#BandcampGoldFOLLOWUP-EP TWO by Cool Tara
by Dan-O
Tell you what sucks, if you google search Cool Tara Review my October review of their Bad Moves EP is the sixth entry and the first actual review. This is depressing because who the F__ am I? The answer is a dinky blog off in the deep niche net of wordpress. The truth is audiences train themselves to the music they like and locally a lot of folks aren’t trained for Cool Tara. The band just released a project EP TWO which is fascinating because it’s clear that they don’t really care.
As deeply captivating as the pop sensibilities of Cool Tara are you can never forget that they are punk. The antagonistic thread runs lyrically, structurally, and sonically through the bands identity. You wanted these songs to be longer? You’re wondering why you can’t place a 2015 musical comparison point for this? Imagine a middle finger responding to all those concerns. This is what is punk about Cool Tara they own the destroy-to-rebuild spirit of the fed up and the pure joy of creation. All of the tag descriptions on their bandcamp page hint at this: garage rock, indie, punk rock. As a project this new one is only seven songs over an eighteen minute span but it builds on their identity in every feasible way.
Lyrically EP TWO weighs a lot more than anything I heard from them before. The lyrics are questions from an argument, The first song (Museum Exhibit) starts with lead singer, and drum set Mozart, Chris Gervais admitting that he’s finally ready to start and his next lines are “How do I know you?! Why did we do this?! I should have never been with you from the beginning?!”
Chris has a sense of rhythm that is dynamic and thrusts each song forward but Gabe Noblesmith and Kara Rowley are terrifying monsters on guitar and bass respectively. This is not a band for self-indulgent noodling; the Tony Iommi-ish joy of riff creation runs through muscular songs like Show Me Your Teeth. The only song on EP TWO that is over the three minute mark is the last one, Speaks Like Children, which stands in marked contrast from the rest of the project. It’s hauntingly muted instrumentally and thickly lyrical including the lines “I call my mother on the phone, ask her if I’m gonna die alone. Loss and regret are my only two friends and all I hear is the silence on the end.” The angry argument Chris has been having ends somberly with a tall glass of his own despair. He shouts about numbness spreading and wishes that he was dead, roll credits.
I was playing my favorite song from EP TWO (8 Out of 10) for my wife the other night, holding the laptop up while she cooked dinner and staring at her while she listened (I know this paints a really weird picture of living with me…it’s as weird as it sounds). When I finally rolled the question to her “What do you think? ” she shrugged and said “it’s good…” and I nodded assured that she just hadn’t heard it a thousand times yet. By the thousandth time she’ll excitedly wait for the end of song hand claps. She’ll realize that the stability of Cool Tara, the 70’s harmony’s, the complete disregard for what other music is like now…is so god damn special.
You can stream 3 songs from the album on their bandcamp page:
Boring White Girl
https://cooltara.bandcamp.com/track/boring-white-girl
Museum Exhibit
https://cooltara.bandcamp.com/track/museum-exhibit
and a live version of 8 out of 10
https://cooltara.bandcamp.com/track/8-10-live-at-the-flask-lounge
once you are satisfied that this thing is as dope as I say it is stream then buy it here
Freemusicempire 
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