Let’s All Remember Bill Paxton by Listening to Martini Ranch

Bill Paxton, who died on Saturday at age 61 due to complications from surgery, was generally known first and foremost for his work as an actor, secondarily for his work as a director, and once in a blue moon, he might come up in conversation for his work as a musician. Not often, though. And that’s a shame, because his band Martini Ranch delivered 10 tracks of fun with their 1988 album HOLY COW.

Martini Ranch can probably best be classified as new wave, or at least that’s the banner they were flying under when Andrew Todd Rosenthal brought the band into existence in 1982. With Rosenthal on vocals and guitar and Paxton credited as contributing “voices and samples,” they released two EPs in the ‘80s – HOW CAN THE LABOURING MAN FIND TIME FOR SELF-CULTURE? and REACH, with both songs ultimately ending up on their 1988 album HOLY COW.

HOW CAN THE LABOURING MAN FIND TIME FOR SELF-CULTURE?

REACH

Cindy Wilson of the B-52’s, Bob Casale, Mark Mothersbaugh, and Alan Myers of Devo, and Mark Isham all appeared on HOLY COW, as did Judge Reinhold and Bud Cort, oddly enough.

Actually, come to think of it, it’s not really that odd at all, especially when you see how prone Martini Ranch was to draw high-profile guest stars to their work. If you haven’t yet watched the above videos, you’ll want to do so immediately: between the two of them, you’ll see Anthony Michael Hall, Rick Rossovich, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, Paul Reiser, Jenette Goldstein, Brian Thompson, Adrian Pasdar, and Kathryn Bigelow. Oh, and did we mention that James Cameron had a hand in the creation of the “Reach” video?

Yes, Martini Ranch had a lot of friends. If only they’d had as many fans! But it’s never too late to become one, you know, and if you were become one in the wake of Paxton’s death…well, he’d probably think it was pretty cool, and then he’d give you shit by saying, “Thanks for waiting so long to listen!”

But, hey, better late than never, right?

R.I.P., Bill.