Martini Ranch
Encyclopedia
Martini Ranch is a new wave
band conceived in 1982 by Andrew Todd Rosenthal. The band was composed of Andrew (vocals and guitar) and actor Bill Paxton
(vocals and samples), and featured a similar sound to late 1980s Devo
. The Martini Ranch track "How Can the Labouring Man Find Time for Self-Culture?" featured three members of Devo. Martini Ranch is currently recording a new Jazz/Rock album with some musical collaboration with composer Michael Sherwood. This project is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2011.
In 1989 Martini Ranch was featured in the end credits of Bill Paxton's 1990 cult movie Brain Dead
.
/Warner Bros. Records
. The album was reissued in 2007 by Noble Rot
. In 2010 Warner Special Products made "Holy Cow" available on itunes.
How Can the Labouring Man Find Time for Self-Culture? was produced and engineered by Devo
guitarist Bob Casale and also featured drummer Alan Myers and vocalist Mark Mothersbaugh
on keyboards.
The tracks "Hot Dog", "New Deal", and "World Without Walls" feature the vocals of Cindy Wilson
of The B-52's
. Actor Judge Reinhold
is credited as the whistler on the song "Reach". Mark Mothersbaugh and Bud Cort
donated their voices to the informercial satire, "Fat-burning Formula".
The album also features film composer Mark Isham
; keyboardist Robert O'Hearn (bass player for Frank Zappa
and brother of Missing Persons
bass player Patrick O'Hearn
), who also performed bass on the song "New Deal"; drummer Curt Bisquera
of Morris Day's Band (singer for The TIME), who performed drums on "Serious Girl"; and backing vocalist Carol Parks.
of Fritz Lang
's Metropolis
and German Expressionism
.
Aside deom Rosenthal and Paxton, the cast of the video features cameos by actors associated with Paxton. Anthony Michael Hall
, with whom Bill Paxton starred in the 1985 film Weird Science
and Rick Rossovich
, who appeared with Paxton in The Lords of Discipline
, Streets of Fire
and The Terminator
, represent intellectual class and working class men.
Other appearances include Michael Biehn
(The Lords of Discipline and The Terminator), Judge Reinhold
(The Lords of Discipline) and Kathryn Bigelow
(director of Near Dark
).
created the cowboy-themed video of "Reach". The production included cameos from his soon-to-be-wife, fellow director Kathryn Bigelow
, as well as Aliens
and Terminator alumni Lance Henriksen
, Paul Reiser
and Jenette Goldstein
, Judge Reinhold, Brian Thompson
, and Adrian Pasdar
. Also seen is Bud Cort
, as the crazy person admiring Bill Paxtons' motorcycle.
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
band conceived in 1982 by Andrew Todd Rosenthal. The band was composed of Andrew (vocals and guitar) and actor Bill Paxton
Bill Paxton
William "Bill" Paxton is an American actor and film director. He gained popularity after starring roles in the films Apollo 13, Twister, Aliens, True Lies, and Titanic...
(vocals and samples), and featured a similar sound to late 1980s Devo
Devo
Devo is an American band formed in 1973 consisting of members from Kent and Akron, Ohio. The classic line-up of the band includes two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs and the Casales . The band had a #14 Billboard chart hit in 1980 with the single "Whip It", and has maintained a cult...
. The Martini Ranch track "How Can the Labouring Man Find Time for Self-Culture?" featured three members of Devo. Martini Ranch is currently recording a new Jazz/Rock album with some musical collaboration with composer Michael Sherwood. This project is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2011.
In 1989 Martini Ranch was featured in the end credits of Bill Paxton's 1990 cult movie Brain Dead
Brain Dead (1990 film)
Brain Dead is a 1990 horror/psychological thriller starring Bill Pullman, Bill Paxton and George Kennedy and written by Charles Beaumont.-Plot:...
.
Holy Cow
In the period of 1986 through 1988, Martini Ranch released two extended play records and one album. How Can the Labouring Man Find Time for Self-Culture? and Reach were released as 2 EPs, with a follow up album being Holy Cow, all of which were released on SireSire
Sire may refer to:* Father, the counterpart of a dam, particularly in animal breeding. See also stallion* James W. Sire, author on worldviews* Sire Records, a record label* Sire Advertising, an advertising agency...
/Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
. The album was reissued in 2007 by Noble Rot
Noble rot
Noble rot is the benevolent form of a grey fungus, Botrytis cinerea, affecting wine grapes. Infestation by Botrytis requires moist conditions, and if the weather stays wet, the malevolent form, "grey rot", can destroy crops of grapes...
. In 2010 Warner Special Products made "Holy Cow" available on itunes.
How Can the Labouring Man Find Time for Self-Culture? was produced and engineered by Devo
Devo
Devo is an American band formed in 1973 consisting of members from Kent and Akron, Ohio. The classic line-up of the band includes two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs and the Casales . The band had a #14 Billboard chart hit in 1980 with the single "Whip It", and has maintained a cult...
guitarist Bob Casale and also featured drummer Alan Myers and vocalist Mark Mothersbaugh
Mark Mothersbaugh
Mark Allen Mothersbaugh is an American musician, composer, singer and painter. He is the co-founder of the new wave band Devo and has been its lead singer since 1972. His other musical projects include work for television series, films, and video games....
on keyboards.
The tracks "Hot Dog", "New Deal", and "World Without Walls" feature the vocals of Cindy Wilson
Cindy Wilson
Cynthia Leigh Wilson is a vocalist and a founding member of new wave rock band The B-52s.- Career :...
of The B-52's
The B-52's
The B-52's are an American rock band, formed in Athens, Georgia in 1976. The original line-up consisted of Fred Schneider , Kate Pierson , Cindy Wilson , Ricky Wilson , and Keith Strickland . Following Ricky Wilson's death in 1985 Strickland switched to guitar...
. Actor Judge Reinhold
Judge Reinhold
Judge Reinhold is an American actor, perhaps best known for co-starring in movies such as Beverly Hills Cop, Ruthless People, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and The Santa Clause trilogy.-Early life:...
is credited as the whistler on the song "Reach". Mark Mothersbaugh and Bud Cort
Bud Cort
Bud Cort is an American film and stage actor, writer, and director. He is best known for his portrayals of Harold in Hal Ashby's 1971 film Harold and Maude and the titular hero in Robert Altman's 1970 film Brewster McCloud...
donated their voices to the informercial satire, "Fat-burning Formula".
The album also features film composer Mark Isham
Mark Isham
Mark Isham is an American trumpeter, synthesist, and film composer. He works in a variety of genres, including jazz, electronic, and film.-Life and career:...
; keyboardist Robert O'Hearn (bass player for Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
and brother of Missing Persons
Missing Persons
Missing Persons is an American band who plays a blend of New Wave and Pop rock. The band was founded in 1980 in Los Angeles by guitarist Warren Cuccurullo, vocalist Dale Bozzio, and drummer Terry Bozzio. They went on to add bassist Patrick O'Hearn and keyboardist Chuck Wild. Dale's quirky voice...
bass player Patrick O'Hearn
Patrick O'Hearn
Patrick O'Hearn is an American multi-instrumentalist musician, composer and recording artist. While his musical repertoire spans a diverse range of music, he is an acclaimed New Age artist in his solo career...
), who also performed bass on the song "New Deal"; drummer Curt Bisquera
Curt Bisquera
Curt Bisquera is a studio drummer known for his glasses and long dreadlocks. He has worked with Josh Groban, Mick Jagger, Seal, Elton John, Johnny Hallyday and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers among others. He states that his biggest thrill was playing in Madison Square Garden with Elton...
of Morris Day's Band (singer for The TIME), who performed drums on "Serious Girl"; and backing vocalist Carol Parks.
"How Can the Labouring Man Find Time for Self-Culture?"
Directed by Rocky Schenck, Bill Paxton & Andrew Rosenthal, the video mimics the dystopiaDystopia
A dystopia is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian, as characterized in books like Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four...
of Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...
's Metropolis
Metropolis (film)
Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist film in the science-fiction genre directed by Fritz Lang. Produced in Germany during a stable period of the Weimar Republic, Metropolis is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and makes use of this context to explore the social crisis between workers and...
and German Expressionism
German Expressionism
German Expressionism refers to a number of related creative movements beginning in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin, during the 1920s...
.
Aside deom Rosenthal and Paxton, the cast of the video features cameos by actors associated with Paxton. Anthony Michael Hall
Anthony Michael Hall
Michael Anthony Hall , known professionally as Anthony Michael Hall, is an American actor, film producer and director who starred in several teen-oriented films of the 1980s. Hall began his career in commercials and on stage as a child, and made his screen debut in 1980...
, with whom Bill Paxton starred in the 1985 film Weird Science
Weird Science (film)
Weird Science is a 1985 American teen comedy film written and directed by John Hughes and starring Anthony Michael Hall, Ilan Mitchell-Smith, and Kelly LeBrock...
and Rick Rossovich
Rick Rossovich
Rick Rossovich is an American actor.Rossovich was born Frederic Enrico Rossovich in Palo Alto, California. His brother, Tim Rossovich, is a former professional football player and also an actor.-Career:...
, who appeared with Paxton in The Lords of Discipline
The Lords of Discipline
The Lords of Discipline is a 1980 novel by Pat Conroy.-Summary:The novel's narrator, Will McLean, attends the Carolina Military Institute in Charleston, from 1963 to 1967. The novel takes place in four parts. The first describes the beginning of his senior year and the admission of new freshmen...
, Streets of Fire
Streets of Fire
Streets of Fire is a 1984 film directed by Walter Hill and co-written by Hill and Larry Gross. It was described in previews, trailers, and posters as "A Rock & Roll Fable." It is an unusual mix of musical, action, drama, and comedy with elements both of retro-1950s and 1980s...
and The Terminator
The Terminator
The Terminator is a 1984 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron, co-written by Cameron and William Wisher Jr., and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, and Linda Hamilton. The film was produced by Hemdale Film Corporation and distributed by Orion Pictures, and filmed in Los...
, represent intellectual class and working class men.
Other appearances include Michael Biehn
Michael Biehn
Michael Connell Biehn is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in James Cameron's science fiction action films The Terminator as Kyle Reese, Aliens as Cpl. Dwayne Hicks, and The Abyss as Lt. Coffey. He has also acted in such films as Tombstone, The Rock, and Planet Terror...
(The Lords of Discipline and The Terminator), Judge Reinhold
Judge Reinhold
Judge Reinhold is an American actor, perhaps best known for co-starring in movies such as Beverly Hills Cop, Ruthless People, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and The Santa Clause trilogy.-Early life:...
(The Lords of Discipline) and Kathryn Bigelow
Kathryn Bigelow
Kathryn Ann Bigelow is an American film director. Her best-known films are the cult horror film Near Dark , the surfer/bank robbery action picture Point Break , the science fiction/film noir Strange Days , the historical/mystery film The Weight of Water and the war drama The Hurt Locker...
(director of Near Dark
Near Dark
Near Dark is an American vampire/Western horror film, written by Eric Red and Kathryn Bigelow, and directed by Bigelow. The story follows a young man in a small midwestern town who becomes involved with a family of nomadic American vampires...
).
"Reach"
Director James CameronJames Cameron
James Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...
created the cowboy-themed video of "Reach". The production included cameos from his soon-to-be-wife, fellow director Kathryn Bigelow
Kathryn Bigelow
Kathryn Ann Bigelow is an American film director. Her best-known films are the cult horror film Near Dark , the surfer/bank robbery action picture Point Break , the science fiction/film noir Strange Days , the historical/mystery film The Weight of Water and the war drama The Hurt Locker...
, as well as Aliens
Aliens (film)
Aliens is a 1986 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron and starring Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, William Hope, and Bill Paxton...
and Terminator alumni Lance Henriksen
Lance Henriksen
Lance James Henriksen is an American actor and artist best known to film and television audiences for his roles in science fiction, action, and horror films such as the Alien film franchise, and on television shows such as Millennium....
, Paul Reiser
Paul Reiser
Paul Reiser is an American stand-up comedian, actor, television personality, author, screenwriter and musician. He is most widely known for his role on the long-running television sitcom Mad About You.-Early life:...
and Jenette Goldstein
Jenette Goldstein
Jenette Elise Goldstein is an American actress.- Life and career :Goldstein was born in Los Angeles, California and was raised in Beverly Hills. Her first film role was in James Cameron's Aliens , playing the Hispanic character PFC Jenette Vasquez...
, Judge Reinhold, Brian Thompson
Brian Thompson (actor)
Brian Thompson is an American actor. His distinctive square-jaw profile, powerful voice, and imposing stature has led him to be typecast as a villain in many action films and TV series, and a some comedies: Joe Dirt, The Three Amigos, Weird Science, Key West, and Life Stinks.-Career:Thompson has...
, and Adrian Pasdar
Adrian Pasdar
Adrian Kayvan Pasdar is an American actor, voice artist, and film director. He is known for playing Jim Profit on the TV series Profit, for his roles in Near Dark, Carlito's Way, Mysterious Ways and as Nathan Petrelli on Heroes. Additionally, he directed the feature film Cement...
. Also seen is Bud Cort
Bud Cort
Bud Cort is an American film and stage actor, writer, and director. He is best known for his portrayals of Harold in Hal Ashby's 1971 film Harold and Maude and the titular hero in Robert Altman's 1970 film Brewster McCloud...
, as the crazy person admiring Bill Paxtons' motorcycle.