Though fairly short-lived, Cop Shoot Cop's was one of the most significant sounds of their generation. It was loud, anarchic, and cynical, but most of all it was just plain ugly. They drew inspiration from early industrial bands like Throbbing Gristle and Einstürzende Neubauten, as well as New York's No Wave-scene and Australian industrial composer Foetus. The band was founded in New York by Tod Ashley, usually referred to as Tod A. (bass & vocals; with fork on the photo), Phil Puleo (drums and "metal" (he incorporated various found objectes into his drum set); in white on the photo), and David Ouimet (keyboards, samplers; not on the photo). Ashley had previously played with Jon Spencer in Shithaus, and knew Puleo from his next band, Dig Dat Hole.
Title: Headkick Facsimile
Label: Supernatural Organization
Release date: 1989
Recording date: October 1988
Tracklist: 1. Shine on Elizabeth 2:43 2. Mistake 3:43 3. Smash Retro 1:41 4. Triumphal Theme 2:47 5. Lie 2:47 6. Fire in the Hole 3:14
The trio debuted with the 12'' EP Headkick Facsimile. "Shine On Elizabeth" (video below) is dominated by Ashley's ugly bass lines and Puleo's metallic percussion, brilliantly introducing their post-industrial fury. And the same can be said for the agonizing industrial parade of "Mistake", highlighting Ashley's talent for disillusioned, spiteful vocals. "Smash Retro" is a fast-paced distorted percussive whirlwind pierced by hateful anti-hippie lyrics. On "Triumphal Theme", featuring the band name in its lyrics, Ashley's spitting vocals, Puleo's machinal drumming and Ouimet's eerie synths manage very well to intimidate the listener. The mechanical march of "Lie" steadily gains momentum, to harrowing effect. And the closer "Fire in the Hole" is another display of Puleo's innovative "metallic" drumming. A highly creative and impressive debut EP.
8.1/10
Cop Shoot Cop - "Shine On Elizabeth"
Title: Piece Man
Label: Vertical
Release date: 1989
Recording date: ?
Tracklist: 1. Rbt. Tilton Handjob 3:29 2. Disconnected 666 2:43 3. Eggs For Rib (Speedway) 5:11
The 7'' EP Piece Man, featuring cover art sprayed with genuine pig's blood, saw the group expanded to five, adding Jack "Natz" Nantz (bass; left on the photo) and Jim "Filer" Coleman (samplers, tapes, piano; middle on the photo). "Rbt. Tilton Handjob" is bookended by samples of an exorcism, and in between are various other samples that are chaotically played over a fierce industrial march that eventually spins completely out of control. "Disconnected 666" is their first avant-gardist sample collage, of which they would make quite a few more during their career. It superposes various telephone tones, automatic messages and a scared woman on the phone, to disquieting effect. The closing "Eggs for Rib (Speedway)" is a devilish rollercoaster of sordid vocals, sinister synths, and pounding drums over an endlessly repeated bass riff (inspired by "The Girl from Ipanema").
7.1/10
Title: Consumer Revolt
Label: Circuit
Release date: 1990
Recording date: October 1989
Tracklist: 1. Low. Com. Denom. 2:21 2. She's Like A Shot 3:46 3. Waiting For The Punchline 3:46 4. Disconnected 666 2:18 5. Smash Retro! 1:42 6. Burn Your Bridges 5:01 7. Consume 1:09 8. Fire In The Hole 3:15 9. Pity The Bastard 4:11 10. Down Come The Mickey 3:26 11. Hurt Me Baby 1:46 12. System Test 2:33 13. Eggs For Rib 5:03
The band's fury was unleashed in its full glory on their proper debut album, Consumer Revolt, a brutal fresco of urban neurosis. They depicted New York at its worst, with music to match. The double bass (Natz on low-end and Ashley on high-end)/double sampler attack gave the album an even uglier sound (if possible), while their frenzy seemed to reach its zenith. On the opener "Low. Com. Denom." (video below), Ashley sounds like a rabid dog while delivering their quintessential lyrics "I'm gonna hurt you / I'm gonna hit you like a bomb". "She's Like a Shot", a serious contestant for the title "least romantic love song in music history", is propelled by sinister bass lines and disenchanted vocals, while Coleman's organ recalls the magniloquence of Foetus' industrial symphonies. "Waiting for the Punchline" is a brilliant claustrophobic nightmare that skilfully builds up great dramatic tension. Yet another masterpiece is "Burn Your Bridges", the perfect showcase for Puleo's virtuoso percussive skills. It starts with eerie drumming and ominous bass lines, and soon erupts into a rumbling horror soundtrack. The band's formidable ability to create scary atmospheres is once more on display in "Pity the Bastard", whose coda again invokes Foetus' bombastic sound. "Down Come the Mickey" is exemplary of their style throughout the album: the rhythm is for the most part completely anti-rhythmic, just as nearly all of their songs flow like crude oil. They sound like a machine in desperate need of lubricant, providing their music with an asphyxiating quality. "Consume" and "Hurt Me Baby" are a pair of thoroughly discomforting sound collages, while "System Test" is undoubtedly the most extreme piece on the album, drowning robotic vocals in a deafening vortex of percussive mayhem and distasteful sound effects. This album is a near-nauseating experience, a grotesque and repugnant deconstruction of musical conventions, holding up a mirror for mankind to glance at its hideous, deformed face. ["Smash Retro" and "Fire in the Hole" were previously released on Headkick Facsimile; "Disconnected 666" and "Eggs for Rib" were previously released on Piece Man, but re-recorded for the album.]
8.9/10
Cop Shoot Cop - "Low.Com.Denom."
After the debut album, Ouimet left the band to start Motherhead Bug, but he has appeared as a guest musician on nearly all of their following recordings.
Title: White Noise
Label: Big Cat
Release date: October 1st 1991
Recording date: June 1991
Tracklist: 1. Discount Rebellion 2:23 2. Traitor / Martyr 4:43 3. Coldest Day of the Year 4:56 4. Feel Good 3:21 5. Relief 2:53 6. Empires Collapse 2:58 7. Corporate Protopop 1:19 8. Heads I Win, Tails You Lose 2:44 9. Chameleon Man 5:08 10. Where's the Money? 0:58 11. If Tommorow Ever Comes 5:24 12. Hung Again 3:10
The follow-up White Noise was a more controlled affair, though hardly less shocking. What the band lost in sheer aural terror, it gained in compositional skill. The imposing military march "Chameleon Man" and the industrial opera of "Empires Collapse" highlight C$C's ability to infuse compositional subtlety and complexity into their terrifying soundscapes to achieve maximum emotional impact. Their transgression from the uncontrolled bacchanals of their debut towards a more musical territory is well exemplified by the intricate compositions of "The Coldest Day of the Year" and "If Tomorrow Ever Comes" (video below), two of their finest creations. "Heads I Win, Tails You Lose" is another highlight, coupling a scorching bass line with violent screams to set the tone for a perfect little masterpiece of terror. "Relief" is a disquieting collage of sirens and vocal samples over a machine gun rhythm. "Feel Good" is one of the fiercest tracks, with Ashley at his most hostile while the band maintains breack-neck speed throughout the track. The album also offers an alarming vision of a society ruled by mindless consumerism, mainly through the spot-on lyrics of the frantic opener "Discount Rebellion" and the brilliant commercial spoof "Corporate Protopop" (co-written by Jim "Foetus" Thirlwell, who mixed part of the album):
"Sit back! Relax! Allow yourself to believe ... Conformity is sexy and productivity rules. Decision-making can be so taxing; why not let us express your feelings? Everything has been designed for your comfort and convenience!"
- "Discount Rebellion"
"The products you buy, the programs you watch, the car you drive, your job. These are the things that define you as an individual. Without them you have no identity, no purpose, no reason to exist. Greed! Hatred! They're not just good ideas, they're the precepts this country was founded on. They will keep you right where you are. And we'd like to keep it that way!"
- "Corporate Protopop"
The album ends on a light note with the off-beat, Doors-infected coda "Hung Again". This is truly an impeccable album, not as scary as its predecessor, but more consistent and definitely a lot more musical. It is hard to tell which is the better of the two.
8.8/10
Cop Shoot Cop - "If Tomorrow Ever Comes"
Title: Suck City
Label: Interscope
Release date: 1992
Recording date: ?
Tracklist: 1. Nowhere 4:34 2. Days Will Pass 4:00 3. We Shall Be Changed 4:57 4. Suck City (Here We Come) 2:25
The 12'' EP Suck City starts with the fast-paced frenzy of "Nowhere", nicely juxtaposed to the languid theatrics of "Days Will Pass", reminiscent of Nick Cave's apocalyptic visions. "We Shall Be Changed" is a gothic landscape of industrial sounds and eerie vocal samples that pays hommage to Ministry. The EP is closed by the short and chaotic title track. All in all, this a far cry from the standard one has come to expect from the band. For fans only.
6.2/10
Title: Ask Questions Later
Label: Interscope
Release date: March 30th 1993
Recording date: November 1992
Tracklist: 1. Surprise, Surprise 4:55 2. Room 429 5:07 3. Nowhere 4:08 4. Migration 1:23 5. Cut To The Chase 4:04 6. $10 Bill 3:42 7. Seattle 1:34 8. Furnace 4:54 9. Israeli Dig 2:06 10. Cause And Effect 3:12 11. Got No Soul 5:14 12. Everybody Loves You (When You're Dead) 2:32 13. All The Clocks Are Broken 4:17 14. Untitled 2:09
Ask Questions Later was instead a stylish continuation of the band's mission, opened in grand style by "Surprise, Surprise", a terrifying indictment of the American government that expertly builds up tension into a highly dramatic finale. The single "Room 429", on the other hand, could almost be called pop music according to their standards, featuring one of their catchiest refrains. And the same goes for the other single, "$10 Bill", that opens with an icy scream before Puleo cuts into a cool marching rhythm and the song is dressed up with a full-fledged horn section (Ouimet fronting his Motherhead Horns). But the ultimate proof that their sound is getting ever more accessible, is "Everybody Loves You", that already sounds like Ashley's much ear-friendlier next project Firewater. However, the album also features some of their trademark avantgarde detours: "Migration" sounds like a grotesque procession of mechanical jesters, "Seattle" is a rather aimless series of vocal samples, and "Israeli Dig" is a brief, ominous ambient piece. Unfortunately they are not as captivating as usual. "Cut to the Chase" is a an Eastern-tinged track featuring a lovely violin melody rising over Puleo's fast drumming. The best part of the industrial blues of "Cause and Effect" is its ending, in which it drowns itself in a chaotic whirlpool of noisy bass guitars, dramatic keyboards and percussive mayhem. Two of the stand-outs are "Furnace", propelled by a ceaseless groovy bass riff, and "Got No Soul", filled with metallic sounds, augmented by Ouimet's horn section, and dominated by a constantly repeated voice sample. These are prime examples of C$C's talent for fusing ugliness and accessibility. Somehow their compositions are so musically well conceived that, even after infusing all of their usual unpleasant sounds, they remain utterly listenable. "All the Clocks Are Broken" closes the album in style, Ashley delivering his final thoughts over a galloping gothic soundscape. Overall, Ask Questions Later is not as accomplished as their first two albums (even though it is quite similar in style to White Noise), the main problem being that the material is just not as strong and intriguing. But nevertheless, it still makes for an imposing work of art. ["Nowhere" from the Suck City EP was re-recorded for the album.]
7.9/10
Title: Release
Label: Interscope
Release date: September 13th 1994
Recording date: March 1994
Tracklist: 1. Interference 4:15 2. It Only Hurts When I Breathe 3:39 3. Last Legs 3:47 4. Two At A Time 4:03 5. Slackjaw 3:41 6. Lullaby 3:51 7. Any Day Now 3:40 8. Swimming In Circles 4:19 9. Turning Inside Out 3:52 10. Ambulance Song 4:23 11. Suckerpunch 3:39 12. The Divorce 4:18 13. Money-Drunk 3:04
Continuing the tradition of releasing ever more streamlined albums, and adding a guitarist to their line-up for the first time in their career (Steve McMillen, also on trumpet; right on the photo), Release, veered towards an even more accessible sound and by now it had surrendered quite a lot of the uncompromising power and intensity that had set them apart in the first place. Tracks like "It Only Hurts When I Breathe" and "One Of These Days" are downright catchy and tracks like "Interference" and "Two at a Time" still carry the C$C-watermark, but are nearly devoid of their customary dramatic decorations. "Slackjaw", "Swimming in Circles" and "Suckerpunch" are hardly revolutionary and would have been cut-outs on any of their previous albums. The stand-outs are elsewhere: the ominous "Last Legs", with a leading role for Ouimet on trombone, a gripping post-industrial workout featuring a martial rhythm and incendiary horn crescendoes; "Ambulance Song", one of their moodiest creations, achieves a ghostly atmosphere mainly through Puleo's percussive drumming, the guitar's eerie staccato notes and Ashley's apt lyrics: "When your heart is full of winter / and your days become like living in a lie / and the clouds outside your bedroom windowpane / resemble crippled children limping slowly 'cross the sky"; and "The Divorce" is actually just as atmospheric, even more dramatic, as Ashley tells the tragic, hopeless story of a hooker on her first day after the break-up with her pimp. Overall though, as their compositions became more and more basic and stripped bare, they also became less and less emotionally gripping. But given their pretty linear evolution towards a more mainstream sound, this was hardly a big disappointment, since it never really came as a surprise.
6.5/10
Not much later, the band called it a day, which was probably a sensible decision, since the band was slowly turning into a negation of their original aesthetic. Tod A. went on to form Firewater with David Ouimet, Jesus Lizard's guitarist Duane Denison, Soul Coughing's percussionist Yuval Gabay and Laughing Hyenas' drummer Jim Kimball. The rest of the band formed the Red Expendables to finish some songs that were still on the shelf. Jim Coleman also had a career in industrial ambience with his one-man-project Phylr.
Best albums:
1. Consumer Revolt 8.9/10
2. White Noise 8.8/10
3. Ask Questions Later 7.9/10
4. Release 6.5/10
Reactions are always very welcome!
