In 1986 The Ex added former Rondos vocalist/cartoonist Johannes van der Weert as a back-up singer and booked a European tour with British group The Membranes.

The band chose to highlight the international do-it-yourself movement with a full spread 24-page newspaper stuffed with articles about music, counterculture, and politics from perspectives excluded by mainstream media.

These included diverse stories about independent radio-stations, alternative media, small record labels, volunteer movements to build schools in El Salvadorian villages, the fight to end Apartheid, and the censorship trial against Jello Biafra and the Dead Kennedys.

[2] A single-sided bonus flexodisc featured poet Nico Van Apeldoorn offering a spoken word report on events surrounding the recent death of a squatter held captive in a Dutch jail.

[3] The Ex reissued Too Many Cowboys (minus one song and Van Apeldoorn's report) on a single CD in 1993 and launched it, along with the bulk of their back catalog, for streaming and download via Bandcamp.