COBRA VERDE
� "Copycat Killers" (Scat Records)
� COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Leave it to an album of covers to give true insight into a group's soul. No band going has a deeper music-loving soul than Cleveland's Cobra Verde. At times macho, at times feminine but always playful, Copycat Killers is a dozen songs swallowed whole by John Petkovic and company, and burped out in a defiant, confident stroke. It says something about a band when the musicians are as comfortable with Donna Summer's disco (I Feel Love) as with the Fall's gritty Dice Man. Cobra Verde can give nuance to the core spirit of a song and make it its own the way few others can. The band's cover of Pink's Get the Party Started goes a long way toward demonstrating what a great song it, whatever the window dressing. Leonard Cohen's So Long, Marianne is rendered with a touch more oomph than its original form. Copycat Killers is the sound of a band stretching out, goofing off and ultimately letting us in on the party.
-- Jerry Dannemiller