Top 40 Before 40 Rock Artists - #29 - Fenix TX
Now, I am going back to my youth for sure on this one, but this band is one that I have liked since I saw them open up for Blink-182 in Minneapolis when I was in high school. Heck, I even met the band after the show.
Fenix TX may not have rock royalty status or hall of fame credentials, but what they do have is an incredible ability to mix pop punk with hard rock guitar riffs and make it sound like that’s what everyone else should have been doing all along.
For those of you who are just joining this list at this point, let me give a quick summary below:
- In my almost 40 years on this planet, I have had the great pleasure of listening to a lot of music that doesn't make it to the airwaves, and a lot of these bands are some of my absolute favorites.
- You WILL see some Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame bands on the list too, but for the most part, you are likely going to disagree with this list almost entirely.
- I am sharing this ranking so that you get some insight into some great bands you may have never heard before AND for a little bit of a personal challenge to myself to rank these bands.
With that said, let's get to #29 on my Top 40 List Before 40:
Punxskaoc - Own work
#29 - Fenix TX
Fenix TX (originally called Riverfenix) had a pretty short lived but impressive presence in the late 90’s and early 2000’s.
With their self-titled debut album, I actually felt these guys would have a LOT of potential to become quite famous. I still consider their first album one of those “perfect albums” where every song on the album is rocking, and whether you like their music or not, that album is worth a listen.
The songs “Speechless” and “All My Fault” are probably the two most popular songs, but I would say the song “Ben” is by far the most rocking of all of them. There is a part in the middle of the song that breaks down into a thumping guitar riff that gets an entire crowd to jump up and down.
Then when their follow-up album Lechuza came out, I pretty much knew that these guys were on the verge of stardom.
Songs like “Phoebe Kates”, “Threesome” and a song with a name that gives a naming nod to Metallica, “Pasture of Muppets” really make this song an even heavier sounding album than their first.
It might be their Texas roots or just their heavy metal influences, but the rock ability of Fenix TX was never really in question.
However, the band unraveled as half of the band essentially wasn’t happy with the sound that they had become known for. This caused the band to split into two side projects shortly after (Denver Harbor and Sing the Body Electric).
Neither projects would go on to be anything as popular as Fenix TX, but I actually still enjoyed the Denver Harbor album as it was very much a Fenix TX sounding album (driven by lead singer Will Salazar).
This band may never be known or remembered by the masses, but for those who had the chance to listen to them as regularly as I did, they still are as good and relevant today as they were in the late 90’s and that is not an easy task for any band.
I guess good rock never goes out of style.
They did reunite in 2016 to put out a 5 song EP called CRE.EP, and have done some shows since then.
The reunion came after Salazar had a stroke and really drove the band to draw closer to each other and start making music again.
Here's to hoping they continue to put out more music to keep us fans continuously craving new songs.
Similar Artists That I Recommend That Didn't Make The Top 40:
Midtown, Home Grown, Cage the Elephant
<-- Check out #30 on this list or Check out #28 on this list --> (Available February 9th)