The Buck Pets were an American

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band formed in the late 1980s in

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. They were clearly influenced by earlier bands such as The Replacements,

Buzzcocks Buzzcocks are an English punk rock band formed in Bolton, England in 1976 by singer-songwriter-guitarist Pete Shelley and singer-songwriter Howard Devoto. They are regarded as a seminal influence on the Manchester music scene, the independen ...

and

The Jesus and Mary Chain The Jesus and Mary Chain are a Scottish alternative rock band formed in East Kilbride in 1983. The band revolves around the songwriting partnership of brothers Jim and William Reid. After signing to independent label Creation Records, they rele ...

but incorporated better production values and more overt nods to classic rock than their

college rock College rock was the alternative rock music played on student-run university and college campus radio stations located in the United States and Canada in the 1980s. The stations' playlists were often created by students who avoided the mainstream ...

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

predecessors. The band seemed to get a degree of support from their record label,

Island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

, for their first two LPs, the hard edged ''The Buck Pets'', and the more melodic follow up ''Mercurotones''. On the eve of the release of ''Mercurotones'', Island was bought by

PolyGram PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a ...

- the A&R staff were let go and projects were shelved while the new owners evaluated their new property. Support for The Buck Pets was then almost non-existent. The band also had opening spots on tour with larger acts such as

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...

(Ragged Glory Tour) and

Jane's Addiction Jane's Addiction is an American rock band from Los Angeles, formed in 1985. The band consists of vocalist Perry Farrell, guitarist Dave Navarro, drummer Stephen Perkins and bassist Eric Avery. Jane's Addiction was one of the first bands from t ...

, but in the end, The Buck Pets failed to see commercial success. As a coda, The Buck Pets released the more restrained, melancholy album ''To the Quick'' in 1993 on the independent label Restless. On April 10, 2010, The Buck Pets reunited for a one night show at the club Trees in the

Deep Ellum Deep Ellum is an American neighborhood composed largely of arts and entertainment venues near downtown in East Dallas, Texas. The name is based on a corruption of the area's principal thoroughfare, Elm Street. Older alternative uses include De ...

area of Dallas, Texas and released ''RARES (and unreleased)'' a collection of rare and previously unreleased material.

Members

*Tony Alba –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

*Ian Beach –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

*Ricky Pearson – drums (To the Quick) *Chris Savage –

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

*Chuck Smith – bass (The Sound of Deep Ellum) *Andy Thompson – guitar, lead vocals

Discography

;Albums *''The Buck Pets'' (

, 1989) *''Mercurotones'' (

, 1990) *''To the Quick'' ( Restless, 1993) *''RARES (and unreleased)'' (

Self-published Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to written media, such as books and magazines, either as an ebook or as a physical copy using POD (pri ...

, 2010) ;Singles

References

External links

* Mic The Tiger: https://web.archive.org/web/20100409072015/http://www.micthetiger.com/ * Atlas Throat: http://www.myspace.com/atlasthroat {{DEFAULTSORT:Buck Pets, The Musical groups from Dallas Alternative rock groups from Texas Musical groups established in 1986 Musical groups disestablished in 1993 Musical groups reestablished in 2010