The
Lazy Cowgirls #2
This article originally appeared in NFH #22 in
the winter of 1992.
The Lazy Cowgirls
have been one of my favorites since I first heard about them...oh when the hell was it?
Around 1988 when Radio Cowgirl came out I guess. I wasn't hip enough to have
noticed Tapping The Source when it came out, though it was a fine lp and the first
time the Cowgirls showed on record why they were worth following, and if I wasn't going to
catch that I certainly wasn't to be expected to have caught their very first lp which
never would have convinced me of their potential anyway. But I caught up pretty quickly
and I've been tracking all their stuff ever since and have seen them a bunch of times,
especially recently since they've been playing San Diego with their new lineup almost
every month. They were featured in NFH #17, and though I seldom feature a band twice, I
figured I'd make an exception here since a lot has happened with the Cowgirls since that
time. For one thing, they'd broken up..."We NEVER broke up", singer Pat Todd is
quick to interject. "We NEVER broke up at all. Yeah, we never went away at all. We
just replaced members. That's all we did. We haven't lost any songwriting or arranging or
any ideas."
Fair enough; Pat and
guitarist Doug Phillips have always been the spiritual core of the band, and they still
are there. Gone are bassist Keith Telligman and drummer Allen Clark...both can still be
observed playing on numerous projects with other people on the LA scene; most recently the
Motherfucker 666 single with Jeff Dahl. Replacing them are Michael Lee and Ed Huerta. The
replacement process was an arduous one and the Cowgirls have been out of live action for
quite a while as a result, but Pat and Doug never stopped in between, continuing to write
songs and work on new ideas.
So what happened
since the last feature? Well, they released possibly their best lp yet, How It Looks Is
How It Is and then headed out on a tour of Europe. They played primarily in Germany
and all the surrounding countries...Austria, Denmark, Switzerland, Holland, Sweden...about
20 shows in all. Pat has good memories of all the shows with high spots in Berlin and
Frieberg Germany. "It was all good, though", says Pat. "Hardly anything was
not fun. The shows were in bigger places and they were really well attended. People seemed
to know the words and were really familiar with the band and the material, so it was
really fun. Audiences in Germany are really receptive, at least from what I know. I'm
limited in my knowledge but I thought it was great."
Then came the downer
with Keith and Allen leaving. Pat is not the sort of guy who badmouths people and he's
pretty guarded talking about exact reasons why the split occurred. He prefers instead to
dwell on the positives that have come from the new personnel, and perhaps from his
comments about the present situation with the Cowgirls you can get some insight into what
happened.
Finding Michael and
Ed was a major trial. "It took us a while because we were picky", says Pat.
"It was hard to find people that you really felt anything in common with
aesthetically. You found people who could play, it wasn't that, but it took us a while to
find people that we aesthetically had something going with." One candidate for bass
early on was Alain of the Swiss band Les Maniacs. They'd played gigs together in Germany
and found that there was a lot of common ground, and Alain was a real good bassist, too.
He came to LA in hopes of playing with the Cowgirls, but unfortunately work visa problems
proved insurmountable and after a couple months here he had to return to his home country
and the Cowgirls continued their search. To avoid a total loss of momentum they released a
couple of singles in the interim..."Intellectual Baby"/"Teenage
Frankenstein" with ex-Creamers bassist Len Carringer (Len has started a new band
called the Marlows that you should be hearing from soon) and Johnny Esposito (Badtown
Boys) on drums. Then there was the double single on Sympathy with Len and Johnny and
acoustic guitar from Alain. Pat's pretty proud of that double single.
"I think anybody
that's familiar with us knows that we don't do your "Search And Destroy" covers
or Heartbreakers covers", he says, "and not because we don't love those songs,
but we always used to do covers of songs where we could bring something of ourselves to
it. Whether we'd always succeed is another thing; that's up to each person to decide. But
I had always liked that "Yakkity Yak"...it was always something I'd loved, so we
did it. And I'd always loved that Kinks song and we'd always talked about doing that. And
when I grew up when I was a little kid I remember "The Wayward Wind" by Gogi
Grant. I'd always loved that song and I thought, oh, I'd like to sing that sometime. And
then we got the chance. We'd always messed around with the idea and finally we did it on
the single. And then there's the slower song, "Repeat After Me", which you've
seen us do live. The single mainly got good reviews, but it got some bad reviews. I mean,
you don't have to like it and nobody's going to twist your arm, but we got some reviews
that were completely wrong. Now that doesn't mean they had to like it; they could still
hate it or just think it's OK, but for example on "Repeat After Me" it's got an
acoustic guitar strumming in the background and it's a slower song. And people said, oh
the Cowgirls would never have done this during How It Looks... and all I've got to
say is the old cliche...wrong! The song WAS WRITTEN for How It Looks Is How It
Is and just never got done in time to put it on there. That last album was like
pulling teeth to get out. We just didn't have time to throw on a ballad or two. It's not
even a ballad...if you listen to the words it ain't no ballad! It's the same kind of song
we've always written...it just happened to be slower. It's so silly. Again, I think people
judge music on purely a superficial level as opposed to what's in the music. Which is
fine...you can't tell somebody what to do or that their way of judging is wrong, even if
it is. But a few people didn't like that because it was a slower song, as if we've never
done a slower song. But it's more or less the same kind of song we always did. And some
people didn't like the Kinks song, and some did. It's just so weird. We knew the record
would be easy to attack because it had a couple of covers and a re-write of
"Drugs" called "Drugs II" which we always wanted to do. And we
thought, the hell with them. We're the band, we do what we want and let the chips fall
where they may. We knew that people wouldn't listen to it in the right way. Again, there's
so much misperception in bands. Not that I'm brilliant, but I just know in my own band
there's been a lot of misperception in general. Which is no big deal. I think "Repeat
After Me" is a really great song. A lot of people think that's the best song we ever
wrote. Again I think that's just cos it's slower and easier to grasp onto. I think that's
silly, too. You know what I'm saying? Sometimes people like things for the wrong reason.
At least by your way of thinking. There's no such thing I guess as the wrong
reason."
Toward the end of
1991 Doug and Pat finally settled on Ed and Michael and began to get ready to play some
live shows. "September of 1991 was our first show", recalls Pat. "We had 7
practices as a band and played the first show. We had ten practices and played the Palace
with Mudhoney. And also, we started playing two or three originals and two or three songs
off the new recordings, so we were playing like 12 songs and we were already doing five or
six songs that were new. This whole time that we didn't have full membership in the band,
the writing kept going on and we kept searching for the players that we wanted to have
join the band."
And now Pat starts to
open up about the differences between today's Lazy Cowgirls and what they were before.
"You read in interviews and people always say this, and I don't think it's always
really true, but this time it's really the truth...yeah, it's better. It's a lot better,
it's a lot more fun. We get things done faster. And that's not to put down anybody who was
in the band before, it's just that everybody's more attuned and everybody's hopped up and
excited about it. And it's just a matter of finding the right people. It's like any
relationship in any kind of thing you do. The more you can fine tune stuff, the more you
can find people who are more into what you're doing and want to have input into it and are
interested in it and want to do it constantly and aren't burned out and are really
up...yeah, I think it's a lot better. It's a lot more fun and a lot more expressive and
it's still the Lazy Cowgirls. I don't know what that means to anyone, but it still has the
same basic sound and feel and ideas that the Lazy Cowgirls have always been about."
My feeling on first
hearing them was that they were a little slower than before but otherwise it's as Pat
says; the Cowgirls sound comes mostly from the guitar, vocals, and songwriting, and that
hasn't changed. Ed seems to have to work pretty hard to keep the tempos up and play hard
at the same time, where Allen used to blast along like it was no big deal. But recent
shows have pretty much the same energy as the old ones, so they do seem like they're back.
"If there's any changes, it's not visceral changes", says Pat. "It's only
because of the songs or because as you keep growing and changing...you just keep doing
things. I mean, as long as you keep things fresh...you're not going to stay with the same
song over and over, right? You're not going to play the same song ten times for your set,
right? You play ten or twelve different songs. If there's any change it's all because the
songs are growing. The next record might be all acoustic songs, and the next one might be
all like fast songs with two chords..."
"I haven't heard
any of the acoustic ones yet!", I interrupt.
"But you know
what I'm saying", he replies. " It could be any of those. We're not very formula
oriented."
The layoff has cost
them considerable momentum with their fans. "That's something where I don't know what
you could do about it", says Pat. "It's like murder. I don't know what I could
do to change it. All that we're doing is going out and playing and showing people and a
lot of people are going to have it in their minds that you're not going to be the same,
that you're not going to be as good, as if, and not to slight anyone, as if a bass player
and a drummer really had anything to do with the basic songs and feel and scheduling and
setting up and ideas and arrangements, and that's not to slight anyone in anyway because
they were great, too, but it's just that we were the basic idea men for the band and we
haven't suffered in any way, shape or form. In fact, even though we may not have every fan
that we had in Los Angeles, we've done a lot more. We're playing down here (San Diego)
regularly. We're playing in Riverside now. We've played on bigger shows than we ever have
before. We're getting so much done so quickly. We're going to be touring Europe and
America and possibly Japan and Australia. So we're really doing a lot more than we ever
did whether people realize it or not. Again, I think you get people on the outside who
think they know what you're about, who think they know what you're doing and who think
they know what's right or wrong, but the truth is none of these people are ever in the
band, none of these people are ever in the inner workings of the band, none of these
people have anything to do with the songs you write, none of these people have anything to
do with the responsibility of paying rent for your rehearsal space, or knowing what's in
your head to begin with, or knowing how something that they happen to perceive as you came
out anyway. Most people never really know anyway. You can have an opinion...no one can
force you to like a band, but when you state things about a band and it's not true...I see
so much of that in writing and I always have seen it...it doesn't mean people have to like
you or agree with you, but most of the time people get all the facts wrong. So in other
words, they just don't know to begin with. Also, I think a lot of people in two years move
away. People get old in their mind in two years. People are jaded. I think people are so
flavor of the month oriented in music. That's just the way it is. Facts. Right or wrong,
that's how they are. They tend to like the latest thing of what's cool. I don't think most
people care about music much, I mean the people who say they really like it and buy
records. I think there's a difference between the way you or I treat it and the way some
other people treat it. That's the way it is. But we've lost and we've gained. It's like
anything. Something lost, something gained."
"We still aren't
anywhere near what we were as far as playing. Most people saw the Lazy Cowgirls late...by
that I mean they saw us after we'd played 100 times. Do you know what a hundred shows does
to your playing? Not to mention all the practicing in between? Most of the people didn't
see the band until way after Tapping The Source. They think they saw them before,
but they didn't. I know when the people started coming. So they saw a band that had been
seasoned and played and figured out what they wanted to do and played a hundred times or
so. And we're already at that point, and we've only played like 20 shows. I think that
shows a lot of the determination to do what we've done."
Looking forward the
band has a lot of things planned. Recording is not about to happen immediately, but there
are plans for a demo (it should have been done by now) which the band intends to shop
around to record companies. Pat says emphatically: "ALL the record companies".
Does that mean they 're breaking from Sympathy? "Well, it's not that we're looking
for something other than Sympathy just to be off Sympathy", says Pat. "Of
course, like anyone in life, we're looking to grow and better ourselves. We'd like to make
more money. We'd like to get our music to as many people as possible. We feel like there's
probably people who would like us if they got a chance to see us or hear us that had never
heard us or been exposed to us. You just want to get your stuff out there for people to
see and let them make up their own minds. I mean, I know that's a hard thing to ask people
to do, to make their own minds up, but I think that's still the best way to get out. So
yeah, of course we'd be interested in bettering our situation."
Then there's reissues
of all their back material on CD happening now. The Cowgirls might seem like the sort of
band that might come down hard on the side of vinyl-only, especially given that Pat is a
serious record collector and generally into the culture around vinyl and not into the
culture surrounding CDs. But Pat is also a practical sort, and he'll tell you: "The
album is dead whether anybody wants to admit it or not. Right now at least...maybe it'll
make a comeback. But you can't even go into a store and find much vinyl. It's just the way
it is. It doesn't mean it's right or wrong; it's just the way it is. CDs are what people
buy or what stores want to carry. So we needed to have all our stuff out on CDs."
The Cowgirls are
doing it right, though...their CDs are loaded with extra cuts and tracks from singles, and
they've made an effort to clean things up where needed in the CD mastering process and in
the case of Third Time's The Charm, which has been added to the CD of How It
Looks Is How It Is, they've remixed the whole thing to give it more punch. (For those
who don't know, remixing means that you go back to the original multi-track tape
which has a separate instrument on each track - as many as 24 tracks or more can be used -
and repeat the process of combining these tracks onto a two-track stereo tape. In doing
this you can change the volume of the different instruments and vocals relative to each
other, you can add effects to individual instruments - for example some reverb - and you
can adjust the treble/bass balance of each instrument. Mixing is one of the hardest things
to do right in recording, and many potentially good records are ruined by poor mixes. Mastering
is the process of transferring the two-track stereo mix down tape to the master used to
make the record or CD. For records the master is a set of stamper plates while for CDs
it's another form of digital tape. In this process the tone of the recording is sometimes
altered for the worse, making the bass or treble too high or too low, and sometimes the
overall sound level is too low, which makes the recording seem lifeless and lacking punch.
Remastering gives you a chance to fix all this if you do it right. Enough science...)
Tapping The Source
was remastered for CD by Michael and Pat to make it hotter and more powerful and maybe add
some bottom end. In September it's due to be released on Bomp here and on DogMeat in
Australia and 1+2 in Japan. Third Time's The Charm has already been reissued on CD
by DogMeat with a swarm of other tracks. It was originally recorded in some guy's garage
studio with pretty poor monitors, so it was hard to tell what the thing really sounded
like, and the mix wasn't the best as a result. Pat describes the remix as "more in
your face".
Last on the list is Radio
Cowgirl, coming out on CD with all the Sympathy singles, "The Long Goodbye",
"Who Are The Mystery Girls", "Crazy Arms", "Intellectual
Baby" and the four songs off the new double single. Then it's off on tour.
"We're going to
go to Europe and then do America", says Pat, "and there's a possibility that we
could do Australia and Japan. We'll probably be going to Europe in February or March, and
then America, and we're hoping to do Australia with the Celibate Rifles. I've talked to
Kent Steedman and we might do something with them. And the guy who does 1+2 Records books
bands over there...I guess he did the Raunch Hands and the Devil Dogs and also did Jeff
Dahl. We're going to look into doing that also. And then there's the demos, too. So we've
got a lot of things happening in the next six to seven months."
I asked Pat to try to
summarize the position the Cowgirls find themselves in today. "Well, for me, we
haven't suffered in any way", he says. "In fact, we're much better, all the way
around. The playing's better, we get a lot more done, the singing's better. The songs come
together much quicker because everybody's really into doing it. Everybody's really more
professional about it."
NFH: I think
the first show I saw you sounded a little slow in comparison to before, but the last two
don't sound slow anymore. I agree with you that Allen was a really great drummer and I
notice the difference there, but the bass playing - I don't notice any difference.
Pat: Michael's
better. Better technically...he has better rhythm, better feel. He's a better singer than
Allen. And Ed also sings. Now there's a little more feeling and a little more rhythm to
it. There's not so much all na-na-na-na-na...there's a little more rhythm to it. Ed
doesn't hit as hard as Allen, but he plays more subtle things. But he still plays hard. He
puts everything he's got into it. But you know another thing, a lot of our live tapes when
you hear them are too fast. The songs are so fast that there's not even a song any more.
Live you tend to get carried away.
NFH: It's easy
to play fast and not be tight, too. The hard thing is playing fast and being tight.
Pat: Well,
we've tried not to be too fast, because that's so easy to do when you play live. You lose
the beauty of the melody as Chuck Berry said. You lose the idea and it becomes like a rant
and rave. We definitely don't want to fall into the hardcore type of sound. I don't know
what more you can do. Most people sit and judge but they never do, and I'd like to
see them do anything most of the time. You run into that. But I think it's better and more
fun.
