Cougar – 'Stay Famous'
Release date:
Label: Counter Records/Ninja Tune

Cougar return with the second single from their forthcoming album 'Patriot' and it’s a stormer! 'Stay Famous' plays with the old loud/quiet rock dynamic , mixing in bleeding-fingers riffing, melodic beauty and plangent counterpoint. The whole is exhilarating, proving once again that you don’t need a vocalist to make affecting, heartfelt rock music.

Of course, it doesn’t mean you don’t have to have one either, which is why Paul Smith of Maxïmo Park guests on the glitched out “Digit Cleaver”. Cougar supported the Park on their 2007 US tour and Smith became a big fan of the band: “It was a joy to watch them each night.” As a lover of their “unique blend of beautiful instrumental melodies and propulsive rhythms, both organic and electronic,” Smith was thrilled to be able to add some lyrical gravity to one of their tunes.

The single is continued by “Foil Épée Sabre,” which despite a title evocative of fencing, comes on a little more down-home than you might expect, banjo lines twisting round and over one another in a chord sequence which shows once again Cougar’s unique grasp of the melancholy.

The package is rounded out by a superb remix of “Stay Famous” by none other than Mike Ladd. The sometime Infesticon and full-time musical genius is an old associate of David Henzie-Skogen from his time as drummer for the Youngblood Brass Band (no one present will ever forget the band trooping onto stage for a particularly rousing take on “Hero Theme” a few year’s back). Here he breaks “Stay Famous” down into the most brutal garage rock, an exhilarating and raw ending to a great record.

Cougar’s second album, the forthcoming Patriot (August 24th on Counter), is an aggressive, narrative affair that sees the band reach even greater extremes than on their debut, “Law”. The epic, sparkling counterpoint of the first record crops up, but Patriot firmly establishes itself as a different music shredding the lines between electronic, rock and modern, one that never forgets to pay allegiance to the hook. If an album of new music raises the question, “What kind of band IS this?” then perhaps the artist is doing their job. Urgent, captivating and strangely moving: emergency rock.

1) Stay Famous (Radio Edit)
2) Digit Cleaver feat Paul Smith of Maximo Park
3) Foil Eppe Sabre
4) Stay Famous (Mike Ladd Remix)