“The Conductor wore Black”, Rank and File

This way: The Conductor wore Black

Rank and File was an American country rock band established in 1981 in Austin, Texas by brothers Chip Kinman and Tony Kinman, who had been members of the seminal California punk rock band The Dils. The band were forerunners in combining the musical rawness and Do It Yourself punk aesthetic with the style and ambience of country and western music, helping to create a subgenre known as cowpunk. After releasing three albums, the band terminated in 1987. 

In 1981, the brothers Chip and Tony Kinman split up their influential political punk band The Dils, based in Carlsbad, California, and departed for the East. After a brief time in New York City, the brothers landed in the musical mecca of Austin, Texas, to start a new band. There they joined forces with guitarist Alejandro Escovedo of The Nuns to form Rank and File. Chip Kinman also played guitar while Tony was on bass. The drummer was Slim Evans.

Chip Kinman later recalled the difficulty the band had at the time of its launch, during which "people were grossed out" by the band's heavy-on-the-country, light-on the punk sound. "We'd go into New Wave clubs, and no one was playing country music. We'd play those songs, and we'd never get asked back," Kinman remembered.

[Spotify] The Conductor wore Black