Shoulders was a highly popular alternative rock band in Austin, Texas in the 1990s; occasionally they still give performances.
Their material, written almost entirely by lead singer Michael Slattery and guitarist Todd Kassens, has been called "drunken carnival music," but it was wide-ranging, from hard rock to gentle ballads, from sea shanties to French cabaret music to Irish drinking songs.
Shoulders' lineup included Slattery, who sang and played everything from a huge parade drum which he also used as a trampoline to the "harmonica, out-of-tune cornet, hideous trombone, bent tin whistle," and "free-hanging river pipe"; Kassens on the guitars; Alan Gene Williams on the drums; and Chris Black on bass, piano, and organ.
They were frequently accompanied by the well-known Austin cellist John Hagen, who plays in Lyle Lovett's large band.
Shoulders' first album, Trashman Shoes, rose to the top of the rock charts in France.