El Paso just got a quiet but meaningful shoutout on one of the biggest streaming platforms in the world, and most people in the Sun City might not even know it yet.

An El Paso Band Is Hitting Apple TV

According to El Paso Matters, a song by the El Paso rock band Q.I.D. will be featured in the new Apple TV+ series “Margo’s Got Money Troubles,” debuting April 15th. The show stars Michelle Pfeiffer, Elle Fanning, and Nick Offerman, with executive producer David E. Kelley behind the wheel, the same mind behind “Ally McBeal” and “Big Little Lies.”

The El Paso connection comes by way of the band’s former bass player, James Thompson, who now lives in Colorado. His producer, Grady Crumpler, helped get old Q.I.D. recordings digitally remastered and into the hands of a network of music supervisors who shop songs for TV and film placements. The show’s music supervisor was hunting for something with an authentic ’80s rock radio sound, and Q.I.D.’s 1989 track “Crazy Nights” made the cut. The song will play for roughly a minute and a half in a bar scene in episode two.

“Crazy Nights” features vocalist Kat Tyler, Thompson on bass, Mark Self on drums, and Charlie Gorman on guitar. El Paso Matters reports that Q.I.D. played more than 1,100 shows in the city between 1985 and 1992, a staggering run that tells you everything about the band’s work ethic and the loyalty of the El Paso rock crowd. The band has since released six remastered tracks on Apple Music and Pandora, with 10 more reportedly on the way. You can also connect with the band’s history and find fellow fans on the Q.I.D. Facebook page Thompson created to keep the music alive in the digital world.

El Paso’s Rock History Runs Deep

The Q.I.D. placement is a great reminder that El Paso’s rock legacy didn’t start with At the Drive-In and it definitely didn’t end there. This city has been quietly producing bands worthy of wider recognition for decades.

The most obvious name for any list like this is Bobby Fuller, the El Paso-raised rock and roll pioneer whose band, the Bobby Fuller Four, took “I Fought the Law” all the way to the national Top 10 in 1966, sharing Billboard chart space with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones that same week. His story is one of the most compelling in rock history, and his catalog has already found new life through covers and compilations. A well-crafted prestige TV period drama set in the ’60s could absolutely lean on a Bobby Fuller Four track to establish era and place.

Then there’s At the Drive-In, the post-hardcore force that put El Paso on the national and international map in the late ’90s. Their 2000 album “Relationship of Command” was inducted into the Rock Sound Hall of Fame, and their influence has been cited by bands like St. Vincent and La Dispute. Their catalog is cinematic enough that a crime drama or coming-of-age series would be lucky to land it.

The Royalty, a more recent El Paso indie/post-punk outfit, actually already had songs placed on USA Network’s “Royal Pains” and ABC’s “The Vineyard,” so they know the licensing world well. If the band ever returned to active status, they would be exactly the kind of act music supervisors go back to.

El Paso’s rock story is far from fully told on a national stage. Q.I.D. just proved the door is open. Who’s next?

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