ALIEN COWBOYS

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California, USA

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"In the spirit of Steve Morse and The Dixie Dregs comes Alien Cowboys. Influenced by all shades of instrumental rock, from ‘50s rocker Duane Eddy to the modern hard rock of Joe Satriani, Alien Cowboys really rock the house on their second full length CD. Among his chief influences, the group’s guitar ace Ralph Perucci cites a number of guitar greats including Jeff Beck and early Larry Carlton. Together with Greg Jones (bass) Ian Thomson (drums) and Bruce Stevenson (rhythm guitar), Perucci adds a new twist to the guitar-based instrumental rock-jazz genre. So just how does the quartet describe their sound? According to rhythm guitar ace Bruce Stevenson, “I kind of think of it as ‘Jeff Beck does The Beatles’. Most instrumental pieces are either jam-oriented because they’re blues or like Vai or Satriani they go off on soloing. I think where we’re different there is that we structure, at the songwriting end, a chart that’s basically like a Beatles song. Y’know, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge - it’s just that the lead guitar is doing the singing. We write songs as if the singer’s gonna sing them, but a guitar player sings them instead.” The follow-up to the band’s earlier effort, Analogtherapy is an excellent introduction to an up-and-coming new band and is a solid spin for jazz-rockers of all ages." - Music Web Express (November 2000)

"Returning after their critically acclaimed second album Analogtherapy, Alien Cowboys are back in saddle again with 2002: Other Space. Lead guitar ace Ralph Perucci and rhythm guitarist Bruce Stevenson once again team up with Ian Thomson (drums) and Greg Jones (bass) and the resulting album is quite enormous in scope. With it’s sky-wide jazz-rock groove, 2002: Other Space is an all around winner. Assisted by production and engineering experts Bill Drescher and Gary Cirimelli, Alien Cowboys make good on early promises and deliver the goods here. Packed tight with eleven high octane instrumental guitar jaunts that more often than not accentuates melody and atmosphere right up there with chops and musical might, 2002: Other Space moves along at a steady clip while never missing a groove or a beat. The group’s powerhouse instrumental rock reworking of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” would make George Harrison smile." - 20th Century Guitar Magazine (February 2003)

"2002: Other Space is the third album from the Alien Cowboys, a twin-guitar band featuring Ralph Perucci and Bruce Stevenson. This is high-impact instrumental rock at it's best, with eleven driving numbers sure to get the body moving and the speakers rattling. 2002: Other Space includes a cover of George Harrison's classic "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", which is given the Alien's 'otherworldly' treatment, and turned into a signature cover. Fans of both melodic and ripping lead guitar will hear plenty here, as Perucci handles his axe with the skill of a veteran player. Another Alien Cowboys must-have release." - Guitar Nine Records

"The Alien Cowboys are a huge surprise to me. Normally, the announcement of a new instrumental album means "run fast, run far" to me. If the content is as entertaining and classic as this one, though, I can overcome my escape instincts and state: There's a way to do it if you know how to do it!" - Squealer.net

"The Alien Cowboys is an instrumental rock quartet on a mission to restore instrumental rock to the worldwide prominence the genre enjoyed in past decades. The band features Ralph Perucci on lead guitar, Bruce Stevenson on rhythm guitar, Greg Jones on bass and Ian Thomson on drums. All are San Francisco Bay Area inhabitants,except Ralph, who hails from Manhattan. Since its founding in 1997, the band has completed three full-length CD's of mostly original material. A fourth CD, LIFT, which many feel is the band's best effort to date, is now stunning instrumental fans worldwide. The new release has some awesome covers including "Telestar", The Beatles' "Hey, Bulldog", Jimi Hendrix' "Spanish Castle Magic" and a James Bond medley. All the songs have the signature Alien Cowboys "big guitar" treatment. The package comes with a bonus DVD featuring an animated video of the song "Escape From Onlyon", mixed in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround. Instrumental Guitar (Electric/Rock), total running time, 40:54." - Guitar9.com

"The Alien Cowboys third Bill Drescher-produced CD, Zero Gravity, is definitely their best work and contains 12 new original instrumental compositions along with a four-song Beatle medley. Drescher is known for his work with Rick Springfield, Richard Marx, Ringo, Nick Gilder, The Tubes and more. Gary Cirimelli also contributed to Zero Gravity with an engineering/producer credit on the reggae-influenced, King of Kingston. A singer and guitarist himself, Cirimelli was a pioneer in the use of computers to record music. A chance meeting with Paul Reed Smith, who was just beginning what would become a major guitar design and manufacturing business, led to lead guitarist Ralph Perucci joining PRS Guitars as a field rep as well as Smith's own band, the PRS Dragons. Paul shares lead guitar duties on Ralph's song, "Jenna's Eyes". Other guest guitarists appearing on the Zero Gravity CD include Austrailian guitarist and Santana protege, Orianthi, trading licks with Ralph on the title track, and Favored Nations' screamer, Johnny Hiland lends some serious heat to the track, Lead Foot Rumble." - Guitar9.com