Ten or so years ago the Homostupids were creating some of the best and most ridiculously obnoxious punk rock. With simple and repetitive bass lines and even simpler song structures, they delivered a stinking hot mess of fatigued and jaded hardcore. I still think of the Cleveland band’s track “Swearing Sammy” whenever I’m sitting next to a bus in traffic.
So it’s good to hear that The Cowboy, a new band that feature two thirds of the Homostupids and a member of the Pleasure Leftists, have released a new record on long time Minneapolis punk label Fashionable Idiots.
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On the album’s 12 tracks blunt and brawny vocals pound over heavy riffing and truculent volume. Even the instrumental “Beyond the Yard” sounds shouted.
But for all the yelling there are also reference to human senses. While the songs are never going to be mistaken for Lane Del Ray’s, nor are the lyrics meant to be analysed or fawned over, on “The Cowboy” there’s a line about being able hear “those hoofs a clackin’”. “The Door” talks of smelling headlights and on “The Burn” there is reference to feeling the bottom burn. On the closing track “On the Farm” he sings “I see my future, I know the place to go, back on the farm.”
Emo Homostupids? Definitely not.
The Cowboy’s album is available now on Fashionable Idiots.
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