Space Cowboys

In the Beginning… There Were Cowboys, Space Cowboys

By Rock Star Librarian on Aug 22, 2011 in Burn Stories, Music, Rock Star Librarian, Serendipity, Space Cowboys | 3 comments

We all love them and that damnable UNIMOG of a music machine, but how did all that begin? I caught up with PK of Space Cowboys for the story. (RSL)When and how’d Space Cowboys come into being? What was the initial vision and how has it changed and grown over the years? (PK)The Space Cowboys started wrangling the cosmos around 1997. I don’t remember exactly. It was a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far away. The Space Cowboys were one of the first large-scale sound camps at Burning Man. It started of as a group of friends who wanted to go to the desert, build and run essentially a free night-club in the true wild west. Initially the Cowboys had a large camp on one of the “corners” of Black Rock City, and ran a sound system and barter bar everynight. Big changes happened in 2000 when after meeting the fine lads of SpaceLounge, the crew’s focus shifted. As the two camps merged SpaceLounge continued to build the physical public camp that rocked every night and the Cowboys began work on a novel & radical idea at the time: a mobile sound-system. In 2001 the UNIMOG debutted on the playa, and well the playa has never really been the same since. Ever since it’s founding the Space Cowboys have focused their on playa efforts into one evening, the Black Rock Hoedown, one of the finest events BRC has ever seen (we are a bit biased). Held every year on the Friday before the burn, with the advent of the UNIMOG the location has changed each year to a different amazing artwork on the open playa. (RSL)Do you have sound camp veterans in your camp and what camps did they come from? <PK)The Space Cowboys ARE the veterans (funny, sad & true). [RSL interjection: I believe it’s funny, RAD & true!] The majority of us have been doing this for a decade. The old-timers amongst us are either original Cowboys or SpaceLoungers. (RSL)What music stylins’ should people expect to hear from your boom bass? (PK)Peeps should expect nothing but the finest in Breaks & House from the Cowboys. Our roster of residents is as deep as it is...