While the “Tex” in Jonny Tex definitely stands for the man’s Lone Star roots, Jon Wallis has carved out a nice little space for himself in the Boston underground. Making time in a variety of bands (including AP faves Pew Pew to name just one) and a stint at America’s greatest bar State Park, he’s known around town as, in a word, a good hang. Wallis also fronts his own semi-eponymous group Jonny Tex who play both kinds of music: alt country and post-punk. We here at Allston Pudding are pleased as punch to be premiering their debut double A side single Heifer / Cherubhead today.

A treatise of sorts on the tantalizing yet dangerous allure of organized religion delivered from a former youth-pastor-in-training turned indie rocker, Tex uses western iconography to tell a complicated tale on the groovy porch-rocker “Heifer” and then turns up The Fall influence to paint a vivid crisis of faith on the toxically masculine, shit talk-singing “Cherubhead”. Tex’s band (which features plenty scene leading lights in their own right) meet his thematic staging head on, circling the wagons with twangy swagger on the former and some fidget-y swing on the latter.

Press play on the very first Jonny Tex tunes below.

Heifer / Cherubhead is out now, grab a digital copy here. Jonny Tex plays an Allston Pudding Presents show alongside Megan From Work at the Elks Lodge in Brighton Center this Sunday, September 21st directly after the Brighton Bazaar. You can get tickets at the door.