Initially another bunch of misfit goodfernaughts in thrall of shock, volume and outrage, Austin, Texas’ Big Boys were well matched with cross-dressing nascent blues revisionists the Dicks on the LP they shared, recorded loud and dirty at their hometown’s premier end-of-the-’70s punk showplace.
The self-released Where’s My Towel better indicates the band’s ultimate strengths: Randy “Biscuit” Turner’s melodic rasp and shriek, the surprising musical prowess and singularity of the instrumentalists (particularly guitarist Tim Kerr) and, most significantly, the proto-funk leanings that would later dominate the group. They continued to hone/splinter their approach on the two Moment releases, paralleling the anti-metal punk bent of Mission of Burma and, more specifically, those fractured funk political missionaries, the Minutemen.
By the time of the schizo No Matter How Long the Line Is at the Cafeteria LP, the Big Boys encompassed everything from pure ‘core to Hüsker Dü-inspired overdrive pop to horn-flatulent dance dreck. Unsurprisingly, this was their last LP; members scattered to units as diverse as Doctor’s Mob, Bad Mutha Goose and the Brothers Grimm, Scratch Acid, Poison 13, Rapeman and, most ignominiously, Junkyard. In 1988, longtime producer/collaborator Spot released (first on tape and second on vinyl) the Wreck Collection of odds and ends, beginning with the impossibly rare (until it was bootlegged) debut 7-inch and running through outtakes and alternate mixes.
The Skinny Elvis reissues the 1980 “Frat Cars” single, the Raul’s record and the Big Boys’ first studio album. The Fat Elvis completes the story.
Randy Turner was found dead in his Austin home on August 18, 2005. He was 56.