Cowboys, The

Cowboys, The

Sultan of Squat

Feel It

***Everybody’s here, so let’s play ball! Tried and true rock n' roll stalwarts The Cowboys return after a brief hiatus with their delightful sixth LP, Sultan of Squat. This grounded yet adventurous new album marks the reunion of the original lineup, featuring Keith Harman (vocals/keys), Mark McWhirter (Guitar), Zackery Worcel (Bass), and Jordan Tarantino (drums). It is nothing short of a glorious return to form, a long player hoping to bring a smile to the ears of listeners. Sultan of Squat furthers the band's trajectory into themselves, polishing off thirteen songs filled with dubious characters, whimsical retreats, and even the odd love song. As with previous releases, The Cowboys refuse to make their bed in any single genre. Lead track, “The Sultan of Squat'' opens the album with an earworm salute to America’s pastime while lofting a lyrical curveball of dark, defeated humor. The boys kick it into high gear, playing with the finesse and dexterity ten years as a band instills. It's automatic - whether they're launching into classic Midwestern garage punk (“Raining Sour Grapes”), dialing things back to piano-driven power pop (“Token Drifter”), or western slide guitar pop-rock ballads ("She's Not Your Baby Anymore"), The Cowboys are simply incredible across “Sultan of Squat”. This could well be The Cowboys' finest hour as a group, and six albums in—that's no easy feat. The best of the Midwest is back under the bright lights, pouring collective blood, sweat, and tears into a sound equal parts then and now. LP includes...

Cowboys, The

Lovers in Marble

Feel It

***Continuing on in their ever-prolific and sensational run of releases, The Cowboys are back with five tracks of pure analog gold on "Lovers in Marble". Recorded by the band in Cincinnati and mixed with John Hoffman (Vacation), this EP finds The Cowboys as cool and collected as ever, with Keith Harman's driving piano lines and vocal range atop the mix. It's quite the divine distillation of garage pop melody, (think 'Loaded' era VU, Walker Brothers, or Emitt Rhodes) given a sinister coating of The Kinks and Syd Barrett, curious production flourishes intact. The Cowboys have truly spent their quarantine days well, pairing brilliant pop compositions with some of the best instrumentation and recording quality across their ever-expanding discography. "Lovers in Marble" is a pivotal Cowboys release, perhaps their most accessible, but also most refined piece of work yet. A perfect sonic respite from the long, dark days of 2020.

Cowboys, The

Room of Clons

Feel It

***Out with the old and in with the new! Just in time for Spring we have a fresh album from THE COWBOYS—now spread between their hometown of Bloomington, to Chicago, and Cincinnati. Room of Clons, their fifth album, is possibly the group's most ambitious and diverse body of work to date. Those familiar with The Cowboys' previous output for Feel It—most notably 2019's The Bottom of a Rotten Flower, will be well acquainted with the group's penchant for songwriting across the upper echelons of contemporary garage, punk, & powerpop. Room of Clons asserts itself as a varied hallmark of stylistic prowess, ranging from The Cowboys' trademarked Midwestern punk odes of previous work, all the way to a massive post-punk-leaning hit (yes, you're reading right) backed with a snarky pop number accented with kazoo that would surely please even Ray Davies himself. Further along, we're treated to several tracks with frontman KEith HARMAN taking the lead on piano, propelling his otherworldy vocals to the same towering clouds that Scott Walker and Emitt Rhodes occupied in '69 & '70. Room of Clons stretches even further, but never strays from attention, as The Cowboys delve into new, exciting, and largely uncharted territory—perhaps their most abstract work, but just as worthy as their now towering discography that never ceases to impress. Shrinkwrapped with 11"x17" insert, download code, and hype sticker.

Cowboys, The

The Bottom of a Rotten Flower

Feel It

***BACK IN STOCK!!! "The fourth album by THE COWBOYS (from Bloomington, Indiana) is kinda like a modern Midwestern version of The Who Sell-Out or Something Else by The Kinks—a basic R&R band stretching its wings to embrace more varied musical elements and dig into deeper subject matter. The Cowboys grow up! And they grow in number too, with CHRIS KRAMER Kramer (NOBUNNY/SLUSHY) joining the brilliant MARK MCWHIRTER for a killer guitar team. Vocalist/songwriter KEITH HARMAN alters his whooping nasal-punk a bit, with a more naturalistic approach when it fits the mood. His songwriting skills are mighty. ZACKERY WORCEL (bass) and JORDAN TARANTINO (drums) provide a solid, relentless groove. There are 16 hooky gems in this new LP. To compare the Cowboys’ songs to Pete Townshend and Ray Davies was no casual thing up front. Check 'Doghouse Rag' for primo late-60s Kink-kwality pop. Then there’s the insanely hooky 'Some Things Never Change,' with its nod to early 70s Sparks. This song should be a smash hit RIGHT NOW! And dig 'Bodie, Don’t Jump' in all its bubblegum glory! The deceptively short 'Deuce' with its 70s-style pop exploding into VU-like noise, etc. It’s very cool to see a modern R&R band progress in the true sense of the word--to mature and seek new horizons. I’ve personally seen them when they opened the very first show by the reunited Gizmos in 2014, and then when they played with us again in Chicago 2017, to this new album. It’s an impressive climb. For anybody...

Cowboys, The

Live At Tony's Garage

Feel It

***While touring the West coast in May 2017, Bloomington rock'n'roll heroes THE COWBOYS stopped for a one-off recording session at a friend's garage in sunny Whittier, California. The result: an impressively tight and vibrant batch of tracks, brimming with crunchy, direct-to-tape production. Instead of letting this powerful session dwindle on the original cassette that it was recorded on, we've opted to press Live at Tony's Garage to a proper destination format, 7" vinyl at 45 RPM. The session kicks off with possibly the best recorded version of a Cowboys staple, "Mint Condition," plus two more raw originals that were recently featured on their debut LP for Hozac. The session also features a roaring cover of the 1964 garage rock classic, "The Witch," as originally performed by The Sonics. This perfect four track EP sits nicely between The Cowboys' incredible string of studio recordings and the raw energy of their live performances. Live at Tony's Garage has been remastered for vinyl by JOSH BONATI and includes a Cowboys sticker plus digital download code with an exclusive bonus track. 500 copies on black vinyl, housed in a foldover sleeve printed on textured Stipple stock.

Cowboys, The

3rd

Hozac

***BACK IN STOCK!!!  "Bloomington, Indiana has something to really be proud of in hometown heroes THE COWBOYS. One of the most exciting and indescribable bands of the last five years, this band manages to escape all of the pitfalls of modern DIY punk/garage and break out into a field of their own instantly. First off, nobody is supposed to have vocals this good, like almost bewildering talent-wise, but to actually be able to sing like this and be sweating it out in front of a packed room of rock’n roll revelers all night is almost charity work. The songs have this hard-to-pin Midwest je ne sais quoi and and the guitar and rhythm section are just off-the-charts in their ability to bridge themselves between the polarity of tightness and looseness. Coming off like summery sons of The Gizmos circa 1981 at one minute, and then diving head-first into their other-worldly piano-based tracks, which surprisingly simmer along perfectly next to their punkish rockers without any abject knee-jerk derailment. Just arty pallet-cleansers? I wish it was that simple, but The Cowboys have too many chops to minimize their effort, and this LP is nothing short of a riveting ride through a range of rock’n roll styles that should NOT work when liquifyed as such, yet with this band and it’s subversive magic, their songs come off as perfectly original, yet warmly familiar.Housed in silk-screened LP jackets, and equipped with a rock’n roll wanderlust that keeps them in perpetual touring...

Cowboys, The

The Cowboys

Lumpy