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Two Cow Garage - Sweet Saint Me: Review

Two Cow Garage are one of those bands I’ve been meaning to give a proper listen for a while. I first became aware of them through Suburban Home/Vinyl Collective’s Under the Influence 7” series (which you should really check out if you haven’t already… I refuse to believe that a human being can live meaningfully on this Earth without hearing the mighty Austin Lucas cover the ever so slightly mightier Dolly Parton). Anyway, Two Cow Garage’s contribution to said series was a cover of The Boss’s No Surrender, complete with rad organ parts and just enough gruff to give a much-covered standard a bit of freshness.

And then I didn’t think about Two Cow Garage again for the best part of a year.

That was until last week’s Punknews Podcast anyway. In between discussing the biggest stories on the site that week, the lads from Punknews showcased Sweet Saint Me’s opening track, Sally, I’ve Been Shot, and it about blew my arse out my earhole. (Edit: You can now download Sally, I’ve Been Shot from Punknews) To be fair, it was pretty hard to ignore a song about a bloke ringing his lady to tell her he’s lying gutshot in the snow. Stylistically, it was definitely part of the recent wave of country/roots music influenced punk bands, but unlike so many of their contemporaries there was a definite sense of finesse to this. While it’s easy to write off so many bands introducing soulful piano parts into their work as riding a gimmick, this was clearly not the case with Two Cow Garage.

Anyway, fast forward a week, and I got wind that Suburban Home Records were looking for folks to review Two Cow Garage’s full length, which is how I came to get hold of a copy a month early. Stoked.

This left me with a dilemma though. What if the record sucked? What would I do then? I’d feel a right tosser snaking a free record then having to slag it off in the review, or worse, lying about it to avoid appearing ungrateful to people who’ve put out some of my favourite albums, and gave me a free record despite my relatively small readership, and considerably shaky claim to the title of reviewer, never mind music journo.

Luckily for me, this dilemma was a bit of a non-starter, because this album is genuinely great. While Sally, I’ve Been Shot is one Hell of an opener, it is quickly usurped by the second offering, and title track, Sweet Saint Me. This tune opens with a drum part that, somewhat bizarrely, reminds me of Warning era Green Day. Said drum part is quickly married to sparingly used guitars, and an unexpected but entirely welcome organ part, which by turns nods toward gospel, and augments the bittersweet lyric with a sense of hopefulness; a sense that fits very well indeed.

Only I can save me from myself,
No woman, no God, man, no one else,
Is gonna pick you up and teach you,
The disappearing act I’ve learned so well.

Third track Lydia opens with a decidedly upbeat and infectious piano part. Said piano part reminds me a little of Nine in the Afternoon by Panic! At The Disco, only a parallel universe version of such, that wasn’t shit. Add to that this monster of an opening couplet…

I wanna be loved like an old soul song,
I wanna feel like the second verse of Let’s Get It On.

…and you’re left with a quietly confident and playful love song, with an undercurrent of uncomfortable age difference reminiscent of Say 18 by The Matches.

You know that feeling that comes during the slower acoustic tracks on Alkaline Trio’s debut Goddamnit? That’s what fourth track, Jackson, Don’t You Worry, feels like, within the context of the album as a whole anyway. It’s an understated reminiscence on friendship and the passage of time, beautifully carried off with only an acoustic guitar and a solo vocal. It’s one of those songs you’d happily listen to over and over, to the exclusion on all else.

There’s definitely something Springsteen-y about Wanted To Be, a piano driven number that quickly raises the tempo again. Lyrically, there’s much talk of ‘leaving town’, ‘drifting away’, and all the key themes that got small town kids like me into The Boss in the first place. Add some tasty little guitar licks and a bit more of that organ, and we’re left with a bouncy number that brings us right back up to pace.

What Dying is For starts out with a sparse guitar line and a lone voice, which initially sounds somewhat distant, like a bad phone line, before drawing into focus when the rhythm section comes in, along with, you guessed it, that organ part. I don’t think I’ll be able to hack bands without organs after this! There’s another cracking lyric here too:

I woke up on a road less traveled,
Stumbled head first into battle.

As ruminations on the nature of death go, it’s less miserable than you might expect, and again the organ part lends a much needed sense of hopefulness to the occasion, as do lines like…

So maybe these prayers on your lips are empty?
No bright white light coming for me?
I found my peace in an endless story,
My death with hold no need for mourning.

Onto track seven then, Closer to Me, and this one sees the main vocalist step back for another fella to take the mic. I don’t know the band well enough to know which vocalist is which, but this one sounds a bit like Ben Nichols from Lucero, which is high praise indeed. The fact that he carries off this second quieter number with just his pipes and an low-key piano part is pretty damned impressive.

Angeline is a quiet love song about a lady the protagonist has clearly known for quite some time, since childhood in fact, and it slowly becomes apparent that he is saying his goodbyes to her, in the most final sense that one can. It’s another good un, leading into a distinct increase in tempo with My Great Gatsby.

As you might imagine, My Great Gatsby is dripping with references to great works, not just literary but musical too. Folk titan Woody Guthrie gets a mention in the first couple of lines, and J.D. Salinger gets a nod too, as is his eternal right. It’s a damn sight quicker and more obviously urgent than anything else on the record, and the closest the work offers to a straight up punk rock song. It isn’t, but it’s as close as you’re gonna get. It also features every Bouncing Souls fan’s favourite refrain, the mighty WHOA-OO-WHOAAA, which snagged me long before I dug into the lyric properly. It’s got cracking lyrics, by the way:

Since Dylan went electric, man,
Things just ain’t been the same,
Now DJs are making records,
Could you please just be ashamed,
Of your raping and your pillaging,
Of this thing we love?
Now we’re stuck down here,
On the killing floor,
And I need someone to shove.

So, kiss-kiss-kiss these days goodbye,
Wipe these tears out from our eyes,
This is not an alibi,
This is who I am!

It definitely scratches a few of my angry little itches, and will be finding it’s way onto plenty of mixes in the near future methinks.

Soundtrack to My Summer is a slow-building one, detailing the feelings of loneliness and uncertainty that can so often result from watching your friends drift away from values you once shared, and you still hold dearly. It carries with it some of the tempo and urgency from My Great Gatsby, and is ably assisted by a lovely bit of vocal intensity and shredding guitar not far after the halfway point. It might just be that I can relate very well to the sense of mid-20s limbo/uncertainty on show here, but this is definitely a stand-out track for me, which is saying something, because there isn’t really a song here I don’t like a great deal anyway.

Lucy and the Butcher Knife is a decidedly gnarlier, claustrophobic affair telling the story of a kid’s escape from an unhappy home life at the hands of an abusive father, and his moving onward into what he hopes to be a better future. It’s the third quicker tune in a row, which is not unwelcome, but not as necessary as it might be were the slower material not so engaging. There’s a bit more of a pugilistic feel to this one too, thanks in no small part to the dueling vocals on show. There’s also a great little spoken bit toward the end leading up to a finish that feels very much like the escape/vindication the lyric is selling us.

With Insolent Youth we get another quiet number, not entirely sparse, but very much more focused on the acoustic guitar at it’s core. The vocal delivery is steady and measured, with similarly measured backing from the bloke who did the lead on Closer to Me. Lyrically, this seems to be one of the most unreservedly personal songs on the album, and is rich with powerful imagery, given more weight by the steadiness of the delivery, giving the vocal room to really shine, without the need for any pomp and circumstance to overshadow what is a definite rough diamond of a track. It’s all the better for being such.

From the opening riff of Brothers in Arms, we get a sense of being lifted, and as the drum line comes in to drive the vocal onwards, we are welcomed into a song about fallen comrades, regret and introspection. It’s here, once again, that the overall musical tone, and that organ, help to offset the subject matter of the lyrics, keeping the work upbeat and hopeful, and avoiding the potential mire of self-pity. Once the vocal peaks in a throat-shredding yell, and the drums pick up, forcing the rubber to really hit the road, the secondary vocal comes in again, playing off an almighty guitar part to bring the listener into the fade out that closes out the album.

Over the course of the record, and more and more on repeat lessons, one gets the sense that this is an album that finds it’s strength as much in what was left out, as it does in what was included. Each song is carefully crafted, and allowed to breathe, and while there are carefully placed embellishments here and there, they are never allowed to overshadow the core of the particular song they find themselves a part of, and Sweet Saint Me is so much the better for it. In fact, crafted is a bloody good word to describe this record. It’s clear the time and effort that has gone into making these songs the best that they can be, and it gives me a great deal of pleasure to add this to what’s becoming a very impressive list of contenders for 2010’s album of the year. Give it a listen when you can, and tip your hat to Two Cow Garage when you’re done. This one is pretty damn special.

Well played, lads.

Andy

Sweet Saint Me is out on Suburban Home Records on Tuesday the 26th of October. If you’re lucky enough to live on the less rainy side of the Atlantic, you might want to catch the boys live on their Autumn tour. They tour a lot.

9/25/10 Columbus, OH @ Rumba Cafe (ALBUM RELEASE SHOW FOR SWEET SAINT ME)
9/30/10 Newport, KY @ Parlour @ Southgate House
10/1/10 Nashville, TN @ The Basement
10/2/10 Oxford, MS @ Blind Pig – Oxford
10/5/10 Little Rock, AR @ White Water Tavern
10/6/10 Austin, TX @ Red 7
10/7/10 Dallas, TX @ Double Wide
10/8/10 Houston, TX @ Rudyard’s
10/9/10 Baton Rouge, LA @ North Gate Tavern
10/12/10 Orlando, FL @ Will’s Pub w/ Dave Hause (of Loved Ones)
10/13/10 Gainesville, FL @ The Atlantic w/ Dave Hause (of Loved Ones)
10/14/10 Atlanta, GA @ MJQ’s Drunken Unicorn w/ Dave Hause (of Loved Ones)
10/15/10 West Columbia, SC @ New Brookland Tavern w/ Dave Hause (of Loved Ones)
10/16/10 Jacksonville, AL @ Brother’s Bar w/ Dave Hause (of Loved Ones)
10/17/10 Raleigh, NC @ King’s Barcade w/ Dave Hause (of Loved Ones)
10/18/10 Washington, D.C. @ Black Cat – Backstage w/ Dave Hause (of Loved Ones)
10/19/10 Newark, DE @ Mojo’s Main w/ Dave Hause (of Loved Ones)
10/20/10 Brooklyn, NY @ Union Hall w/ Dave Hause (of Loved Ones)
10/21/10 Providence, RI @ Club Hell w/ Dave Hause (of Loved Ones)
10/22/10 Buffalo, NY @ Mohawk Place w/ Cheap Girls, Carpenter
10/23/10 Erie, PA @ The Crooked I
11/3/10 Normal, IL @ Firehouse Pizza & Pub
11/5/10 Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock w/ The Evening Rig
11/7/10 Lawrence, KS @ Replay Lounge
11/8/10 Ft Collins, CO @ Surfside 7
11/9/10 Denver, CO @ Hi-Dive
11/10/10 Salt Lake City, UT @ Burt’s Tiki Lounge
11/12/10 Seattle, WA @ The Sunset Tavern
11/13/10 Bremerton, WA @ Winterland w/ I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch In the House
11/14/10 Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge w/ I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch In the House, Olin & The Moon
11/15/10 Stockton, CA @ Plea for Peace Center w/ Olin & The Moon, Daniel Francis Doyle
11/17/10 San Diego, CA @ Ruby Room w/ Olin & The Moon
11/18/10 Los Angeles, CA @ Spaceland w/ Olin & The Moon
11/19/10 Tempe, AZ @ Yucca Tap Room w/ Olin & The Moon
11/21/10 Manhattan, KS @ Auntie Mae’s Parlor
11/22/10 St Louis, MO @ Off Broadway
11/23/10 Chicago, IL @ Schubas Tavern