Roy Jurgens on May 4th, 2018

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With the passing of Tony Kinman, Los Angeles lost one of the true originators of not only West Coast punk, but also a cowpunk movement that would eventually morph into something known as alt-country.

Kinman, who died Thursday at age 63 after a short battle with aggressive cancer, originally hailed from Carlsbad. Along with his brother Chip, he formed the seminal punk band the Dils in 1977. Flirting with communism in California during the late seventies was an invitation to getting your head kicked in, yet songs like “Class War” and “I Hate the Rich” garnered them attention as one of the leaders of Los Angeles’ burgeoning punk scene, where they also made a hilarious cameo appearance in the Cheech and Chong classic “Up in Smoke.”

Then, in 1980, during the height of the punk era the brothers found themselves in Austin collaborating with a young guitarist by the name of Alejandro Escovedo. Discarding their combat boots and donning cowboy shirts, this fiery new combo called themselves Rank and File and took a radical right turn towards country music. Tony’s dry vocal delivery played off his brother’s tenor, and the marriage of the high lonesome sound and 200 bpm was as innovative as it was bizarre. Joining them in this vibrant scene were acts as varied as the Gun Club, X, the Blasters, Social Distortion, the Beat Farmers and Lone Justice.

Rank and File were critical darlings who would last until 1987, when the Kinmans once again conjured up a new act, Blackbird, a three-album electro art noise project that veered towards the abrasive. A return to roots re-occurred in the late ’90s with Cowboy Nation, a stripped down project of songs that could be sung around the campfire. Recent years found Tony assisting his brother on his latest project, Ford Madox Ford, whose album was released earlier this year.

Throughout their careers, the Kinmans escaped mainstream success (their lone foray into the Billboard 100 was with Rank and File’s acclaimed debut “Sundown” in 1982) while enjoying heaps of respect from critics and musicians alike. Tony Kinman’s legacy is of an artist who was fearless when it came to tearing apart genres and re-framing them into stylistic unicorns.

Fans are invited to visit the CaringBridge page set up for Tony.