Black Cowgirl
Black Cowgirl was one of those chance finds for me. I used to frequent a message board for the band Down and during my visit to Austin, I checked in there after about a six month absence. There was a thread about Black Cowgirl, likening them to Down, so I gave them a listen. I don’t really hear Down in the music as an influence, but it was a happy find in any case.
I read up a bit, and it turns out they’re from Pennsylvania. I used to think that music I liked was localized to a certain geographic area (New Orleans, the south in general) with few exceptions. The more I explore music, the more I think that though that might have been true in decades past, the internet has opened up the floodgates to finding influence anywhere, as opposed to just in your local scene. For this band, they list Mystick Krewe of Clearlight as a major influence, which is a New Orleans based jam band that I’m a big fan of as well.
This relatively new way to immerse yourself in any local scene regardless of where you are is also why I think that metal has a lot of years of innovation left beyond what we have now. We’re just jumping the hurdle of pop metal, and we saw through the rap/metal fusion of the late 90s, and some of the newer experiments with fusing genres seem to be proof that good music is still being made, and possibly in greater quantities and with better exposure than in times past.
I digressed there, as Black Cowgirl isn’t much of a fusion of genres at all. To me, it’s pretty standard southern (in sound, if not in geographic roots) stoner rock to me. I bought the self-titled EP off iTunes after hearing a few samples because it seemed like the kind of band to make a pretty cohesive album and I wanted to hear it in its entirety. I was right, the album flows together perfectly and I tend to listen to it all as one big song whenever I turn it on. I’ve found that the more spins I give it, the more I enjoy it, which is, in my experience, a sign of a lot of subtle layers to the music that takes a bit of time to fully appreciate.
A consequence of the album blending together so well is that no one song sticks out to me as particularly innovative or interesting over the others. The melodic guitar & bass riffs weaving throughout the songs are beautiful and bluesy. For me, that’s what makes the album memorable. I hope that in future releases they find a way to showcase that more, and if the drums were more tribal or hypnotic, that’d make it a lot more awesome too. But maybe that’s because I’ve been on a huge Neurosis kick and subsequently want everything else to sound like Neurosis too. Probably.
The vocals are kind of take it or leave it for me, but if you know me, you know that I’m either undecided or vehemently against the vocals in most bands that I check out. Impossibly picky for someone who can barely sing a note. Also, I seem to need a period of ‘getting used’ to a band’s vocals in order to appreciate their place in the music. Black Cowgirl’s vocals are mostly clean sounding, which maybe is where the Down comparison comes in, but it lacks the roughness to be comparable to Phil Anselmo’s screaming/clean combination. Unlike a lot of bands, where the music is great and the vocals come in and just ruin it, these vocals work perfectly with the overall feel of the music, so that’s a happy discovery.
This album was pretty good, and has some great groovy riffs that will earn a place in my Witchcraft/Asteroid/Fireball Ministry playlist. Fans of the above mentioned should check it out.
During my research I read that a few of the band members were in a few other bands that are said to be heavier (Electric Horseman; Backwoods Payback); since I haven’t heard of either, I’m going to check into them. If this album is any indication of how those bands might sound, this adventure could be very rewarding!
Side effects suffered during this review: Uncontrollable and persistent foot tapping, mild head bobbing.
