Cool, Cool News: Buxton & The Wild Moccasins Sign to New West (& The Latter Visit Europe!)

I’ll freely admit that I’m not convinced that signing to an actual record label is all that critical to a band’s success, these days. Hell, I’m tempted to argue that it never has been. Even setting aside the Albini-esque financial calculations of being on a major label, it’s just that it’s far simpler to DIY it all than it ever has been before (at least since I can remember).

That said, I’m psyched as hell for this particular bit of record-label-ish news: it seems that local boys {Buxton} and {The Wild Moccasins} both signed today (or announced the signing, anyway) to the very cool New West Records, home to legendary folks like Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakam, & Old 97s. So, gripes about whether you need a label or not aside, hell, the bands will at least be on one that does some truly cool stuff.

The Buxton boys will be putting out their next full-length, entitled Nothing Here Seems Strange, on the label this summer, and New West will be re-releasing the Mocs’ recent (and badass) full-length Skin Collision Past sometime this spring.

Beyond that, the Moccasins have the extra-super-bonus news that they’ll be headed out on tour to Europe starting February 26th — they’ve reportedly got dates in the UK, The Netherlands, France, & Germany, and holy shit is that cool.

Congrats, congrats, congrats, y’all. You guys have been working your collective ass off, and I’m happy to see this come out of that; it’s well deserved. Hopefully this’ll give both bands some much-needed reach outside the Houston metro area…