There are a couple of moments in Cattle Drums’ The Boy Kisser Sessions + 3 that punch me in the face and force me to pay attention. The problem – this isn’t really a problem – is that these moments are the band at their most conventional, and there’s a lot more to them than a couple of delicious hooks and chord progressions that nail you, hard. For an eight-track round-up of unreleased tracks and a debut EP there’s plenty of variation on offer here.
You can trace quite a few lines of influence or sonic similarity here too: take the noodly ‘Sluts & Coconuts’, for instance, which is faintly reminiscent of a take by Small Brown Bike on the grunge/alt-rock quiet-loud formula. The opener ‘New Furniture & Wigs’ opens up with a post-punk sound, recalling for a few moments the efforts of Please Inform the Captain This is a Hijack to push into new territory. The chorus flips around to something more conventional, with twinned slick octave and power chord progressions. The latter is also true of ‘Who Punched Pat Moore’s Face’, which is probably my favourite song on offer here. It’s conventional, sure, but it’s goddamn gorgeous, with those simple climbing octaves and matched vocal line evoking more stirring emotions than they have any right to.
Elsewhere ‘Two Pigeons’ retrieves the air of country rock that the banjo picking towards the beginning of ‘New Furniture & Wigs’ recalled: the fusion of a country sound and a post-punk attitude toward songwriting reminds me of Bars of Gold. As elsewhere the chorus has a fine sense of melody, although here it’s a more considered and traditional affair. Similarly ’Bovry the Nag’ has its fair share of noodly guitar lines and solid, fuzzy rhythm, but its restraint and lack of hooks lead to it being one of the least memorable tunes present.
Opening with a heavily distorted, glitchy intro, it initially seems that ‘Just the Right Height’ is going to step into a whole new area. In fact it switches over to twin noodly lead guitar and a chorus rich with simple hooks and bright sounds. Things get a little less obvious during the extended bridge, although this song’s ultimately a crowd-pleaser rather than an ear-teaser. So too is the melancholic ‘All the Electric Secrets of Hell’, a mid-pace indie rock number which simultaneously maintains a thudding pace, soft groove and sense of passion – the band’s raspy, urgent vocals certainly help with that. The chorus stirs things up significantly, with dischordant lead played over the rhythm and stolid drumming. And, finally, the record’s closed out with the minimal, effects-free ‘I Know Who Killed Me’; with spoken word laid over twin acoustic guitars indie/folk compatriots imadethismistake are recalled.
Given that this is a collection of tracks from 2010, I’m hopeful that there’ll be more from Cattle Drums in the near future. In the meantime, this is a good mini-album that displays an interesting and entertaining band with a wide range of influences from across a wide spectrum of US indie and punk rock.
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[I didn't want to write this in the review itself as it's far too puerile, but apparently this was recorded and produced at Dickbutt Studios. Dickbutt Studios! Amazing.
I am five years old.]