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Two Cow Garage performs "Should've California"

(Shelterhouse)

Maturity is one the most dangerous things that can happen to a carefree, bash-it-up rock-and roll band. That scrappy outfit that used to sing about getting drunk and only knew three chords on one album can scarily follow it up with a belabored personal meditation on time and space featuring a 10-minute closing opus with separate movements and a string section. Yeah, that shit ain’t pretty and luckily it’s not the case with Two Cow Garage. This band was never quit that three-chord-banging garage band caricature, but has certainly stepped far enough ahead and away from their brand of punked-up roots rock. With their aptly titled third album the Columbus, Ohio trio is showing off significant growth and change. They’ve grown so much, in fact, that the band recently added a full-time keyboardist to make it a quartet. And there’s more. The fist-shaking alt.country upstarts have reached that point where they are taking stock of it all: This is the Two Cow Garage record about being in Two Cow Garage. On “No Shame” guitarist Micah Schnabel sounds genuinely beleaguered singing about his guitar and amp ruining his life and admits that a better future might be found in “just giving up and walking away.” From a band that spends most of its life on the road moving from one low-pay bar gig to the next, it’s hard not to realize that “No Shame” is a defining moment for Two Cow Garage. Sure, this is a band that has exorcised blue-collar pathos and the troubles of youth in its music, but always seemingly finding an ultimate glory and release in holding a six-string or drumsticks. These were their tools of healing but are now proving to be the instruments of their destruction. On the Neil Young-furied “Postcards and Apologies” Schnabel even admits, “This rock and roll bullshit has gone to my head.” Bassist Shane Sweeney leads the way on two more of III’s doses of tough reality with the contemplative “Blanket Gray” and unabashedly and un-ironically Skynyrdish “Now I Know.” Okay, harsh realizations and personal politics not enough? Sweeney’s gravelly vox delivers Two Cow’s most politicized moment to date on the right-wing-abhorring “Gape and Shudder,” decrying a fucked-up state of the nation. The bleak “Arson,” which delves into childhood pyromania, finds drummer Dustin Harrigle outro-ing with a combustive, apocalyptic solo. Dejected? Dark? Angry? Political? Yeah, but Two Cow still haven’t lost of their ballsy tenacity and charm. III is a load of fun, too. “Epitaph” is a bristling lesson in hook and riffage, “Camo Jacket” offers lusty, rip-roaring blast of fun and nothing rides quite like the county fair carney tragedy of “The Great Gravitron Massacre.” This is also band that has never shied away from nudging pop cultural references, be it “watching The Outsiders” (“No Shame”) or the Who blaring during a moment of unsure dashboard passion (“Camaro”), and they remain fun to hear. This is part of the reason why we love them. And if they’ve grown up a bit, that’s okay, because III shows all the signs of natural, quality maturation and not the sonic equivalent of a sad, akward pubescent crustache.

To celebrate the release of III, Two Cow Garage makes a visit to Buffalo’s Mohawk Place this Friday night with support from the Old Sweethearts and Semi-Tough.