Summer 1995

Condiment Chaos Dallas' Ugly Mus-tard by Dave Wilson Imagine a Texas tornado skipping through the Dallas landscape spewing wreckage in every direction, all to the warped soundtrack ofNine Inch Nails. This is Real Records' Ugly Mus-tard. Vocalist K. Barker, guitarist/keyboardist E. Trent and drummer F. Rush all met about 10 years ago. About a year ago they recruited bassist M. Daane and formed Ugly Mus-tard, a name that Trent says "doesn't mean anything." Trent, who is the primary composer of the music on the band's self-titled debut, cites his primary influences as Skinny Puppy and Trent Reznor. Of his band's music unique sound, Trent says, "It has an industrial flavor to it. It's angry in a lot of ways." As for performing live, Trent says the formula is simple. "Mr. Barker is a freak. The rest of us are just conducting the music." Barker's antics in the past have included cross-dressing and tarring and feathering himself on-stage. As for the cross-dressing incident, which happened on New Year's Eve,the rest of the band at first didn't even recognize the made-up Barker. The band has already won some praise in their home state. The debut album made its way on to a top 10 list in the Fort Worth Star Telegram and the band won an award in the Dallas Observer Music Awards for the best Industrial category. That and regular airplay on rock stations KEGL and Z-Rock. Ugly Mus-tard's anger skims close to the surface in their music. "If this is love then I don't want a part of this in any way," Barker snarls in "Twist and Shake." I was letting out alot of stress and anger from things that happened before," Trent said of the band's industrial rage. "We're just letting it all out." As for the immediate future, Trent says the band will be on tour this spring. Regarding the band's musical direction, Trent said, "Hopefully we'll just keep making albums and writing this type of music."