(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
The Texas Instruments (Ron Marks on bass, David Woody on guitar, and Steve Chapman on drums) were part of Austin’s roots-rock school alongside Timbuk 3, Poi Dog Ponderin, Wild Seeds, Reivers, and True Believers. More Texas Instruments (Longhead, 1985) and Texas Instruments (Rabid Cat, 1987) made more news for their covers than for their original songs, although the latter includes Prussian Blue, performed in a style somewhere between straightforward, gritty folk-rock and the regional blues-rock.
The trio found its ideal dimension on Sun Tunnels (Rabid Cat, 1988), balancing the “Dylanesque” inflections of Watch'n It All Go Down with the acid-rock “trip” of The Thing In Apartment B. Woody’s guitar exploits spatial counterpoint à la Kirkwood (Meat Puppets), those bright yet refracted tonalities, as a backdrop for ballads imbued with a continually restrained energy.
Crammed Into Infinity (Rockville, 1991), recorded in 1989 but released only two years later, with its powerful title track, was met with eager enthusiasm from critics, who saw it as the ultimate synthesis of folk-rock, psychedelia, and punk rock.
(Original English text by Piero Scaruffi)
Adding second guitarist Clay Daniel to the line-up also helped achieve
greatness. Magnetic Home (Doctor Dream, 1993) serves rave-ups such as
Armagideon's Child and Magnetic Home, infected with the viruses
of both punk-pop and garage-rock.
Say Something and Hittin It Hard display class, if not genius.
Something like a cross between Meat Puppets,
Green On Red and
Pogues.
Speed Of Sound (Doctor Dream, 1994) borrows the pattern if not the style
from Tom Petty, as pensive blue-collar ballads
(King Of Nothing) alternate with anthemic rockers
(Let It Shine).
