Red Scare Records, June 12, 2020
Cobra Skulls do what they want.
Cobra Skulls don’t care what you think. They called it a day a few years back, but this release of their first demo/recording, titled Eat Your Babies, shows that they called it as they saw it from the start. Part The Clash, part Social Distortion, and part Ramones, Cobra Skulls play a ripping punk rock and roll, with bastardized sounds drawing from rockabilly and blues and a scratchy-voiced singer spitting (mostly) furious political words.
Though Eat Your Babies is originally from 2005 and they open with an audio clip from the 1976 film Network, “Cobra Skulls Broadcasting Co.” comes across as some sort of prescient clarion call that seems meant for today, calling out, in part, “I’m a human being, God damn it! My life has value!” Then, when the rant ends, Cobra Skulls get to it with a stomper that goes after capitalism and corporate media, setting a tone for the rest of these songs. “Donnie Rumsfelt My Cobra Skulls Ass” is one of my favorites, as a straightforward raw song with a little swing in the rhythm it just goes. But it works in a funny little “Yankee Doodle Dandy” guitar number and they sing some pointed politicized lines, going after former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for his role in pushing the invasion of Iraq during the Bush years (lines like “Donnie, Donnie if you stand for freedom why do you gotta beat em?, beat em until they die?” get my attention). And “The Beginning of the Cobra” and “Cobra Christmas” are both raw screamers, pushing ahead with a bunch of hooks that’ll draw you in. “Cobra Christmas” in particular has some of my favorite hooks on the record, with a cadence that worms into your head. As with a lot of punk rock first go’s, some of these songs get by on nothing but urgency and raw power. But it’s sort of amazing how fully formed most of this stuff is.
And while Cobra Skulls do blasting rock and roll with an enviable vigor and purity, they can also scale things back, slow things down, and get a little more brazen with their diverse cauldron of influences. “Cobra Cougar” and “Stick It to the Cobra” wallow in rhythm and bounce. Both have a range of influences that go into the fast-to-slow changes, the chord progressions and guitar notes, the melodies, and the song structures and “Cobra Cougar” almost has a sort of Gogol Bordello feel to it. “Cobra Skulls Lockdown” does a sort of rockabilly rev up thing, with the whole build-up and drop-out structure and some spot on backing vocals. None of these moments feel contrived or momentum-sucking. Instead, they fit and flow with the rest of the record in a way reminiscent of The Clash.
Cobra Skulls burned bright and went away. And on this first salvo, Eat Your Babies, you hear them raw and confident in their swagger. In its purity, in its raw recording and righteous anger, and in its conciseness, this is a cool Cobra Skulls record.
You might like this if:
- You like raw powerful rock and roll
- You like thoughtful words and like (or are not turned away by) politicized lyrics
You might not if:
- You don’t like your punk with a hefty dose of rock and roll swagger
- You don’t like brazen politics mixed up with your music
ryan is a reviewer and news editor for TGEFM. He’s very secretive, he might be an alien.
