King's X Tickets

Short Biography
According to international music critics and rock gourmets, King's X are among the most unusual acts in the history of rock music. The technical skills of the three band members, Ty Tabor (guitars, vocals), Doug Pinnick (bass, vocals) and Jerry Gaskill (drums, vocals), are above reproach, their creativity has impressed fans and media alike. Next to King's X and Rush, there is currently no other rock trio capable of producing such a dense and at the same time transparent sound, the musicians from Texas continuing to lend with amazing elegance a noticeable lightness to their powerfully and dynamic compositions. As on their fourteen previous recordings, their latest album, XV, is another prime example of classy groove rock featuring a homogeneous liaison of great melodies, driving rhythms and tough guitars.

For Ty Tabor, XV is a very special album because, more than ever before, the musicians allowed themselves enough time for the preparations: "On this record, we decided to write all of the music ahead of time," he says. "In the past we wrote a lot of our music in the studio. And any songs we wrote before coming into the studio were usually in need of a bit of rewriting. So this time we set aside several months just to write and see what we would come up with. I think we were able to bring in the strongest set of songs in a long time." Months before the band members got together to analyse their material for the first time, most of which was finished by that stage, each of them had embarked on their own songwriting sessions. "We wrote individually and demoed our own songs until we got to the studio. We then worked on them carefully with everyone putting their ideas in. And, at the end, just for the fun of it, we wrote a song in the studio which ended up as 'Go Tell Somebody`."

Tabor, Pinnick and Gaskill have every reason to be satisfied with their latest offering. The 14 brand-new tracks take their listeners on a journey through a number of rock music territories. Some owe their fascination to a classy guitar riff, others to a haunting groove or an intricate hookline, the vocals always remaining at the epicentre of the music. "It is a very different record for us. It touches on a lot of different things from our past, but doesn't sound the same. It seems to me that these are more complete songs. Some are short and sweet, some are more adventurous and unpredictable in some ways."  

XV saw the band repeating their successful collaboration with the legendary sound engineer, Michael Wagener (Ozzy Osbourne, Alice Cooper, Dokken, among others). "We worked with Michael on our last one, Ogre Tones. We liked the surroundings and Michael is just a great guy," Tabor explains, "anyone who knows Michael loves him. So we decided to work with him again, and he decided to work with us again." King's X were particular, not only when it came to their choice of producer, but also the recording process. Instead of putting together lots of pieces like a jigsaw puzzle, these three excellent musicians allowed themselves the luxury of recording large sections of the production in a live atmosphere again. "Me and Doug sat around the console area, while Jerry was behind glass in a drum room," Tabor tells. "We could see him while he played. We did the basic tracks live. Sometimes we needed to go back and change a sound or part or something, but they all went down live as usual." To give the vocals, which were recorded subsequently, their special touch, King's X involved a number of friends and colleagues. "Anyone who came to the studio to visit was thrown into the vocal booth and had to sing with us on something. So there are some different voices mixed in there."

So there are in fact two things to celebrate: The fifteenth album by a band who continue to make a point, and fourteen brilliant tracks which prove that this kind of rock music never loses its topicality. So, because their new recording is one of the freshest and most dynamic cuts in King's X's career to date; XV is just the beginning, in a way!

In-depth Biography
Few hard rock bands are as widely respected yet criminally overlooked as King's X. The trio (bassist/vocalist Doug Pinnick, guitarist/vocalist Ty Tabor, and drummer/vocalist Jerry Gaskill) seemed destined for the big time with their irresistible blend of melodic Beatlesque harmonies, metallic riffing, and prog rock detours, yet for reasons unknown, never truly broke through to a mainstream audience. Pinnick (b. September 3, 1950) first met Gaskill (b. December 27, 1957) when the duo was touring with the Christian rock outfit Petra, and soon after, met up-and-coming guitarist Tabor (b. September 17, 1961). The trio joined forces in 1980 with the Top 40 cover band the Edge and thoroughly played the Missouri bar scene. By 1983, the band had changed its name to Sneak Preview and was now completely focusing on original compositions -- resulting in an obscure and very hard to find self-titled debut album released around this time.

Sneak Preview were offered a recording contract in 1985 if they relocated to Houston, TX, which they did, but the deal failed to materialize. Undeterred, the trio continued on and perfected its sound and songwriting further, catching a break when ZZ Top video producer Sam Taylor took the group under his wing, helping it secure a recording contract with New York's Megaforce label in 1987, and suggesting that the band change its name to King's X (the name of a local outfit that Taylor was an admirer of back in his high-school days).

In 1988, King's X released their debut album, Out of the Silent Planet. Despite praise among critics, the public didn't know exactly what to make of the group's original and multiple genre-encompassing style, and the album sank without a trace. But with the band's sophomore release, 1989's classic Gretchen Goes to Nebraska, a buzz began to develop around King's X in the metal community, as members of Anthrax and Living Colour praised them in the press, and MTV granted a few airings of their anthemic track "Over My Head." The stage was set for the group's big breakthrough, and things appeared to be going according to plan when the band's third release, Faith Hope Love, surfaced in late 1990.

The album just missed the U.S. Top 30 and nearly reached gold certification, due to landing a lengthy spot opening on AC/DC's sold-out arena tour in both the States and Europe, while the Beatlesque "It's Love" received major air time on MTV. What should have been an exciting time for the group quickly turned sour, however, as the bandmembers began to experience trouble with manager Taylor. King's X's self-titled release from 1992 (and first to appear on Atlantic Records without the Megaforce imprint) proved not to be as focused as their previous pair of albums, resulting in the album disappearing quickly from sight after release (and their ensuing tour halted), as they ended their relationship with Taylor.

But it appeared as though the change had refueled the group's musical desire once again, as evidenced by the Brendan O'Brien-produced stellar 1994 release, Dogman, which performed respectfully on the charts. This success resulted in the band opening shows for Pearl Jam and a show-stopping performance on the opening night of the mammoth Woodstock '94 festival. Atlantic Records began putting pressure on the trio to deliver a breakthrough hit but when Ear Candy failed to live up to expectations, King's X left the label (Atlantic would issue one more release from the band a year later, The Best Of, which featured 13 fan favorites, as well as three unreleased compositions and a live track).

In 1998 the group signed to the Metal Blade label, as both Pinnick and Tabor issued their first solo albums (Tabor with Moonflower Lane and Pinnick with Massive Grooves, the latter issued under the alias Poundhound), followed by the group's seventh studio release overall, Tape Head. Now free to issue albums at their own pace, the group issued two more albums only a year apart -- 2000s Please Come Home...Mr. Bulbous and 2001's Manic Moonlight. Pinnick continued his solo career in conjunction with King's X, issuing Poundhound's second release, Pineappleskunk, the same year (as well as forming a side project with former members of Trouble, dubbed Supershine), while Tabor issued two albums with the prog metal supergroup Platypus -- 1998's When Pus Comes to Shove and 2000s Ice Cycles. Around the same time, King's X received a pleasant accolade from their peers when they were voted as one of the "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock" on a VH1 TV special. In 2003, they released Black Like Sunday, a collection of re-recorded songs from early in their career that had previously only existed as demos or bootlegs. Their first concert album, Live All Over the Place, arrived the following year, followed by their 11th studio recording, Ogre Tones, in 2005. King's X released XV on the InsideOut label in 2008. ~ Greg Prato, Rovi