Howdy! Welcome to our world. Just West of Hell isn't your normal band. We aren't PC, and we aren't concerned with perfect. We just want the spirit of what's going on to show thru. Some things are raw, most songs are done in two or three takes - total - and we have songs that are guaranteed to offend those with tender feelings. If you can hang, you'll probably get a kick out of it, and we'd love to 'have you around'. If you hate it, that's cool too. We're not for everyone, and it doesn't hurt our feelings a bit if we don't 'do it' for you! Make yourself happy, cuz life's too short!
Played together from 1983 until January 2009. In that time We wrote and played everything from punk to space madness, and deathmetal to reggae and had a fine old time doing it. We tended to jam a bit and some (ok *most*) songs go on too long. Yes, we know.
Some songs are intended to be played as environmental music (as opposed to 'listened to carefully') One aesthetic that we tried to stick to was not over-producing. So, things intentionally have a raw edge. Don't wanna sound like Steely Dan or Abba or any recent pop princesses.
So, we'd really like it if you took it for what it is and enjoyed it, and didn't overanalyze it.
We played out just a few times, really more for the novelty than anything else. Keith's favorites are the last two times we played live - The Roswell NM UFO festival (OMG, what a hoot!) and an art gallery (Studio 216) in Granbury TX. The crowd was basically non-existent but the venue was fabulous and we got some great live recordings!
Yeah, playing live was lots of fun, maybe better than fried squid.
X, Johnny Cash, Peggy Lee, Ramones, Deep Purple, Dick Dale, Warren Zevon, Frank Zappa, Spinal Tap, Queen, and about a zillion others
We just used anything that gave us a sound we were looking for. Fender, Alvarez, Cort & Guerilla guitars, Fender, Cort, SX, & Daion basses. Fender, Fallis, Roland, Lawnsound, & Behringer amps. AKG, Sennheiser, Shure, MXL and - seriously - Radio Shack mics, and yet more stuff - Rane, Furman, Yamaha, Behringer & Alesis off-board processing gear... Nothing super high end, nothing so cheap it sounded like total crap - unless it was on purpose!
Yeah... Sometimes there are 'bad words' in our songs. If you're easily offended, you should probably skip us. And, for the real numskulls out there who don't get it... If you listen and you get the idea that we support/encourage Nazism, racism, Satanism, or get the idea that somehow we're anti-God, you've *completely and utterly* missed the point!