If Singing To the Moon announced a new direction for the band, Aces and Eights came as a big surprise and let’s say it a huge deception. There were many reasons for that. First Mark Denman had left the band, though he kept on writing stuff for the band and figured among the guest musicians. The band now featured a full time sax player, omnipresent all along the album, which didn’t bring anything to the songs (and to make things worse the player is not Lee Allen if you see what I mean). The songs themselves are far from the usual Texans standards and mostly sound like average pop songs. If you add a clean and cold production you’ll understand that the result is a more than dispensable album.
The Radioactive Kid

Originally released in 1991, Singing To The Moon is the band's last album with Mark Denman (though he'll keep on writing songs for them). It's in the wake of Saturnalia and covers a wide range of styles and demonstrated that the Texans werent that easy to pigeonhole. Thus, next to classic sounding Long Tall Texans numbers like Axe To The Grind, Senses Six and Seven or Witch Hunting, you find on this platter a ska number not that far from the Clash (SInging To The Moon), a jazzy instrumental with a Shakin' Pyramids feel (Klub Foot Shuffle), a pop tune (Smilin' Eye), a rockabilly with a bluesy slide guitar (Nine Days Wonder), heavy rockers (Alcohol and Rock Bottom Line that sounds a bit like Guana Batz on ELectra Glide In Blue) and Reactor evokes the Escalators.
The cover range from Berthold Brecht and Kurt Weil to Peter and the Test Tube Babies with John Loudermilk in between. Fine.
The Radioactive Kid

Formed in the mid 80’s, the Long Tall Texans released “Sodbusters” their debut album in 1987. The core of this album is mainly made of modern rockabilly with fast slap bass that became the trademark of the band (Poison, Rockin’ Crazy, Long Tall Texans). Some other songs border on psychobilly like Paradise and Get Up and Go. There’s also a strong blues influence with Little Walter’s My Babe that receives a superb rockin’ blues treatment or the jump blues influenced “Wreckin’ Me” that sounds a bit like Red Hot’n’Blue. There’s even a touch of ska mixed with a blues harp (My Idea Of Heaven) and an interesting mix of Glam rock with Rockabilly (Rock’n’Roll Party/Endless Sleep). Two instrumentals round up the album and prove that these cats are serious musicians.
The Radioactive Kid

Ballroom Blitz is a rarities album featuring rare and unissued stuff from the Long Tall Texans' early years.
The first four tracks date from 1986 and were scheduled to be released on Northwood but the label folded before the ep materialized. The song were later re-recorded on albums with the
exception, correct me if I'm wrong, of Ballroom Blitz that only appeared on their live album.
The remaining tracks were recorded in 1985 with the band's first line-up featuring Bill Clifford on drums instead of Theo. It's very interesting to compare with the later studio version to hear a band in mutation. It's still classic rockabilly/neo-rockabilly but here and there appear elements of what would become their trademark sound.
The Radioactive Kid