 The
Cooters are from Oxford Mississippi, which is one hell of a place for
a rock and roll band to be from. Now, before you dig out the straw hat and
start making tobacco spittin’ sounds, lemme just say that not only is
Oxford the home of the University of Mississippi (“Ole Miss” her
damn self), but it’s also the birthplace of Nobel prize winning author
William Faulkner. They may also butcher hogs and chaw tabbaca there, I
dunno, but they got culture, too. Perhaps most notable about Oxford,
however (to cats like us), is the stun-gun stoner metal of it’s favorite
wayward sons. On “The Moon Will Rise Again”, the Cooters show a remarkable
proficiency for rooting out the dustiest of rolling grooves and chasing
them across the fruited plains like it’s Custer’s last stand all over
again. Closest kin for most of the ride would be Karma to Burn, and
like those pioneers of epic riff-dom, the Cooters have the good taste to
shut the fuck up most of the time, and let the rock do the talking. The
opening trio of neo-instrumental tracks (there’s a little bit of muffled
yellin’ going on, too)- “Cootersaurus”, “Purge”, and “Purge
Reprise”- are mammoth, bruising chunks of Super Rock, like a
razor-saddled Dirty Power gone shootin’. Elsewhere, there’s “Soul
Food”, a 6 minute epic of thunder-riffs, skronking sax, and
mondo-distorto vox, an aggro fighting anthem called “Punch Your
Neighbor”, a shitkicker cow-metal rave-up (“Cooters Theme”,
natch), and even weirder stuff, like a phone call from a psychotic redneck
who wants to audition for the band, and the last 21 seconds of every
Cooters show. Oh, and at least two of the songs shamelessly cop the “Earache
My Eye” riff, probably on purpose. Somewhere between the Baker
Gurvitz Army and Frank Zappa (Alright, young-stuff, The
PB Army and Mr Bungle, then) lies the Cooters, and I bet
that’s exactly where they wanna be- weird, loud, and heavy. All at once.
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