The Explosives ranked among the leading acts on Austin, TX’s new wave circuit during the late ’70s and early ’80s, delivering an energetic fusion of power pop, roots rock, and rockabilly. Guitarist Cam King, bassist Waller Collie, and drummer Freddie “Steady” Krc formed the lineup, each a veteran of the Texas scene: Krc had toured and recorded with B.W. Stevenson and Jerry Jeff Walker; King had belonged to Joker Moon and composed “Circuit Queen,” which appeared on Marcia Ball’s debut album and in the film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; and Collie had met Krc while both worked the country circuit throughout the 1970s. In summer 1979, spurred by the fresh pop sounds surfacing in Austin, Krc assembled the Explosives with King and Collie—who chose the name from a vintage bowling shirt—and the trio issued their debut four-song 7" EP that August.
After Roky Erickson, the storied frontman of the 13th Floor Elevators, returned to Austin from San Francisco in 1979, the Explosives were enlisted to back him on stage. Archival tapes from those performances surfaced as Halloween: Live 1979-1981 in 2008, while the 1979 multi-band document Live at Raul’s featured the Explosives both on their own material and accompanying Erickson, though the latter tracks received authorized release only upon the 1995 CD reissue. A second four-track EP, Push the Button, followed in February 1980, and the single “Headhunter” b/w “A Girl Like You” appeared the next year. Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Stu Cook produced the 1982 mini-album Restless Natives, which smoothed some of the band’s sharper edges, yet the members began to drift and the group disbanded before year’s end.
Krc and King kept collaborating as a duo and in the Freddie Steady Five, while Krc also fronted Freddie Steady’s Wild Country and the Shakin’ Apostles. King concentrated on songwriting—his compositions later recorded by Garth Brooks and Lonestar—and on running his own studio. In 2005 Krc and King revived the Explosives with bassist Chris Johnson, soon releasing the vintage live-and-studio anthology KaBOOM!, and they again backed Roky Erickson during his return to the concert stage that year for a series of acclaimed shows and festival appearances. A second anthology, Three Ring Circus, arrived in 2010.
