Cleofus Trujillo Trio
untitled CD

Ah, San Antonio, probably the only city on Earth where Moxy records go for $25, Santana plays bi-annually, and citizens proudly boast of being Budgie's lone stop on their last world tour. So it is no surprise really that much of the musicians down here rise up from that wellspring of classic rock: Rush, Zep, Cream, Kiss, Judas Priest, etc., all courtesy of the tireless disc jockey efforts of THE heshers' patron saint, Joe Anthony of 99.5 KISS.

But with the demise of "Saint Antonio" a couple of years back, there seemed to be a void in "the rock". Enter local boys, the Cleofus Trujillo Trio. After four plus years of practically owning Tacoland denizens with their "roots"-based rock (please forgive the exact, if not somewhat insipid cliché ), they have finally gotten off their asses long enough to press up a hundred or so of these discs, and from the looks of the packaging, they barely made it to the Kinko's color copier and back.

Aside from the most hideous packaging I've come across in awhile (right up there with other local hero-zeros Big Drag's CD (and no, it's not the water), I must say I am quite satisfied by the sound of the thing. After plenty of Lone-Star-fueled Saturday nights getting blattoed by overdriven amp wattage hits straight to the gut, gourd, and tits, it's nice to finally be able to distinguish the words and melodies. For all the suspicious local live-fi purists, there's nothing to fear, for their vocal harmonies are still perfectly tone-deaf, especially on the pop mastery of 500 (Have they ever hit those notes?) On the downside, some of the earlier favorites are completely neglected here, such as the Blue Cheer-Santana jams that helped solidify their sound. The focus here is much more on Teenage Fanclub juices strained through classic Cream power trio cheeseclothes. Cleofus will prob'ly never get their shit together enough to press up another platter, or for that case leave town (much less state lines) and you probably won't make it down, even for Fiesta, so this might be your only chance to feel the highs achieved by Big Red, imagine the majesty of the Texas Hill Country and the scent of the cedar trees in bloom, and the voice of Ram calling you "pussy".

Cleofus Trujillo Trio, 303 S. San Jacinto San Antonio, TX 78207.

Copyright © 1998 Andy Beta