- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- I learned of Martini Ranch when I saw their high-concept music video for “Reach”, probably on the MTV alternative-rock program 120 Minutes.
Martini Ranch – Holy Cow (1988): Martini Ranch is a willfully eccentric, even avant garde rock duo. Eventually I recognized actor Bill Paxton as being a member of Martini Ranch, whose partner was vocalist and guitarist Andrew Todd; but at the time, I had no clue about the numerous other high-profile contributions made to the Martini Ranch music. Martini Ranch released an EP prior to this sole album called How Can the Labouring Man Find Time for Self-Culture? (1986); the title song from this EP, “How Can the Labouring Man Find Time for Self-Culture?” is included on Holy Cow. Three members of the like-minded new wave band Devo assisted Martini Ranch on this song: keyboardist and rhythm guitarist Bob Casale (who also produced and engineered the track), their drummer Alan Myers playing percussion, and their vocalist Mark Mothersbaugh on keyboards.
Mothersbaugh and actor Bud Cort also contributed voices for the infomercial satire “Fat-Burning Formula”. Cindy Wilson of the B-52’s provides vocals on three songs, “Hot Dog”, “New Deal”, and “World Without Walls”. Actor Judge Reinhold is credited with the whistling on their song “Reach”, and Curt Bisquera of Morris Day’s band – Morris Day and the Time were prominently featured in the Prince film Purple Rain (1984) – performed drums on “Serious Girl”. Other contributions to the album were made by film composer Mark Isham on flugelhorn, Patrick O’Hearn on bass (he played with Frank Zappa and Missing Persons), and his brother Robert O’Hearn on keyboards. I learned of Martini Ranch when I saw their high-concept music video for “Reach”, probably on the MTV alternative-rock program 120 Minutes. I remember thinking that no other video had run so long before the music started since Michael Jackson’s long-form video Thriller (1983). The video for “Reach” is set in the Old West, but there is modern technology also, including a CD player sitting on the bar in the saloon. An outlaw biker is trying to visit his girl in the local brothel, but he is soon being chased by an all-female posse, including one of the most muscle-bound women I have ever seen, Dorothy Herndon playing a blacksmith. I was amazed to learn that the video for “Reach” was directed by none other than James Cameron, the director of two of the three highest-grossing movies in history, Avatar and Titanic, as well as the first two Terminator films. Actors appearing in the video for “Reach” include Cameron’s soon-to-be wife Kathryn Bigelow, who became the first woman ever awarded the Oscar for Best Director, for The Hurt Locker (2008); and three actors who had appeared in the James Cameron films Aliens or Terminator 2: Lance Henriksen, Paul Reiser, and Jenette Goldstein. As far as I know, “Reach” is the only music video that James Cameron was ever involved with.