After an amazing debut LP last year, The Cowboy are back with a limited 7"

 

So what happens when you add members of Pleasure Leftists to members of The Homostupids? Yeah yeah, we know, you get The Mind, the amazing post-punk band Priss from Blade Runner might have formed in a left-of-centre attempt to pass the Voight-Kampff test. But that’s their inner replicant; what of their human side? The one that just wants to create a squalling rock’n’roll racket? Laydeezungennelmen, meet The Cowboy.

 

Those of you paying close attention might have picked up their scent before – their 2017 debut LP dropped on Drunken Sailor in a flurry of power chords, raw throats and some of the best damn punk rock that year had to offer. And that’s not to confuse ‘em with Lumpy Records superstars The Cowboys (plural), either – fine though that act may be, they just ain’t as feral a prospect as The Cowboy (singular). At three tracks and less than seven minutes in length, this 7” doesn’t exactly waste its time in getting to the point and reminding you that sludged-out garage rock and a healthy dash of ‘DAFUQ?’ are a potent combo in anyone’s book; like a fistful of California reaper chillies, dipped in nitroglycerine and poised for supersonic shockwaves to smash into ‘em.

 

All three tracks here walk a tightrope between The Stooges at their most furiously muscular, the Minutemen in twanged-out Americana mode, and something totally wild; they’re every bit as weird as that sounds (particularly Way Out Beneath’s bass-driven menace) but also beautifully ragged and ready to cry havoc. You could tie ‘em alongside bands like Hot Snakes and they wouldn’t feel out of place; alternatively you could hop on your turntable and let this record spin you right off your axis. Punk rock at its best is a giddy thrill. Wanna ride off with it, pardner, into the sunset? The Cowboy are here to help you do just that.

Our take: New 3-song 7” from this Cleveland project that released an LP in 2017 on Fashionable Idiots Records. The label’s description notes that the Cowboy features members of Homostupids and Pleasure Leftists, and if you know those two artists, you can hear the former’s weirdness and the latter’s catchiness seeping in here. The two tracks on the a-side both hover around the 90-second mark and sound like dirtied-up outtakes from Wire’s Pink Flag. “Swimming with the Fishies” is a breezy punk tune whose combination of snappiness and hookiness reminds me of classics like “Mannequin” and “Ex-Lion Tamer.” There’s an intriguing dynamic between precision and rawness that gets flipped for the longer b-side, “Way Out Beneath,” which seems to drift in and out of existence over the course of its three and a half minutes. Like any good single, this is good for repeated plays, but also has me eager to hear what the Cowboy does on their next full-length.