The recently passed away Bill Paxton was a well respected actor in SF genre films like Terminator, Aliens and Weird Science. But he had a history in weird music too.
Bill Paxton sang vocals for the band Martini Ranch and Andrew Rosenthal. The band had a new wave bent, with a sound very similar to Devo or Oingo Boingo. They released 2 EPs and just one full length album, Holy Cow, released on the Sire label in 1988.
Not only did Martini Ranch sound like Devo, but Devo was very intimately involved with Martini Ranch, with three members performing on Holy Cow. The album also featured contributions from The B-52s' Cindy Wilson, composer Mark Isham and Patrick O'Hearn of Missing Persons, amongst other guest stars.
Paxton was also the director for Barnes and Barnes' infamous early video, "Fish Heads", put out in 1980. Paxton was also instrumental in getting it played on Saturday Night Live for the first time.
Paxton's connections as an actor are well represented in the video for "How Can the Laboring Man Find Time for Self-Culture?", which features appearances by Anthony Michael Hall, Michael Beihn and Judge Reinhold. The video was directed by Rocky Schenck, who had photographed hundreds of record covers, as well as directing dozens of videos for mainstream and non-mainstream artists, including, yet again, Devo.
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