by name :
"The Red Floor Sessions" ]

disclaimer: I receive no profit from the sales of this tape, but do think
fans of Galactic Cowboys might be interested in Toy Subs, and hearing what
Alan Doss can do when he's not behind the drum kit.


=============================================================================
Heavens Metal Interview
=============================================================================
From: peetj@ss11.comm.mot.com (Pete James)

Heavens metal mag (august issue, I think) did a great interview with doug.
Here is what I rememeber from the King's X article/interview:
Had to abruptly stop touring last year due to managment problems.
Went home to work it out. Sam Taylor (long time manager and friend) quit.
Much soul searching for the year, but the three are still very tight.
Doug talked alot about healing from some perfectionistic stuff and was very
upset about legalism and stuff.
As of the time of the article, they had or were just ready to sign Rush's
manager to manage them They had 17 songs ready for the studio, which they
were spose to go into the next week.  They guy who produced the new pearl
jam album was/is producing. The band had been hanging with him for a few
days and said he was cool and had alot of ideas.  Doug said the album
was sheduled for jan release. They had several ideas for a title, including
'when hector was a pup'.  He said the songs might be darker than usual, given
what he and the guys have been through, but that they were real honest.  He
talked as if he and the band were kind of starting anew. 

That is all I remember. Get the article if ya can. It was really good. I found
myself identifying big time with doug, his problem, his fustration with legal-
ism, his honesty. It is a great article, and Doug talks pages about his faith.


=============================================================================
DGC drops GC
=============================================================================
From: "JONATHAN E. PELPHREY" <jpelphre@cwis.unomaha.edu>

I do indeed follow the Galactic Cowboys and was mightily distressed to
hear that they were dropped from DGC...  I would imagine that they would
get picked up by *somebody*...


From: Phil.Powell@launchpad.unc.edu (Phil Powell)

And in other bad news, DGC Records has perhaps ruined my year (and others,
including BarryB I'm sure) by dropping the GALACTIC COWBOYS from their
roster.. they say it is due to poor record sales.. despite their 2 tours
this year (one headlining, one opening for Dream Theater) and appearances
on the "Headbanger's Ball"... 

[Lattest rumor has it that several major labels are courting GC.  Anyone
 have any concrete confirmation of this?  -BarryB]


=============================================================================
Postcard from Doug
=============================================================================
From Pat Madden:
I got a postcard from Doug the other day and he says
they're in Atlanta working on the new album and have 8 songs
completely done.  They're also working on a tour with Pearl
Jam.  And finally, when Lollapalooza came to Atlanta, Doug
sang The Rooster with Alice in Chains.  The album is not due
out until January.  So I'll miss all this great stuff, but I
hope you all get to enjoy it immensely.

[That's all... Keep those submissions coming!]

    I heard about half the new King's X tune while driving into work a
    couple of days ago.  VERY identifiably King's X.  Perhaps slightly less
    slick of a production, but it sounded basically like King's X have
    always sounded to me.  
    
    I'll have to hear the song a few more times, but from hearing the
    end of it there, I'd say it's probably not the best song I've heard the
    band do.
    
    Greg

    The title song is *VERY* good.  More rawness like from the first 2
    albums.

    At times, Doug Pinnick even sounds like Jimi on Manic Depression.

    I saw part of the vid for "Dogman" on MTV the other night.  Sounded
    good!
    
    gh

    With Ty's low D tuning and his raw, guttural guitar sound on "Dogman", 
    it sounds almost like, er, um
    
    METALLICA WITH TALENT!!!

    Naw, Doug Pinick(sp) can actually sing (as can the others, but they
    don't sing on that track).
    
    gh

    I was mainly referring to the guitar tones.  Hetfield and Hammett
    should take notice, not to mention more lessons.

    
    
      Who has sold umpteen million copies???..X? I dont think so. I really
    tried to listen to X, but the preacyness really kept me away. That
    preacyness also kept me from listening to Stryper. I hate it when bands
    try to tell me what to do.

    >    preacyness 
    
    would you like to buy a consonant?  I can't imagine how you arrived at
    this conclusion.  Most people aren't even aware of their backgrounds
    just by the fact that they don't do what you say.  The majority of
    Christian music lovers don't even know about them.

    BTW - you really don't want to get into a debate on whether record sales 
    denote skill.  There are far too many examples stacked against you,
    including one of your favorite bands ;-)

>      Who has sold umpteen million copies???..X? I dont think so. 
    
    This has come up in here soooo many times that it just makes me sick.
    Why on earth would anyone equate album sales with musical skill? 
    That's like saying the acting talent on "Three's Company" was superior
    because the show had a longer run then other shows.
    
    The main music-buying market is not musicians and couldn't care less. 
    Witness the fact that the most amazing technical musicians are the ones
    that play small clubs when they tour and barely sell enough albums to
    keep in the black.  That's because it's mostly musicians that
    appreciate their skill, the general public doesn't care.
    
    Gh

    
     Actually I diddnt want a debate. I just wanted to throw dispersions to
    show that just because you dont like something doesent mean it is not
    good or as good as something else. @nd i arriddy kno I kant spel. but I
    try real hard.

>    -< cause she's a brick....HOUSE >-
    
    Oh gee, how original.  Like I never heard *that* one before...

    
    
        Oh I see. We are getting stuck on the talent definition. Does it
    mean you are technically superior or that you can entertain and make a
    better living at what you do. And where does the definition of
    technical come from? Someone who is faster on a
    fretboard?(Impeliteri)or who uses the most arpeggios?(Stevens) 
        Does talent come from someone using a power chord or from using
    a sextruplet passage to show off legato abilities?
        I guess it is up to the individual to make the determination who
    has talent and who does not.
    

>            Oh I see. We are getting stuck on the talent definition. 
    
    Who said anything about talent?  I said skill, you said album sales. 
    Neither have anything to do with *musical* talent.  Skill has to do
    with practice, perciverance, discipline, and natural athletic aptitude.
    Record sales have to do with trends in the marketplace, good fortuene,
    being in the right place at the right time, and having someone pour
    enough money into marketing you.
    
    Greg

    Yeah so THAIR!  I bet Jason couldn't play a 12-string bass.  
    
    Greg, you gotta hear this live cover of "Manic Depression."  It's weigh
    cool.

    "Weigh" cool, huh dude?

    
      Rep  .243 was the one that said talent.
    
    And I bet my big-wheel is bigger than yours!!!! thbpffff!!na naaa n na
    naaaaaaaaa!
    
     I could play a 12 string bass!! (((not very well but I could probably
    play for a punk rock band!)))
    
                                                

    I heard "dogman" an thought it was excellant!
    
    				ian

    Yeah, I've heard it a couple more times now and have to say that's a
    kickin song.  That album's now floated up to the top of my "I want"
    list.  I'll be gettin it soon.
    
    Mike, did you get it yet?  Is the rest as good as the title track?
    
    Greg

    >    Mike, did you get it yet?  Is the rest as good as the title track?
    
    yes and most of it.  The title track is probably the heaviest tune on
    there, and when you think about it, it isn't really "traditional"
    King's X.  More "traditional"-type King's X rockers are "Shoes",
    "Pretend", "Black the Sky", "Fool You", "Don't Care", "Complain", 
    "Human Behavior", "Pillow", and of course the roolin *LIVE* cover of 
    "Manic Depression."
    
    Even though these are more like the King's X we've all grown to love,
    this album is different.  The guitar and bass tones are more raw.  Doug
    does all the vocals, and there are less Beatlesque-vocal harmonies
    (which I kinda liked).  I think you'll like it.  I haven't stopped 
    listening to it since I bought it 3 weeks ago!  I have the CD here and
    a tape of it for the car and house.
    
    There's one 51-second mosh tune called "Go To Hell."  A few
    medium-tempo blues-type numbers called "Flies and Blue Skies", 
    "Sunshine Rain", and "Cigarettes."
    
    You'll love the band photos too.  I nominate Doug Pinnick for Haircut
    of the Year! ;-)

>    You'll love the band photos too.  I nominate Doug Pinnick for Haircut
>    of the Year! ;-)
    
    Does he still have his 'hawk?

    >    Does he still have his 'hawk?

    I was reading an interview with Ty today in the Guitarist
    magazine.Kings X have been around since 1980.It was only in 1987 they
    got their record deal.
    
    						ian

    That's correct, Ian.  I have albums at home that contain songs written
    by Doug Pinnick and Ty Tabor for other artists.

    Yeah, they've been together for a *long* time!  I read somewhere that
    Doug is in his mid-40s.  He sure doesn't look it, I hope I look that
    well preserved when I'm his age!
    
    Greg

    you got to start eatin that indian-cajon cusine greg...
    
               it does wonders.... 
    
    
    
                  they say it cures the aging process...
    
                 stig

    Sounds like a plan, I love that kind of food!
    
    Greg

    Oh yeah, I was out lookin around the music stores at lunchtime
    yesterday, kind of hoping to find a copy of Dogman on sale (nope...;-()
    and I noticed that there are two different colors to the CD.  The dog
    image on the one I seem to be seeing more often is blue, but I also
    saw one where the dog was yellow.  Is there a difference other then the
    cover art?
    
    Greg

    Well, I found it on sale for $11.99 at lunchtime today and picked up a
    copy.  I got the yellow version, mostly because I liked the way it
    looked better, but I'd be interested to know if there's any difference
    between it and the blue version.
    
    gh

    yeah, one's yellow and one's blue.

    
    
      Yeah its exactly the same but different.
    

>        You'll love the band photos too. 
    
    Make's me miss my hair, man.  Mine looked almost exactly like Ty
    Tabor's does in those photos last summer before I cut it all off.
    
    gh

    After listening to the whole album, all I can say is:
    
    WOW!
    
    This is an incredible album!!!  Mind boggling the amount of energy.  In
    interviews they'd said they were trying to make this album sound more
    like their live show does.  If this is *anything* like what their
    concerts are like, I *HAVE* to see these guys live!!!  
    
    That cover of "Manic Depression" is the best version of that song that
    I've ever heard.
    
    
>    -< whadda freakin lunatic! >-
 
    Huh??  Who, me?  Why?
    
    Greg
                         

>    WOW!
>    This is an incredible album!!!  Mind boggling the amount of energy.  In
    
    Would I ever lie to you?  I told you it was very good.  Now go buy the
    latest Satch disc too.
    
>    like their live show does.  If this is *anything* like what their
>    concerts are like, I *HAVE* to see these guys live!!!  
    
    Agreed!
    
>    That cover of "Manic Depression" is the best version of that song that
>    I've ever heard.
    
    Doesn't Doug sound like Jimi?  I swear he does.
    
    BTW - I jokingly called you a lunatic for cutting your hair.
    
    Hize 
    
    ps - the blue version (for your comparison) song list goes like this:
    
    Dogman, Shoes, Pretend, Flies and Blue Skies, Black the Sky, Fool You,
    Don't Care, Sunshine Rain, Complain, Human Behavior, Cigarettes, Go To
    Hell, Pillow, Manic Depression

>    ps - the blue version (for your comparison) song list goes like this:
    
    I compared 'em in the store before making a purchase, the song lists
    were identical.
    
>>    That cover of "Manic Depression" is the best version of that song that
>>    I've ever heard.
>    
>    Doesn't Doug sound like Jimi?  I swear he does.
    
    Yeah, he really does.  And Ty caught the feel for Jimi's stuff too, but
    his playing is like Jimi on a really GOOD day and maybe a little more
    (from recordings I've heard, Jimi was brilliant, but had a lot of bad
    playing days).  There's so much energy on that track!!
    
>    BTW - I jokingly called you a lunatic for cutting your hair.
    
    I'M SO INSULTED!!  THIS WAS TOTALLY UNPROVOKED AND I DEMAND AN APOLOGY!
    
    Er...actually, I think the same thing sometimes.  I liked my long hair. 
    But then again, I rather vividly remember the reasons I did cut it and
    they're all still valid to me (it was a pain to take care of, often in
    the way, my wife didn't like it, and I wasn't sure it looked right
    'cause it was starting to get a lotta gray in it).  Although mine was
    similar in length and style (mine was a little longer, but just as
    curly, naturally) to how Ty's looks in those photos, his looks a lot
    better because it's not fulla gray streaks.
    
    Greg

>     -< They're playing in Denver next Monday night and I'm gonna miss i >-
    
    too bad.  At least I know they're touring.  Will keep my ears open.

>    Er...actually, I think the same thing sometimes.  I liked my long hair. 
>    But then again, I rather vividly remember the reasons I did cut it and
>    they're all still valid to me (it was a pain to take care of, often in
>    the way, my wife didn't like it, and I wasn't sure it looked right
>    'cause it was starting to get a lotta gray in it).  Although mine was
    
    See I knew you're an old fart.  My wife likes my hair long.  She even
    cuts it for me now so it's just the way she likes it.
    
    

>>     -< They're playing in Denver next Monday night and I'm gonna miss i >-
>        too bad.  At least I know they're touring.  Will keep my ears open.
    
    They're not touring on their own (yet?), that's why I'm not there. 
    They're playing in the opening slot for the Scorpions.  While I'd love
    to see King's X, I'm not all that thrilled about the idea of paying
    over $30 a seat to go to a stadium show, where the sound will suck, I'd
    feel like cattle getting in and out, to be surrounded with screamin
    little kids mostly less then half my age...to have to watch King's X
    have to do a short set so they can get their stuff off in time for us
    to see the Scorps yet again.  No offense intended toward anyone still
    into the Scorpions, but I've seen them several times over the years and
    basically can't stand any of their new music (that I've heard) and
    really don't care to see them again.  
    
    A friend of mine's going just to see King's X, said he was probably
    leaving after they finish up.  I'd rather see King's X headlining so
    that I'd see a decent length show rather then a quick half hour and
    "well we have to go now" with no encores and a substandard mix 'cause
    backup bands don't usually get access to much of the sound
    reinforcement gear for their portion of the show.
    
    re: hair(balls)
    
    Old fart?  Uh...I don't remember having ever denied it...  Guess I
    could have dyed the hair, but that's not my style.  I thought it looked
    great, but my wife has some real strong prejudices about long hair on
    guys (oh great...;^)) and was more or less constantly on my case about
    it.  That got old after hearing it for a few years...  She likes it the
    way it is now, but I'd rather have a mohawk or something.  But she
    associates anything out of the ordinary in terms of hairstyles with
    really young guys and claims it makes her feel old (is it my problem
    that I look younger then I am?)
    
    Gramps

    Doug said Pearl Jam's agents are trying to get them to open on their
    tour.

    Although I'd be very interested in seeing both bands, I think that
    would suck.  Pearl Jam's shows are too popular and are selling out in
    the first 15 minutes and stuff.  While I'd like to see them, I have no
    desire to camp out all night to buy tickets to concerts these days.
    
    As I said, I'd really prefer to see King's X headlining their own tour
    so that they'd do a decent lenght show with a better mix.  Donno if
    that'll happen, but that's what I'd personally prefer to see.  
    
    Dogman seems to be getting quite a bit of airplay, maybe the CD will
    sell well enough to justify a full tour of their own?
    
    Greg
                                                         

    Yeah I didn't think of that.  Who would you pick to open for King's X? 
    Once upon a time, I thought a Stryper/King's X tour would be awesome. 
    Maybe the Galactic Cowboys, but I'm not sure how much mainstream appeal
    that would attract.

    I think there are a lot of alternative bands that'd fit reasonably
    well.  I've never heard the Galactic Cowboys, but I guess the band
    members between the two bands are friends or something.  I've heard
    several other King's X fans say they like the GCs too, so maybe.
    
    Greg

    Tonite at Axis

    
    
    
    Anyone go to this show??

    I'd be there in a heartbeat, if it wasn't 2500 miles away.
    
    gh (dying to see these guys!!!)

    I'll second that. Even though I'm only 200 mi. away and have already
    seen them 5 times.
    
    -Steve

    Second hand from my son (yes, I'm *that* old)...the show was excellent. 
    This was his first time "seeing" them live.  Axis was jammed and he
    didn't get to *see* much of anything from where he was.
    
    Jim

Article 28215 of alt.guitar:
From: jenkinsa@uamont.edu (Anne Jenkins)
Newsgroups: alt.guitar
Subject: Ty Tabor/Guitar Player article/May 94
Date: 21 Apr 1994 17:16:07 GMT
Organization: University of Arkansas at Monticello

From Guitar Player's May 1994 issue:

"Heavier Than Thou:  King's X bare their fangs"
by James Rotondi

	For an angelic-looking guy with a soft-spoken Mississippi drawl, Ty
Tabor sure has a taste for high impact.  He's an avid Houston Rockets fan, a
trophy-winning motocross rider, and the guitarist for the 13-year-old
progressive thunder trio King's X.  Ty's no show-off, but his fluid lead
technique and lush, syncopated rhythm work place him among rock guitar's
compositional elite.  And he likes it *loud*.
	Though revered by many musicians for their flawlessly crafted mix of
mammoth riffs, soulful jams, and pristine three-part harmonies, King's
X--Tabor, bassist Doug Pinnick, and drummer Jerry Gaskill--have never caught
commercial fire to the extent that many had predicted.  Most insiders
expected the band's third album, 1990's _faith hope love_, to deliver the
band to a wider audience; to some extent it did.  The hook-heavy "It's Love"
was an MTV favorite, and the band's stage performances, notably at that
year's Gathering of the Tribes tour, cemented their reputation as an
uncommonly strong concert force.
	But their eponymous 1992 follow-up lacked both the creative juice
and the business support it needed.  The band parted ways with their
longtime manager/co-producer Sam Taylor halfway through a tour and lost
valuable momentum, _King's X_ the album disappeared in the shuffle.
	But it's a new year and a new album for King's X.  In contrast to
polished and sonically ambitious LPs like _Gretchen Goes to Nebraska_ and
_Out of the Silent Planet_, _Dogman_ presents King's X in all their
unmanicured glory.  Produced by Brendan O'Brien of Pearl Jam and Stone
Temple Pilots fame, the new disc finds the 32-year-old Tabor plowing through
12 visceral, pounding cuts that do without aural embellishment.  And like
all their records, _Dogman_ is chock-full of spiritually inquisitive lyrics,
proud melodies, soulful singing, and of course, stunning power guitar.  We
checked in with Ty before the start of their recent U.S. tour.

GP:  The new album is really heavy

Ty:  We've always been a lot heavier live than we've ever been on record, so
the idea was to make a record that reflected more accurately what we sound
like live.  We never knew exactly how to capture energy and rawness in the
studio, which is what Brendan O'Brien helped us to do.  We were almost
scared about it at first.  It was so nonchalant and haphazard, we were
wondering if what we were putting down was any good.  It was a very
pleasurable experience, the most fun we've ever had making an album, because
it didn't feel like we were recording one.  We were almost through tracking
and we were saying things to each other like, "It feels like we aren't
really working at all."  Brendan said, "That's the whole idea."  We were in
and out before we realized it.  No grueling, agonizing hours--just a relaxed
and enjoyable experience.
	We recorded live as much as possible, with overdubs here and there
as needed.  I basically played in mono.  We spent no time getting the
sounds.  I'd find a sound I liked, we'd stick a SM-57 in front of the
cabinet, and start recording.  A lot of tracks on the record are just one
guitar, but I'd occasionally overdub a second guitar to fill out a part and
get something on left and right channels (see "Dog Gear" after this
article for detailed gear report).
	We used so many tracks for guitars on our old albums that I can't
believe we ever got it mixed.  It was ridiculous.  I used eight different
guitar tracks on some songs just for rhythm!  Sometimes a layered track can
really kick the part into the next gear, but for this record it made more
sense to be straight-ahead and simple and let it stand on its own.

GP:  What kind of tunings did you use to achieve that subsonic crunch?

Ty:  We used a dropped-B tuning on "Shoes," "Black the Sky," and "Don't
Care."  I tune the high E, B, G, and D strings to standard pitch, then drop
the E and A strings down to B and F# respectively.  There's also a C tuning
that has C and G on the bottom two strings.  We used that for "Human
Behavior."  Nearly everything else was in dropped-D. [Note: Like Van Halen,
Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Hendrix, King's X "standard" tuning is down a
half-step.]

GP: Even while playing those deep, crunchy figures on the bottom, you don't
sacrifice cool voicings on the top strings.

Ty:  I like a wide range of voicings.  Alex Lifeson inspired me many years
ago to figure out ways of doing that type of thing, having some kind of
mammoth riff with open strings.

GP:  _Dogman_ features a great version of Hendrix's "Manic Depression."

Ty:  We'd never done it, and we didn't even know if we could play it.  There
are mistakes in it, and we didn't even know how to end it or anything.  It
was a joke to us, but it was so fun that we decided, as another bit of
self-indulgence, to stick it on the record.  We listened to the Hendrix
album once or twice to get an idea of the structure, but it's a miracle that
we even got through it at all.  We used to do that sort of thing all the
time back in the old days when we were playing clubs, barely surviving.  We
would stop and ask people what they wanted to hear.  We'd have people try to
stump the band, and we'd try anything as long as one of us knew a part of it. 
One night somebody might ask for a song, and we'd play it.  Then we'd
realize, "Hey, we can add this to the set tomorrow night."  By the end of
our club days, probably half of everything we did was learned that way.

GP:  Did that chemistry make learning originals that much easier as well?

Ty:  No.  When we started working seriously on original tunes and decided to
really go for it, to really hone in on what we wanted to do, it became more
grueling and more like work.  There were more hours of intense scrutiny. 
Once in a while things would come together quickly, but most of the time
they didn't.  Our former manager Sam Taylor had a huge part in helping us to
become more disciplined, to actually work on the music like that.  We're
very glad that he did, because we were very undisciplined musicians until he
got involved.
	We were real happy with all the music that came out on the first
album.  When we first started working really hard together, it suprised us,
because we came up with things that none of us had ever imagined.  When I go
back and listen to any of our records, which is very rare, it's usually
_Gretchen Goes to Nebraska_.  I guess that's sort of a milestone.  I don't
feel like I've done guitar parts as creative as the ones that record since
then, to be honest with you.  It's a different thing we're doing now, and
I'm very happy with it.  It's more straight-ahead, and I enjoy that too.

GP:  _Gretchen_	seemed to be the point at which you arrived at your own
"riff aesthetic," if you will, a sensibility that still pervades _Dogman_.

Ty:  Oh, good.  I sometimes listen to _Dogman_ and think that guitar-wise
the creativeness isn't there.  That's not to demean is at all.  We were
focusing on songs as opposed to individual parts.  The whole intent on this
record was to have some rocking songs, and I'm very happy with them.  But it
seems like on each album since _Gretchen_, I've done less creative work on
guitar.  The new album has the least creative guitar playing I've ever done. 
It's more basic, to the root of the matter, straight-ahead, from-the-gut
playing, but it was appropriate.

GP:  Has there been the sense that one of these King's X records is going to
be the "breakthough" album in terms of sales?

Ty:  We hear that about every album, to the point where we get numb to it
and don't even listen to that anymore.  We didn't do this album our
calculation.  This is just another step, another album, and it's where we're
at right now, what we're wanting to do.  But we always try to be true to
whatever we feel at the moment.  It's been a lot of fun working this stuff
up in rehearsal, too.  I can't wait to play it live and see if anybody likes
it.  We haven't done a gig since the summer of '92.  We've been off,
settling business, changing managament, all kinds of things.  So we're a
little nervous about playing again; we've never had this long a layoff.  But
during that time off, I started riding motocross seriously again.  I even
raced and won a couple of trophies.

GP:  Any parallels between motocross and guitar playing?

Ty:  There's one real serious parallel, and that's the *trance factor*. 
When you're racing, you reach an awareness on the track that supersedes fear
and any of those emotions that you normally have at your ready.  You reach
an intense point with your instincts that you're no longer actually thinking
things out.  You're just going with the concentrated flow.  When you get
into a really great solo, when you're totally lost in it, you forget about
playing. It's very similar, with the exception that screwing up a solo
isn't quite as dangerous as wiping out on a motorcycle.

"Dog Geared"

	It's been a period of change for Ty Tabor and King's X, and gear is
no exception.  Though he favored Fender Strat Elites for a number of years,
Ty now uses custom-built Zion guitars, which were designed with the Elite as
a benchmark.  The Zions were built to Tabor's specifications, which include
a thin, wide neck, a lower fret profile, and a single volume knob that's
tapered to allow him to get good tones at a variety of levels.  The bodies
feature a laminated maple top over basswood, while necks are maple with
rosewood fingerboards.
	The Zions are loaded with three hand-wound, single-coil, Joe Barden
Strat Deluxe replacement pickups, which Ty describes as "very quiet and very
powerful."  Their Resophonic Tremolo Bridges, co-designed by John Mann, have
a rounded back similar to the Strat Elite bridges and a smooth top without
any screws or springs sticking up so Ty can damp strings with the heel of
his right hand.  That damping technique is one reason the bridges are
anchored to the body rather than floating.  "I grew up with that kind of
bridge," says Tabor, "so I'm able to do more things naturally."  Because he
no longer uses a locking nut and hates changing strings, Tabor prefers
Sperzel locking tuners.  The Zions also feature push-button on/off switches
for all the pickups, so he can select whatever configuration he desires. 
Zion is preparing a limited run of Ty Tabor signature models which Ty will
hand-sign.  His strings are GHS Boomers, .009 though .042.
	Ty's amp setup has always been shrouded in mystery--he reputedly
used a Lab Series L-5 solid-state amp in conjunction with the Marshalls--but
he claims to have come clean.  "I use the Mesa Dual Rectifier 100-watt Solo
head as a preamp with a Mesa 2:90 stereo tube power amp,"  he says.  "I
don't really switch channels, either.  I just put it on the heavier channel,
turn everything up wide open with the exception of the master volume, and
cut the presence back slightly."  The amp powers three Mesa 4x12 cabs.
	Ty's Mesa MIDI Matrix Switcher accesses his rack effects, which
include an Alesis Midiverb for chorusing, an Ibanez DD-2 2-channel delay,
and an old Boss CE-2 chorus pedal.  On the floor he has a Dunlop CryBaby wah
and a custom preamp box with the guts of a Strat Elite preamp, but it's
powered *off*.  "If I run directly into my system without this box, it has
too sharp an upper-mid and is kind of ugly," says Ty.  "So I run into this
box, which damps that one particular frequency perfectly."  Ty is a big fan
of the E-Bow (check out the outro solo in "Cigarettes") and enjoyed playing
through a Leslie cabinet on a number of _Dogman_ cuts, including "Pretend."
	While busting whoop de whoops for motocross trophies, Ty roughrides
a Honda CR-250. :)

    
    	What are these guys up to?
    
    	I just heard one of their songs on the radio and realized it's
    	been 1-2 years since the last album.
    

    Dunno what they're doin' now, but they *SMOKED* at Woodstock!

    I've been listening to DOGMAN a lot lately---wow! This band really does
    cook.I think Brenden O'brian really must have done good by them-the CD
    sure shows it.I bought this CD shortly after returning from Woodstock
    just to check them out a little more.I guess i lucked out.Don't have
    any others but after a VERY boring day here i read thru this whole file
    for the hell of it and i'm gonna grab there Gretchen CD.It sounds
    pretty good from what's in here.
    
    -kev

    I don't like the tone on Dogman as much as the others - I guess
    he was lookin' for change...The album KICKS< but the tone just ain't
    there...
    

    I personally think it's pretty cool.VERY heavy rhythm sound (must be
    the Mesa) and the lead tone cuts thru well.Not too grainy.I like it.
    I would say that Doug's bass sure puts a hell of a bottom on their
    sound.And how about that distant distorted tone that he uses-- kind of
    way in the background--tres cool!
    
    -kev

    
    	Didn't a new 1 just come out, or am I thinking of "upcoming"?
    
    	Do a SEARCH on 5.last - 5.0 and it should find something.
    

    
    	"Ear Candy", scheduled for 5/21.
    

    Newsflash:  Ear Candy rules!!!  More later...

    
    What's it sound like compared to the cd prior to Dogman? I didn't get
    Dogman, I got the previous one due to their "hit" song on it. It's ok,
    lots of harmony vocals in it. I heard Dogman was heavier, and that this
    one has toned down somewhat and more harmony vocals again.
    
    

    I love Kings X.  I guess I missed the release.  ???  Tells you I
    haven't been paying attention.  
    
    Honey- my birthday is in two weeks!  ;-)
    
    CJ

    
    	CJ, check note 5.lastfew every Tuesday night and by that time
    	I should have posted the "New releases" lists from the Newbury
    	Comics web site.
    

    Thanks Shawn.  ;-)

    But honey, you always get ME new KingsX releases...
    
    (Psst. - she didn't like 'em at first - guess she's coming around :-)