THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Neverland Ranch Davidians aren’t shy about butting heads with the supposed gatekeepers of popular culture. After all, their name is a mashup that simultaneously references King of Pop Michael Jackson and notorious Waco cult leader David Koresh.
Formed in Los Angeles in 2019, the group features singer/guitarist Tex Mosley, guitarist/vocalist Will Bentley and drummer Max Hagen. Working from a primal bedrock, the trio are free to expand their sonic template to include tense blues grooves, greasy hip-shaking R&B, scuzzy high-voltage riffage, and bristling punk rock. Through it all, Mosley’s voice cuts like a knife — upfront, in your face, and immediate. “I’ve always loved the minimalism of Suicide, and that less-is-more approach is hardwired into the Davidians’ DNA,” said Mosley. “That’s probably why we never bothered recruiting a bass player for our live shows. We’re huge fans of The Cramps and The Gories, neither of which had bass players, so we didn’t feel we needed one either.”
Mosley’s roots in rock reach back to the late 1970s, when he was learning guitar as a teen. Raised in Philadelphia by a family with a deep appreciation of music, his parents happened to be friendly with the early Afro-punk quartet Pure Hell. On a visit to the Mosley household, PH bassist Lenny Boles overheard Tex playing his sister’s acoustic guitar. Impressed, he took the rudimentary chords he heard to his bandmates; they became the framework for the 1978 track No Rules. They credited the young Mosley with the music.
Suspecting he might be on to a good thing, Mosley formed his first band, Bad Actor, when he was 16. When Pure Hell came to an end in 1979, drummer Michael “Spider” Sanders joined Mosley in the new venture. After catching Bad Actor warming up for Circle Jerks and The Stranglers at Philly’s Starlite Ballroom in 1981, Circle Jerks manager Gary Hirstius convinced them to move west to Los Angeles. Upon arrival, they began to book gigs and eventually found themselves in the recording studio, although nothing from this era has ever been released. Bad Actor split around 1985. Incidentally, this was not Mosley’s only connection to Circle Jerks — he and singer Keith Morris also had a short-lived band called The Whores of Babylon.
Since the breakup of Bad Actor, Mosley has stayed busy with a string of musical acts. In 1990, he played alongside Richard Elerick (aka Rik L Rik, vocalist for punk bands F-Word and Negative Trend) on the self-titled debut album by Slaves, released by I.R.S. Records. That same year, he joined the long-running L.A. rock group The Hangmen, an affiliation that lasted until 1997. In 1994, The Hangmen recorded an album with Australian rock vocalist Rob Younger (Radio Birdman, New Race, The New Christs) as producer. Unfortunately, the album was shelved and only a handful of tracks have surfaced in various formats over the years.
From 2007-2011, Mosley played guitar for The Neighborhood Bullys. Head Bully Davey Meshall’s father was songwriter and publishing executive Billy Meshall. The elder Meshall was friendly with legendary producer/songwriter Mike Chapman (Sweet, Blondie, The Knack), who was in pre- production for a new record by Suzi Quatro. Since Quatro needed a band, Meshall suggested that Chapman should check out the Bullys. Suitably impressed, the producer hired them to back Quatro on her 2011 LP In the Spotlight. Simultaneous to his time with the Bullys, Mosley performed with skateboarder and punk rocker Duane Peters (U.S. Bombs). Peters’ main band at the time was The Duane Peters Gunfight, and while they did record two albums, Mosley doesn’t appear on either as his focus was on live work.
Which brings us to Neverland Ranch Davidians. 2023’s Spirituals From Life’s Other Side EP marked the band’s recorded debut, and it was swiftly followed by a self-titled debut LP. For Shout It On The Mountain, the band added a more pronounced R&B vibe to its sonic stew. “For me, R&B and punk rock are just two colors on the rock ‘n’ roll palette,” said Mosley. “They’re what I’ve listened to all my life. Little Richard was the punk rocker of his day. The New York Dolls were labeled as glam, but if you listen closely, they were trying to be a more rock ’n’ roll version of The Shangri-La’s. The Davidians are all the things I love thrown into one pot, from Stax soul to cowpunk to N.Y.C. Lower East Side trash.”
Shout It On The Mountain was recorded earlier this year in Los Angeles, except for Happy, which dates to the sessions for the first album. The new album features three cover songs: Eddie Floyd’s Big Bird (originally issued on Stax in 1968 and written by Floyd and Booker T. Jones), Half Pint & The Fifths’ Orphan Boy (an obscure Chicago garage-rocker issued in 1966 which later appeared in the popular Back From The Grave series), and Skip James’ Hard Time Killin’ Floor Blues (originally issued on Paramount Records in 1931). The latter track carries the subtitle Dirty for this release and features additional lyrics by the band. All the original songs are band compositions with most of the lyrics written by Mosley, with additional help from Bentley. The album was produced by Will Bentley and Bjorn Winberg.”
