DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS

Don't Mess With Texas biography
Founded in Zagreb, Croatia in 2004 - Disbanded in 2009

Post-rock boom arrived in Croatia with a few years' delay, but it was welcomed by Croatian musicians - it gave them opportunity to play instrumental music without need of being outsanding technicians, and saved them hustle of looking for appropriate male/female vocalist. The whole scene turned out to be quite fruitful - no wonder, because of aferementioned reasons, and because the artists came from noise/indie/hardcore scene, which was blooming in underground Croatia, even during the war years. Some of those artist were inclining towards more experimental approach - which led to formation of dozen new bands feeting the umbrella terms of post-rock, or math-rock, or both. DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS are certainly the greatest post-rock name in the country, which was founded in Zagreb (Croatian post-rock epicentre), in January of 2004 - it came from the ashes of few bands that were already present (and renowned) on the scene, such are RADIO FREE ISAAC, NIKAD and LUNAR. After the split of aforementioned RADIO FREE ISAAC, the members Sasa Relic (guitar), Neven Kamenski (piano) and Ozren Mlinaric (drums)invited young female bass player (again, a Croatian phenomenon - when girls are playing an instrument in a rock band, it's almost exclusively a bass guitar) named Ivana Vodanovic, and DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS was born.

They received positive reviews both from critcs and from audience very soon - they style could be described as an entirely instrumental post-rock with the emphasis on piano, somewhat reminiscent of EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY and MOGWAI, even implying the relation with EITS in song titles. On a side note, they also touched a Croatian folk music, sublimely incorporating its elements into their own charming and unique sound. Speaking of unique, the bandmembers themsleves do not prefer being pin-pointed into any particular style, let's just say if you like soothing, slow-pace music with good melodies and dynamics, this band is highly recommended.

They published two albums so far, both for Slovenian Moonlee records, the self-titled debut in 2004, and 'Los Dias De Junio' in 2007. In-between the two albums, Slobodan 'Slobich' Alavanja replaced Ivana on bass.

Moris Mateljan, 2008. Thanks to Slobich (DMWT) and Pedja (terapija.net) for the info.