COBRA VERDE
"Copycat Killers" (Scat Records)
ANCHORAGE PRESS

Think cover projects suck? Cleveland's Cobra Verde is out to prove you wrong with their just released Copycat Killers set on the Scat imprint. Wearing a dozen personal picks on their sleeve like a badge of honor, strange influences and wild surprises are laid out in all their sludge and squeal glory, spread thick with shadowy, sexy cool. From the stoned swagger of Pink's "Get the Party Started" to their dramatic take on New Order's "Temptation," these are cover tracks that do more than raise a tickled eyebrow of "huh?" I dare you not to get lost in the churning, tribal psychedelica of their spin ying straightforward rock'n'roll. Shots on The U on Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" or the stalker's gait of The Troggs' "I Want You." Other choice cuts under the knife include Hawkwind's "Urban Guerilla," The Flamin' Groovies' "Yesterday's Numbers," the Easter Monkey's catchy college-radio hit "Underpants," and Leonard Cohen's "So Long, Marianne," and other songs by The Rolling Stones, The Undertones, The Fall and Mott the Hoople. Dye

-- John M. James