What you say
No-one has reviewed Pine Cone Express by Cowtown yet.
What we say
 This record left our Brian feeling ecstatic.
One of the most pleasant surprises this year so far apart from getting my job back was witnessing the wholehearted blossoming of local oiks Cowtown. Now with such a name you expect them to be a little shed-y at best. But believe me when i say they're Leeds answer to all your ills. Somewhere they graze between Trumans Water, Primus & early Fall. Originally a 3 piece with the most discordant tinnitus inducing keyboard i've had the (mis)fortune to stand, they've recently blossomed into a wiry, feral & hugely engaging 4 piece with a shouty, bouncy singer adding a bit more of a party vibe to live proceedings. Their debut CD is available from us and features 14 tracks of angular, itchy & downright delirious post punk math pop. Jon, the guitarist is a sweet, talented man indeed and possibly the hardest working man on the Leeds DIY scene so it gives me great pleasure to help bestow his tight 'n' loose skronk-core outfit onto an unsuspecting world! And at the price of a takeaway, it's a steal. Rustle up!
What the label says:
we sound just like the mighty COWTOWN! Heres what other folks have said about us and our new album 'PINE-CONE EXPRESS'. Some of it makes sense and some of it is pure madness - which is just fine with us. Thanks to all those who have taken the time to listen to and comment on the content of our first L.P.x
'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 "Sick 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) Our Rating: 8/10.'
author: Sam Saunders
'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.'
Author : Hayley Avron
'A tip for all budding musicians: never describe your music as "Spaz rock, fused with electric lemon" (pleasenote that i have no idea who wrote this in our press release. If we we're U2 we'd be very angry but we are not. If we'd have written our own press release it would have made no sense at all to anyone - ed). It's the equivalent of calling your album 'Tripe: Come and Get Me'. I wasn't impressed by the press release, therefore when I put Cowtown's debut album in my CD player; they had a lot to do to up my opinion of them.
But then again Final Fantasy called his latest album 'He Poos Clouds' and look how good that was. You can only be open-minded for an album like 'Pine Cone Express'. It's a record likely to give you a headache, but an enjoyable one. Repeating single sounds until they sit comfortably in our head, this could pass as a form of hypnotism.
A seemingly ferocious live act, Cowtown have managed to employ some kind of genius producer who has managed to eclipse their live sound in the form of a record, something not even Holy Fuck could do. 'Curtis Fingers' sounds out-of-control, encouraging you to play copycat. 'Part man, part machine, all cop' is one of the best modern day music titles and the song almost lives up to it. You could take little elements out of every one of these songs and turn them into frantic samples everyone'll want to use. For now, Cowtown are going D.I.Y, showing all of us how it's done.
And of course they're influenced by deerhoof, of course they're a gung-ho, don't-give-a-shit kind of band. These are all good things for those that like something gutsy and willing. But by God, they should get someone else to write their press releases for them.'
Author : Jamie Milton - tasty fanzine
'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.'
Author : David Samuel |
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