Video: A Planet For Texas "Amphetamine" Live on Independent Playground 2001

AllMusic: You Can Still Rock In America CD Review

AllMusic: You Can Still Rock In America CD Review

By Karen E. Graves

The 13 tracks on A Planet for Texas' 2000 debut LP bring to mind everything that is great and fun about rock & roll: big riffs, kick-ass attitude, humor, and silly stage names (the best being "Reasonable Steve Texas"). Plus, they have their own theme song, the appropriately titled "Theme From a Planet for Texas." When done properly, theme songs are one of the coolest things a rock & roll band can do, and APFT does it well. 

Mean, gritty vocals and equally vicious riffage on tracks like "Amphetamine" and "Big Cornbred Sonovabitch" call to mind Motörhead/Lemmy (on "Crop Rotation" APFT pulls a sample from Airheads, a movie which, in a different scene, declares Lemmy is God). While the boys have a firm handle on tough-guy posturing and mile-a-minute tongue-twisting punk anthems, it is their ability to write an inescapable hook and vocal melody that really sets them apart from their punk rock comrades.

New Additions: You Can Still Rock In America album by A Planet For Texas

My band only played one show with A Planet For Texas, which is a shame because looking back they ended up being one of my favorite bands of the 2000s Columbus era. Just pure, no-bs punk rock with the requisite midwestern twist of sly humor and subtle class warfare. I'm pretty sure I owned You Can Still Rock In America, but who knows. Luckily, I was able to grab it again at Used Kids over the winter, so it's back in my possession.

Know Yer Band: A Planet For Texas

Band: A Planet For Texas

Members
Bass, Vocals – Joel J. Gunn
Drums, Vocals – Adam/Atom "Stun" Gunn
Guitar, Vocals – Reasonable Steve Texas
Guitar, Vocals – Diamond Ike Midnight

Releases
1998 - A Planet For Texas! 7" single (Music! Music! Music!)
2000 - You Can Still Rock In American album (Diaphragm Records)
2000 - Split w/Bob City 7" single (Diaphragm Records)
2002 - Sprechen Sie Rock? album (Diaphragm Records)

Reverbose Records Workbook Studio 25 Hour Grand Prix

I've been trying to stay away from stuff that I've been directly involved in, but I would be remiss not to mention as part of the compilation album coverage the 2004 release Workbook Studio 25 Hour Grand Prix released on Reverbose Records.

From what I recall, this was the brainchild of Neal Schmitt and Jon Chinn at Workbook, and we at Reverbose were looking for release opportunities other than just our own bands. The experience itself was quite exciting - being a part of a process where each band received one hour to record and mix their songs. For the bands, they could move in and out, but for the Workbook crew, that was a long twenty-five hours.

We ended up with a pretty eclectic and interesting batch of tunes from plenty of new and lesser-known bands, as well as more established local artists like Pretty Mighty Mighty, House Of Heroes, Greenlawn Abbey, A Planet For Texas and El Jesus de Magico.

New Additions: Bob City / A Planet For Texas split 7" single (2000)

I was lucky in that I got to witness the Bob City (well, Bob City II as they refer to it) back in their heyday when they released their self-titled 2000 album. They were loud, rocking and did I mention loud? Recently I grabbed this split seven inch single with A Planet For Texas that came out the same year as the album on Diaphragm Records. Though not as polished as the album, the pair of tracks have the same urgency and volume (did I mention they were loud?) as the album tracks, and in an era where this style of seventies influenced hard rock was not in vogue, it still a fresh sound.

New Additions: The More You Get, The More You Want by Dogrocket

By the time I moved to Columbus in late 1998, Dogrocket was done, with the members having moved on to various other bands such as A Planet For Texas and Pat Dull's Media Whores. This was right around the time I started getting into some of the "action rock" coming out of Sweden, and was looking for bands skirting the line between the aggression of punk and melody of power pop. I heard that was Dogrocket, and at some point I got some of their music via MP3 and enjoyed it, but it wasn't until recently I was able to track down their lone album, 1996's The More You Get, The More You Want via eBay.