Even the directing talents of James Cameron weren't enough to keep Bill
Paxton's new wave band afloat. Wait, Bill Paxton? The actor? We're taking you back
to the '80s to learn more about Bill Paxton's short music career.
Many actors and actresses explore their musical interests on the side. Back in the 1980s,
actor Bill Paxton — best known for films like "Aliens" and "Twister" – formed a
new wave duo with his friend Andrew Todd Rosenthal, releasing a series of videos,
two EPs, and one album titled "Holy Cow." When actors dabble in music,
the results aren't always as stellar as their careers, but Paxton and Rosenthal's charmingly
dated band belongs alongside similar acts from the time, including Devo and the B-52s.
Some actors enter the music scene after they've become major stars,
but Paxton did things the other way around — and he wasn't the only one to do so. Australian actor
Russell Crowe had a rock band even while he was still forging his career as a film star. On the
other side of the coin there's Eddie Murphy, who was a comedy icon when he tried out music.
He released three albums between 1985 and 1993 and landed a hit with his single "Party All The Time."
Then there are the actors who wanted to be rock stars first, only to find musical
success later in their careers. Jared Leto, star of such films as "Morbius" and "House
of Gucci," moved to LA in 1992 with dreams of becoming a professional musician, but his side
hustle — acting — took off in the mid-'90s. Leto formed his band Thirty Seconds to Mars in 1998
and went on to become a rock star, as well as an Oscar-winning actor. As for Paxton and Rosenthal,
their duo failed to make much of a splash. Now, few people even realize that Paxton had
this interesting musical cul-de-sac in his career before he became a major movie star.
"Is this gonna be a stand-up fight, sir, or another bug hunt?"
In 1982, Bill Paxton and Andrew Todd Rosenthal teamed up to form Martini Ranch. The band
featured a sort of who's who of early 1980s new wave working in the background. Two members of
Devo performed on one of the group's singles, and Cindy Wilson of the B-52s also appeared on
their only studio album, "Holy Cow," along with actors Judge Reinhold and Bud Cort.
Martini Ranch never really gained momentum, and Paxton himself went on to be recognized
more as an actor than a musician, but some of the band's work did make it into the movies.
Specifically, their song "Headin' West" appeared on the soundtracks to both "You
Can't Hurry Love" and "Brain Dead," the latter of which Paxton also appeared as an actor.
Martini Ranch may not have made it big, but few new wave acts of the 1980s can say that
they produced a music video directed by James Cameron. The seven-minute video for
the band's song "Reach" was indeed directed by the same man who worked with Paxton on "Aliens"
and "Titanic." In the Old west-themed video, released in 1988, a black leather-clad Paxton
pulls into view on a motorcycle while a snake emerges from the dusty old skull of a longhorn.
After a lengthy narrative intro, the song begins blending themes from Spaghetti
Western movie soundtracks with the driving beat of '80s-era pop radio.
"Hey, you beef-boned jerky necks, skin me!"
"All right!"
If you've never heard of Bill Paxton's music career before, it's an interesting way to see
him — particularly after his Western-set films like "Near Dark" and "Tombstone."
Another Martini Ranch song you can check out is called "How Can the
Laboring Man Find Time for Self-Culture?" Like "Reach" and other Martini Ranch songs,
it's got a synth-driven sound with many similarities to acts like Devo and Oingo
Boingo. If you want to take a deep dive into what Martini Ranch really sounded like,
you can still buy their entire catalog of music through websites like Discogs.
Though Paxton's music career never really took off, and he largely left it behind in favor
of acting, Rosenthal never forgot his Martini Ranch bandmate. When the "Twister" actor died
suddenly from heart surgery complications in 2017, Rosenthal released a statement
memorializing his friend and collaborator. While mourning Paxton's death, he said,
"I have lost a real big brother."
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