If you’ve ever wondered what a mix of American country and British punk would sound like, you don’t have to look any further. Westside Cowboy’s “Britishness” is just what you need to hear. The very young band from Manchester has just released their debut album, ‘It Goes On’, and they define themselves perfectly from the first song. ‘Kick Stones (The Boys)’ is the Song of the Day.
The textures of the guitars that begin the song are directly reminiscent of those of The Velvet Underground’s first album, while the spontaneity of the vocalist and the homemade or even dilapidated touch of the production refer us to groups like Pavement or Violent Femmes. ‘Kick Stones (The Boys)’, however, is pure Westside Cowboy.
Reuben Haycocks, James Bradbury, Aoife Anson O’Connell and Paddy Murphy build, in what was also the first preview of the LP, a song that constantly rises and falls, and in a frenetic manner. Haycocks and Murphy, before the whole band joins in, sing about “rain that rings like bells” and how surreal “plastic-covered cars swim perfectly well.”
The song evolves like rapids that you get on and from which you can no longer get off, passing through a valley in which the same phrase begins to be repeated (“Did you hear that the boys have left this time?”) to gradually increase the revolutions until you end up feeling that you are part of the chants in a football stadium. Precisely, this is the theme they have chosen for the video clip of the song. Although their influences are mainly American, they do not forget where they come from.
