Linda “Texacala Jones” Yacoubian cut an enormous swath across Eighties L.A. punk rock in the notorious Tex & the Horseheads, a whiskey-and-pills-drenched fusion of the Ramones, Rolling Stones, and the most deep woods honky-tonk twang imaginable. Tunes like “Oh, Mother” resonated with a lacerating, Gothic thrust that thrills to this day. Relocated to Austin in the mid-Nineties, her very first LP totally under her name indicates no desire to tame her wayward musical M.O. in any way. A cast of local underground luminaries, including Chronicle Accounting Assistant Chelsea Taylor playing some of her father Jesse’s guitars and amps, plus Chaindrive/Butthole Surfers/We Are the Asteroid bassist Nathan Calhoun, back Jones’ pitchy, idiosyncratic warble. Moods range from punk power chords with jangle seasoning (“Wavey”) to shuffling organ folk (“Roadside Blues”) and country goth (“Center of the Sun”) to biker-psych (“Invisible Eye”), with mordant nursery rhyme “Cemetery” closing each side in drastically different versions.
This article appears in November 9 • 2018.
