Indiana Jones’ Least Favourite Band
If they’re to believed, Faith is a cobra. Cobras are really quite adaptive, I suppose, at least as far as today’s band is concerned. They can be involved with jukeboxes, lockdowns, wangs, and one of America’s most populous states.
Well, not really I suppose. I’m talking about the Cobra Skulls, a very fun little band from Reno, Nevada. They’re a little bit rockabilly, a little bit punk, a little bit mariachi band, and a lot political. Kind of like if Propagandhi made a record with Mike Ness and a side of awesomeness.
Every single song they’ve ever written references the band’s name in the song title one way or another, which is a nice little gimmick. “Cobra Skullifornia,” “Use Your Cobra Skull,” and “I’ll Always Be A Cobra Skull (Folk Off!)” are just a few examples.
But while a gimmick might draw you in, the topical and insightful nature of the songs are the bread and butter. “Cobra Skullifornia” is a hook-laced vendetta against the inherent evils of Southern California. “The Cobra and the Man-Whore” calls out the Reverend Ted Haggard for his inherent self-hating and evil nature. “Don’t Count Your Cobras Before They Hatch” takes a stance against those taking a stance against stem cell research (It’s just a blastocyst, 150 cells/A blastocyst, that’s what you care about/Never mind the help we could be giving/Never mind the suffering occuring in the living). “Anybody Scene My Cobra” blasts the punk scene for its lack of inclusion. “Cobracoustic” is a solo acoustic number exposing the fatal flaw in the current state of U.S. political discourse — while the war on terror might make Americans feel safe at home, the current state of mind makes people feel those that are different are dangerous, that all other countries harbour terrorists, and that suspicion shows when travelling to a place like Egypt in people’s contempt for Americans (”Freedom is relative/I feel relatively free where I live/But down in Cairo freedom’s not ours to give”). To be certain they’re not exactly down with G.O.P.
Sitting Army isn’t out on a huge label and it might not make any impact, but it’s a really, really fun listen that sounds like punk used to before 15 year old kids with ridiculously-asymmetrical hair-do’s became the norm.
Cobra Skulls - Cobra Skullifornia [3:05m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Cobra Skulls - the Cobra and the Man-Whore [2:13m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Cobra Skulls - Cobracoustic [2:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadYou can touch the Cobra Skull here:
iTunes: has the album here
InterPunk: interpunk has their full-length and their CDEP. sadly, both their labels websites and the bands itself only go back to their myspace pages, and i don’t do myspace. so go there and search for the band name and buy them.
