Cowbell

From the very first scratchy chords of new single ‘Never Satisfied’ from Stoke Newington based duo Cowbell, you know what you’re going to get and the getting is good.

Already picked up by BBC 6 Music and Radio 2, Cowbell’s infectious, familiar sound throws you straight back to the best of 60’s garage rock, with Jack Sandham’s catchy riffs and Wednesday Lyle’s self assured drums shoving you directly into the midst of a dirty garage rock gig at The Marquee in 1968.

With an enigmatic front man and female drummer, it’s hard not to reference a similarly setup duo from the other side of the pond, but White Stripes comparisons aside, this is a brilliant record and more than just an echo of it’s influences. It has enough rock sensibility to get you up on your feet and enough soul to get you singing. This is an impressive debut from a band who have been in existence for little more than a year, and promises great things. Keep your ears out for these two, for I have a sneaking suspicion they are going to be around for a while.

In the all too predictable words of Christopher Walken: I have a fever and the only prescription is more Cowbell.

8/10 - thefourohfive

limited and numbered heavyweight 7" as part of the too pure singles club. to say it's a shock to be at this point in the year already is an understatement. it seems like only last week we were celebrating the soulful summer sounds of milk white white teeth and the travelling band. but, here we are in the november cold kicking and screaming along to the garage blues of the awesome cowbell. cowbell are jack and wednesday, friends for 10 years and collectively known as cowbell for just over a year. the band came together when on a drunken night at a local studio,
jack was playing guitar and demanded wednesday get behind the kit and play drums. she had never even picked up a pair of sticks before but they started writing songs there and then and in the bands own words "it just worked and made sense from the beginning." six weeks later, they were playing their first show...they recorded the single at gizzard studios with ed deegan, recording everything to tape (unlike most modern recordings going straight onto a digital hard drive) one listen and you can hear this was the right choice, as the analogue methods used give the recordings a particularly 60's sound. reflecting the bands, no frills garage / blues perfectly. lauren laverne and john kennedy quickly got behind the band and this led to the bands second single 'never satisfied' for too pure recordings. being a duo comparisons to acts like the white stripes, the black keys et al are inevitable but cowbell have a sound distinctly their own. a rich, soulful approach, that owes more to the rebellious outpourings of british rock bands of the last 50 years than it does to the facsimile sounds of american garage rock. a certain acidic, anarchic bite peculiar to this islands native spirit that is rarely if ever imitated. - Rough Trade online store

List of BBC radio programs our music has played on.

BBC Radio 2 - Radcliffe and Maconie
BBC Radio 6 - Lauren Lavern
BBC Radio 6 - Nemone
BBC Radio 6 - Chris Hawkins
- BBC

Two piece garage-rock bands with female drummers will always be judged against those who shall not be named (a journalistic bylaw that stipulates this to be pigeonholing on an almost nuclear scale). However, Jack’s guitar licks (no, not that Jack) are both dirty and bassy enough and earn favourable nods towards the 60s garage heroes like The Creation at their most riff-tastic along with the rawness of early Black Keys. Like a lot of 60s beat combos they also seem highly enamoured of the soul side of it, both in vocal delivery and backing.

Both tracks run in at just over 2 minutes precluding the notion of them outstaying their welcome and both tracks have a riff, a verse chorus structure, a rudimentary solo and a bridge. Basically, it’s terrific streamlined blues; ‘raw’ without the usual accompanying adjective ‘shit’.

Release Date: 15.11.10 - High Voltage