Rhythm Pigs

The Rhythm Pigs were an American punk band, originally from El Paso, Texas, United States, later relocated to San Francisco. Their first two albums were among the first to be released by the influential independent Mordam Records label. Their first 7-inch EP is a classic example of early hardcore, welding driving rock and roll with broad melodies and varied tempos and hooks. Their first two studio albums showed more "big tent" punk, with varied musical styles (such as the foray into rap in "Break or We'll Break Your Face" on their self-titled LP) happily shoehorned into melodic punk songs.

Touring extensively throughout Europe and North America throughout the mid-1980s, the Rhythm Pigs were one of the most sophisticated and musically diverse hardcore bands, and remained so throughout the 1980s as hardcore became more and more musically conservative. That the wistful and melodic power-ballads of El Paso would not be considered punk by most adherents has as much to do with the shifting definition of punk as it does with the mellowing of the band's sound. Baby Falcon Getaway saw a return to a more raw, fast-paced hard rock sound (the three out-and-out hardcore songs on El Paso are collected into a single track titled "The Fast Three") combined with the more humorous tone seen on the first album. Baby Falcon Getaway included a hardcore cover of the Gordon Lightfoot classic "Sundown" and a furiously paced rendition of Charles Mingus's "Boogie Stop Shuffle," which recalled the Peanuts theme (Vince Guaraldi's Linus and Lucy) from the first album.