Texas Hippie Coalition Band Of Outlaws Review
Texas Hippie Coalition
Band Of Outlaws
Big Dad Records
2026
This is not a test, nor are your eyes failing you… There’s another THC album to be talked about. To celebrate the band’s 25th anniversary, their own label, and simply because they want to, Texas Hippie Coalition is releasing two albums simultaneously. The first was their own take on Southern Rock/Outlaw Country. This release, “Band Of Outlaws,” is the band’s normal material, and according to the press release, it might be their heaviest release to date. I can’t truly say because I’m not familiar with all the band’s material.
Getting into “Band Of Outlaws,” I’m having a hard time telling the difference between it and “Stoned Cowboys,” honestly. Sure, I know this one is supposed to be the heavier of the two. There’s no Steel Guitar, the explicit language and cheeky lyrics show up a hell of a lot more, and there’s certainly more distortion, heavy riffs and lead guitar. Maybe I should be able to hear the difference, but I just can’t separate the two. That’s the trap of releasing two albums at once: you can tell the bulk of these songs were written within the same headspace and timeframe.
I hate to agree with the corporate suits at the major record labels, but maybe that’s why a lot of labels don’t want to release two albums at once, or so I’ve read. When you dump this much material on the listener at one time, it can become difficult to tell where one album ends and the other begins.
If you’re a fan of THC, that’s not going to chase you away. Hell, it hasn’t chased me away from AC/DC, who have basically remade the same album over and over for YEARS now. But for a band that doesn’t quite have the same magic as AC/DC, it makes it harder to pull off.
If you’re a diehard fan of the band, this will knock your shit into the middle of next year and you’ll be pleased out of your mind. If you’re a casual fan who’s listened here and there, though, it starts to feel like one long listen featuring a fair amount of filler that probably should’ve been left on the cutting room floor. Ouch. I mean no disrespect whatsoever by saying that; I’m just stating my truth. THC is a good band, but when you release two albums simultaneously, this is the feeling I think a lot of folks are going to walk away with unless they’re already heavily invested in the band.
It’s hard not to hear the Southern Rock aspect. It’s just been ramped up with distortion and gravel-throated vocals. So, for me, it doesn’t really matter that “Band Of Outlaws” is supposed to be heavier than “Stoned Cowboys”, it’s still the same band, and the differences just aren’t enough to make enough of a difference.
Here we’re gonna “stomp mudholes and whoop your ass,” while on the other one we’re gonna drink and raise hell. I’m Southern. All that shit goes hand in hand, and often it’ll happen within a matter of seconds. In other words, you fuck with the bull, you’re gonna get the horns, quick, fast and in a hurry.
Fans of THC should be beside themselves with the release of two albums on the same day, and this should do well with those folks. I’ve enjoyed listening to both albums, and I’ve given them a good beating trying to dig into the meat of what the band is doing here. But as a Southern guy who’s spent a lot of time playing Southern Rock in dive bars, it’s hard for me to take a lot of this too seriously.
That doesn’t mean I’m unhappy I received these albums for review. Quite the opposite. I’m glad the band is out there doing their thing on their own terms, and I respect the hell out of that. I’m sure there’s some young kid out there who’s going to hear these songs, pick up a guitar and think, “Man, that’s what I wanna do.”
And that right there is the reason this band, and this music, still matters.
Standouts – “Band Of Outlaws”, “Keep It Nasty” and “The Winds”