The Cowboys from Bloomington is one of those peculiar oversights in my music listening. For some reason I hadn’t heard them until last year, and they still seem kind of anonymous and hard to pin down. Their art-punk approach to pop songwriting and stylistic diversity has probably made it difficult for them to make it outside the local scene. But backed by Lumpy and Hozac they’re finally out there making waves – possibly as one of the greatest guitar groups of the last 10 years. The latest album is out on Drunken Sailor in the UK and was only just released in the US on the brilliant Feel It label.
What’s also slightly confusing is the taxonomy of their records. The new album is called Volume 4 but it’s is actually their second album, or first, or fourth, depending on you count. So let’s straighten that out:
The Cowboys (Turd Wurld cassette, 2014)
Vol. 2 (Turd Wurld cassette, 2014)
Vol. 3 (Turd Wurld cassette, 2014)
these were compiled as:
The Cowboys (Lumpy LP, 2016)
Vol. 4 (Turd Wurld cassette, 2016)
The Cowboys (HoZac LP, 2017)
Seeing as the first 3 volumes only have about 7 tracks each I would consider these EPs and the first LP is a comp rather than an album. Which makes the first cassette their first album proper and last year’s HoZac LP their second. Confused yet?
To top it off they just released a new live 7″, also on Feel It called Live At Tony’s Garage. Check it out:
https://soundcloud.com/feelitrecords/the-cowboys-mint-condition
