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The new COWTOWN
album is it out now! 12 tracks of total party fun, mostly instrumental
stuff, with a taster of the COWTOWN
to come, with Steevsie vocalising a song. CHINCHILLA
are releasing the CD, and teaming up with GOLDEN
LAB who are releasing the vinyl version of the album, and ON
THE BONE who are doing mp3 downloads (LAST
FM, I-tunes, Digital 7, E-music, etc). Artwork from DAVE
BAILEY: secret dogs with cocks, ostriches with ying yang eyes -
y'know, s'nice.
A track from PINE CONE EXPRESS, I'm In Your House (Part Two), was played
on HUW
STEPHENS' BBC RADIO ONE show on 21st November, because ON
THE BONE who have released the mp3 downloads of the ablum were chosen
as his DIY Label Of The Week. It'll be online and listenable too for
7 days after broadcast. Huw also played the new single by our pals THAT
FUCKING TANK on the same show.
"Over
five years or so the COWTOWN
name has been occasionally posted and sometimes pasted on the walls
and windows of the Leeds DIY scene. The actual names of the actual members
of the actual COWTOWN
who grace this latest album (CD, vinyl and download - each managed by
a different label) are not easy to track down. But Jon Nash, Dave Shields
and "Hils" are definitely implicated. One or more of these
might at one time have been influenced by admirable musicians from Chicago,
whose cattle market is probably much larger than the one to be found
in Otley.
The plan (it's as plain as a pikestaff) was to have as much of a party
on one CD as certified hedonologists could install. And as a result,
for those who crave reckless abandon with (or without) stimulants, strobe
lights, fireworks and dancing with independent limbs, "Pine-Cone
Express" sounds the very sort of thing to play when things are
starting to look like they might not get out of control. In such right
hands as those possessed by COWTOWN,
a 1977 Korg Micro Preset, a 1986 Casio SK1, a drum kit and a guitar
only need a tangential voice or two and it's all done. Although Jon
Nash (a virtuoso bass player in former bands like THE
DRAGON RAPIDE) is present there is,
as far as I can tell, no bass as such. The band make do with chunky
parts from guitar and Casio to pummel the diaphragm and shake the dangly
parts. Drumming is on the nicely heavy side. There is a cunningly Cubist
representation of the wonderful sound of George Harrison's
opening chord from "A Hard Day's Night" on "Slice
of Ketchup". And while I do love both tune and title for "Kitty
Runs Away From Garlic" my favourite part is probably the guitar
part in "Science". Being the party bore, I would
probably want to sit and listen to that bit all night.
All in all, there are plenty of riffs, tunes, klangs and exclamations.
More than enough to titillate even the most jaded of post-mathrock snorecore
buffs. It's mostly instrumental, but when voice comes in the semantic
balance still doesn't move any closer to the rational side. If anything
it's the opposite, While an ancient Casio isn't normally called on to
tell detailed stories of extreme dancing, the presence of a lyric does
tend to raise expectations of meaningful words to pass on to the curious.
Fortunately, I can offer very little. I suspect that some of what is
sung or shouted would fall a little short of the good advice that might
be offered by The Department for Children, Schools and Families. What
I can report is that the tracks are inventive, a bit crazy, surprisingly
melodic and really very chirpy. The outstanding DJ tracks would be "I'm
In Your House 1 and 2", dropping somewhere between QUACK
QUACK and BILGE
PUMP (for those who know their Leeds DIY) or maybe between DEERHOOF
and HELLA
for those who are not so sure of their LS6 bearings. In its opening
version the tune opens up in the riffland of (maybe) "Babylon
in Burning". It's that gleeful happiness in mixing heaviness
with the twee bleating of some of the Casio lines that gives the whole
thing its characteristic (and very enjoyable) sound. A very distant
cover of "Beat It" closes proceedings, as I suppose it should.
(but I'm not sure if it appears in all formats - it's a CD secret track
at least). 8/10" (Sam Saunders, WHISPERIN
& HOLLERIN).
"26 minutes of the most energetic sonic splurge squeezed into 12
songs, fantastic! Continuing the theme of ridiculous band / album /
song titles Leeds based COWTOWN
will not only make you smile but they will riotously pace around your
bedroom at the same time. Combining down tuned chords with acres of
gargantuan razor sharp electronics their contagious spaz rock grips
tight like a vice. Perfectly at home with extroverted spiky instrumentals
as they are with outrageous punk vocals and Casio keyboards this four
piece’s debut record is one to add to your buy-me-next-fucking-week
list. On Part Man, Part Machine, All Cop - who could say no
to a Robocop revival? - high end guitars strangle a vocoder and child’s
keyboard like it’s as regular an occurrence as a traditional Sunday
roast, and even though it doesn’t even breach the 2 minute barrier
you come out the other end feeling well fed. Kitty Runs Away From
Garlic has all the bravado and stomp of Mick Jagger in his youth,
but without the arrogance and plus a dirty great bundle of grit and
Power Ballad does exactly what you’d expect, but well.
Eighties synths are applied to anthemic riffery, but not with the expected
cheese ball outcome; somehow Cowtown manage to make this as tasty and
poisonous as the rest of the album. Pine Cone Express reminds me of
the first Liars album, They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a
Monument On Top - dance-punk at it’s non-stop best. A real
breath of fresh air being pumped into the festering pit of rock, so
inhale and hold it in; this doesn‘t happen all too often. There’s
real promise within this 26 minutes and a few seconds, and apparently
there is already another album on the tip of their tongue - personally
I can’t fucking wait." (SUBBA
CULTCHA)
"Deliciously catastrophic and shambolic, listening to 'Pine-cone
Express' is like walking through a TV theme tune with Urusei Yatsura
jamming along and Mark E Smith hurling abuse from the sidelines. If
there was a competition for The Band Who Sounds Like They're Having
The Most Fun Without Uttering A Word, COWTOWN
would reign supreme. Or more, likely, they'd come second and still be
laughing. Song-titles range from the 'hilarious' 'Curtis Tigers'
(it's not really funny but it thinks it is and it is, really.) to the
dubious 'Mr Pear Sandwich Man'. Regrettably the lyrics are
all but incomprehensible. If we could only make them out, we could well
be one step closer to enlightenment. I guess that can wait. One minute
we are blasted with a lo-fi soundalike of (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction,
the next, the earlobes take a battering with skronky keyboards. The
real secret, though, is that underneath the matching knitwear and fuck-fi
recording techniques, these skronky keyboards contain the catchiest,
danceable-est 30-second anthems this side of Kraftwerk and that side
of the Crazy Frog." (Hayley Avron, CONTACT
MUSIC)
"COWTOWN
are the soundtrack to your downfall, a haunting descent into a psychotic
trench with four cretins rubbing salt on your wounds and breaking your
already depleted spirits. Slowly though, this plight gains a comfort,
cider to numb the pain of the weeping sores and gallons of soft drink
down your gullet to place you in a state of sugar-soaked derangement.
As this idle bliss takes hold Pine Cone Express gains a compulsive quality
as its frenetically spiralling waves of no-wave lap at your decaying
mind. The most obvious points of comparison for the Leeds-based quartet’s
debut record come from COWTOWN’s
similarly ludicrous peers; ‘I’m In Your House Part 1’
opens events with Munch Munch’s toddler-baiting stomp, the curtailing
sub-Deerhoof sprawl of Buttonhead as ‘Kitty Runs Away From
Garlic’ runs rampant and the incessant diseased surf-punk
of Agaskodo Teliverek on ‘Crab Pamphlet’. All unnecessary
spiel - describing COWTOWN
accurately is about as feasible as herding cats. Though ‘Slice
Of Ketchup’ harps with Devo’s new-wave riot, occasionally
it’s all taken a little too far as ‘Power Ballad’
pushes COWTOWN
to sweep their hair back and make like Simon Le Bon. Half the point,
but half a headache; never far from sounding like inept musak as ‘Mr
Pear Sandwich Man’ runs round in circles as it tries to find
a wall to claw itself out the pit its dug. Released on three different
formats on three different labels, COWTOWN
will confuse. ‘I’m In Your House Part 2’
flouts itself again, a contentedly numb-skulled close. You wouldn’t
want them in your house: they’d leave their slow-jawed crisp mastication
with crumbs in every corner, crayons on the floor and urinate on your
sofa as they slept. But from the comfortable distance of the stereo,
away from their spreading of germs, they’re a distant delight.
Succinct: a relentlessly refreshing sugar-soaked high. 7/10" (Samuel
Strang, DROWNED
IN SOUND)
"What a debut! Super-fun synth-driven mayhem bringing to mind a
more shouty Plastics or a crazier Hot Chip. This is excellent and catchy
stuff. Recommended!" (JUMBO
RECORDS - you can also buy Pine Cone Express from the online
shop)
"The use of 80s Casio keyboards invariably guarantees a certain
degree of ‘kookiness’ but it’s pleasing that Leeds
three-piece COWTOWN
are considerably more than twee existentialists. You’ve heard
countless derivative bands denying that they fit, quite deservedly into
the “shit Oasis type band” or the “wank nu-metal”
or even possibly the “crap post-rock by numbers” category
but COWTOWN
are genuinely on a plain of their own. Of course this is all academic
if it sounds like a tool shed during an earthquake but COWTOWN
are enviously cohesive. Sometimes grungy, frequently noodley, and sometimes,
as you’d imagine slightly kooky but always loud as hell they’re
a compelling blend. At present it seems that ‘LS6’ (that’s
a postcode) is producing one of the most important independent music
scenes; somewhere where new freethinking possibilities are embraced
rather than feared. COWTOWN
are one such fine example of this." (MUSIC
DASH)
INTERVIEW
: SANDMAN MAGAZINE (January 2008)
INTERVIEW : CONTACT
MUSIC (October 2007)
Cowtown article in Flux Magazine Issue 57
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