Review Summary: 50 grand will make me a man
Cop Shoot Cop can be read a couple of ways: 1. A headline describing cop on cop violence. 2. The cycle of heroin addiction. Cop heroin. Shoot up. Cop again. Cop, shoot, cop. So we have two interpretations: the bad conduct of gun toting lawmen or the miserable cycle of a smack addict. Neither is particularly joyful. Both, however, conjure images of urban decay and a crime ridden metropolis. Ever seen the cover of that Unsane album with the decapitation on the train tracks? Cop Shoot Cop gives off the same vibes regardless of the interpretation. Squalor, violence, industrial filth and decay. Musically this translates to a lot of clanging.
This industrial side of noise rock rarely had big riffs to speak of. It instead reminds me more of Stomp. Remember Stomp? It was that really lame thing your teacher would show you as if the concept of making sound with everyday items was somehow revolutionary. Now imagine it was cool. Imagine that the percussion was cling-clanging like a junkyard pinball, while the junkyard dog (who is a man) snarled at you about the nitty gritty in the big city. He has a fuzzy scuzzy coat of bass that's two layers thick. His lyrics are biting but ludicrous, and funny because of it (‘are what you eat, eat what you are, *** in a jar’).
A lot of noise rock post-daughters is infatuated with absurdity, subverting the more serious and edgy posturing by way of slidy bendy guitars, the ‘wee woo’ hysteric theatre/wonky funhouse experience, the sound of deflation and inflation.
Consumer Revolt, while not fully engaged in this tomfoolery is certainly dipping its toes in. The biting sardonic commentary delivered by way of spiteful shouting is juxtaposed against wacky sounding boing-ing, crackles and whips. The very serious with the completely stupid. But if you didn't cry you would laugh right? Theres nothing else to do when things seem really hopeless. You have to laugh. So, why not indulge in the piercing atonal squeal and hateful shout, why not smack some pipes and cans. *** in a jar.
