I'm taking a look back at Cobra Man's debut,
New Driveway Soundtrack, tonight because it made a strong impression on my back when it dropped in 2017, and it's still a banger. The Los Angeles group was originally formed when Andy Harry and Sarah Ray came together to soundtrack skate videos with something less aggressive and with more personality than the standard rotation of metal/punk/hip hop that tends to accompany kickflips and halfpipe runs- in other words, they wrote a bunch of disco and new wave tracks for fun and it turned into a sequences monstrosity that they couldn't contain. Despite being more interested in groove and ambiance,
New Driveway Soundtrack still has some obvious punk in its DNA, an aspect of its character that shows up in Andy's sometimes maniacal vocal intonations and the anxious way that the duo attacks their songs- an approach I can't help but get a laugh out of. The whole project has the enthusiastic energy of an underground comedy troop! But their work is far from parody and the goofiness is more an expression of the band's identity than a commentary on their sources of inspiration. These songs are obviously all reflections on artists they undoubtedly revere. I'm really enthralled with the way they've managed to combine the camp of the B-52s and the self-serious, self-awareness and detached romance of Gary Numan on "Weekend Special," as well as how they've threaded a kind of non-sequitur sexuality and with the cool collectedness of Berlin-era Bowie, and mounted a full Chic homage for "Fistfight at the Stoplight," while still managing to pivot into a butterfly stitching of evil sounding oi and greaser rock that they've then graphed to an epic, modular kind of space disco for "Lazyman." The space disco elements are probably the most prominent and consistent part of Cobra Man's sound, with high airy synths and nebula ruffling oscillations comprising the body and operative aspects of tracks like "Magic Hour," "Research Project," "Friends of Tom," and many others.
New Driveway Soundtrack is a crazy and often furious album that is as madcap as it is competent- equivalent to the likes of Teenwolf spontaneously combusting midway through a slamdunk but still managing to place the ball in the net before disappearing into a cloud of cinders. It's as much about flair as follow-through- consequences be damned!
Still available from Goner Records
