Three Three Three: Reviews Of Recent Releases By Local Bands, Pt. 103

The Cowboy - Wi-Fi On The Prairie - Feel It Records - 12 songs - LP, digital

Hot on the heels of their self-titled 7", The Cowboy are back with their second album and third release total. It's a solid record, 12 tracks of good garagey punk with a strong post-punk edge-- it isn't quite the halfway point between Homostupids and Pleasure Leftists since it's still much closer to Homostupids, but it's somewhere in there between them. This record sounds like The Cowboy, and I know that's a stupid thing to say but really that's what can be said about it. There are good, driving basslines, dissonant but catchy guitar leads, and some cool drum fills (I particularly like the drums on "Papa Bear"). There aren't exactly the standout tracks that there were on the first record (and I would still start there with this band), but this is good stuff. If you've liked The Cowboy so far, you'll certainly like this record as well. My favorite tracks were "Crazy World" and "SS," and the ridiculous closer "The Chief" was pretty cool too. 3.5/5

(feeltrecordshop.com)

Ted Kane - The Dream - self-released - 8 songs - digital

Ted Kane is an expatriate Columbusite and one-time Jim Shepard collaborator living in California these days. This is his latest work, eight tracks of mostly just guitar and vocals. It's definitely within the Columbus tradition: the ballad-like title track and the punker "(I'm So Ambivalent About) Living In The USA" both recall different facets of Mike Rep and/or Tommy Jay (and actually, I could've sworn I recognized the name Ted Kane from some Mike Rep record but I could find no evidence of this, so maybe I just made it up). There are a few instrumentals in here, like the aptly named "Shuffle" and the meditative "The Same Stream," as well as a noisy a capella/percussion track called "Grinnin'," which was pretty weird (though I'm now at a point where I can't tell when things are trying to be weird or just are naturally, so I can't tell you which this is) and, to close out the album, a cover of "Pale Blue Eyes," which at this point is pretty unnecessary to cover, but is always going to be a good song anyway, so I guess I understand. Some of the stuff here is decent enough, but without full rock band instrumentation (or even just something besides guitar), it doesn't really work for me. Even so, good enough that it's of interest to people who are into Columbus-related stuff. 3/5

(tedkane.bandcamp.com)

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