Dexter and The Moonrocks (w/ Red Leather)

Abilene, TX, “Western Space Grunge” rawkers Dexter and The Moonrocks headline Empire Underground in Albany with guests Red Leather.

Hailing from Abilene, Texas, Dexter and The Moonrocks have carved a unique niche in the music scene with their innovative blend of Southern Alternative, red-dirt country, and alternative rock, creating a genre their fans affectionately call “Western Space Grunge.”

A former fry cook, oil field operator, concrete surface decorator and kids’ baseball coach met up in a small town in West Texas and started playing country western music together (as one does in small town West Texas). But something didn’t feel right – so their roots in country began to cross-pollinate with the rock and grunge music they heard their parents playing at home.

Meanwhile, as they honed their identity as a band, their drummer, Fox, (the baseball coach) took the helm of their social media, exponentially growing their followers. But they quickly proved they weren’t just building a passive online community: their streams started to sharply increase, and their shows started selling out. Curious followers became fans of the music. Two years later, with 675,000 TikTok followers and more than 50 million streams, Dexter and The Moonrocks have become something none of them ever, in a million years, dreamed possible.

“Coming from a town with only 700 people and regularly selling that many tickets in cities all over the nation is insane,” says Tuffs.

“Beats the hell outta a pulling unit,” says bassist Ty Anderson (the former oil field operator).

But it wasn’t just the guys in the band who couldn’t believe what was happening. The band had caught the attention of Severance Records, a newly launched Nashville-based imprint of Big Loud Rock. The rapidly growing fanbase on social media coupled with more frequent sold out shows convinced the label to sign the band as their flagship act. Through Severance, Dexter and the Moonrocks will release “Western Space Grunge,” an EP including the lead single “Sad In Carolina,” an angsty rock track growing quickly at alternative radio.

“Grunge and country are honestly so similar,” says Fox. “Look at Johnny Cash’s cover of ‘Hurt’ by Nine Inch Nails. Both speak to the oppressed and the depressed – country with twang and grunge with a bite. A pair of boots can mean cowboy or combat. We are huge fans of artists like Zach Bryan, Tyler Childers and Noah Kahan – and when you take that sound and plug it into amps with electric guitars, you get Dexter and the Moonrocks.”

“We took a bet on ourselves, and it’s paying off immensely,” he continues. “We believed we had something special, and if we could just get people to pay attention they’d fall in love, and we did just that.”

“It feels like a fever dream, and it’s definitely helped the health of my knees,” says Ty’s cousin guitarist Ryan Anderson, who never plans to decorate concrete again.