Review by: Oli Saunders
I didn’t know anything about Cowboys Become Folk Heroes’ bio before starting this review. I thought they were a fairly recent band making fairly genric but cool screamo – I hadn’t given them that much of a chance though. But it turns out they formed around ’99, first of all just making as much screamy noise as possible in a bedroom, before over time evolving into a pretty decent screamo band and playing with the likes of Reversal Of Man and Spirit Of Versailles. I think it’s fair to say they were probably influenced greatly by Witching Hour screamo but they didn’t just rip it off. Though they weren’t pioneers and not in the same bracket as ROM or SOV’s best output, they play with passion and have a fairly distinctive sound for the time. They deserve a fair bit of credit too as they have definitely influenced later bands; probably more credit than they have received.
The sound is complete trash compactor screamo. Kids screaming their hearts out over the top of one another with guitars and drums keeping things together. Beauty in chaos as is often said. Real lo-fi production that works so well – anything other than a noisy production here would just not make sense. Moments of melody where members play seemingly straightforward notes but it sounds great and breaks up the chaos well. Amid the quiet there sometimes emit background screams, fuck I love it when bands do this. Spoken bits too that are mainly indecipherable but still add to the songs, it all works to great effect. There’s a violin on one of the tracks. In one of the insert pictures there’s someone with a saxophone but I swear I didn’t hear this on the record. If Storm The Bastille and St. Alban’s Kids were not listening to these guys when they wrote some of their songs then I would be amazed. If you like either of those two bands then promise me you’ll check this out.
Okay so five of the songs on this 12″ are from a previously released split with Hello Space Cowboy. But that only came out on CD. There’s then what I’m led to believe an unreleased song as the final track – it still fits in fine with the rest. The songs kind of blend together and I can’t easily pick one that stands out – the same formula is used throughout with just slight modifications. But fucking hell its honest and passionate, the words that one of the band members writes in the insert show that they were doing DIY punk exactly right; making heartfelt music and having the time of their lives. It makes me sad reading words like these sometimes. There are some nice photos and pictures of flyers in the insert too, it is satisfying when a band breaks up but finish off with a record like this. Personal lyrics too it seems, that aren’t easy to decipher but are probably important to whoever wrote them. Overall a well put together record that any fan of the genre should give a listen to.
21st November 2009