Will Hagle is Mr. Flocka Flame’s Campaign Advisor
The Outfit, TX have been laying low since the release of their sophomore album, Cognac / Four Corners. To me, they’ve been non-existent. I don’t know how I missed out on them. They’ve been covered on this site multiple times, but I tend to avoid anything with Texas in the name aside from the toast and this girl named Alexis.
“Wild Turkey” still caught my attention when it surfaced on the Internet this week, and I’ve spent the last few days tearing through the group’s back catalog like a plate of beef brisket. That song—their newest, and the first single off their forthcoming album—also has had my trunk rattling like Bushwick Bill and Bar None in the backseat wrestling.
The Outfit, TX’s lineage is clear. From their group name to the chopped, spacey production on a song called “Wild Turkey,” it’s impossible to imagine this music being birthed anywhere outside the Lonestar state. The Southern spirit of Three 6 Mafia and UGK can be felt, but there’s a reason The Outfit, TX are the creators of the only two SoundCloud songs tagged #Cooly Fooly Space Age Funk. This is Texas in 2015. Maxo Kream, Rob Gullatte and The Outfit, TX are the rightful representatives, giving new meaning to the name Space City. As much as I hoped this would be Mike Jones’ comeback year, the words Money Train will forever belong to Woody and Wesley.
A roommate of mine from Atlanta once had his friend stay at our place for a week, a pit stop on his pilgrimage to do drugs in the Joshua Tree hotel room where Gram Parsons died from doing too many drugs. This dude was like a caricature of Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart, except he only imagined that he had any sort of country music career. He was out of his mind the entire time he stayed with us, bug-eyed and dreary in his unwashed Merle Haggard t-shirt. He was the best guitarist I’ve ever met, but at some point his ambition must’ve drowned in a pool full of Wild Turkey. I saw him in the kitchen every morning, slouched over the table and sucking on a bottle of 101 proof.
The point of that personal story is that there is something inherently sad and country about Wild Turkey. The drink that turned James Incandenza into the Mad Stork doesn’t normally inspire anthems like this. Wild Turkey may be mentioned by country singers and chugged by aspiring ones, but The Outfit, TX’s synth-driven, bass-knocking beat and spazzy, mostly-intelligible hook make this the drink’s most fitting tribute.
