by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
You get the impression with Chicago via St. Louis’ Cumbie that they created their debut EP, conveniently titled EP, with no one in mind but themselves, and it’s all the better for it. The record feels like an excuse for friends to get together and play music without much thought beyond that, getting weird when it serves them, or seemingly, when they thought it would be the funniest. Recorded with Seth Engel (Floatie, Options, Mister Goblin) at Pallet Sound Studio, the EP is a quick blast of warped and unfiltered indie punk songs, throwing in touches of crusty metal when you least expect it. Call it an aesthetic choice or the musical equivalent of trolling, either way… it really doesn’t matter to Cumbie.
With the EP now out in the world, the band keep their momentum going with a video for album opener “Good.” For a song that’s only a minute and half, Cumbie take a casual approach, filling the first thirty seconds with an introductory soundscape before eventually colliding into a tangled screed of knotted guitars and falsetto vocals. They rip their way over toppling drum fills and blown out distortion without ever loosing the song’s eerily weird melodic charm. The video, directed by Maxwell Pociask (and conceptualized by Antonio Leone), captures some pretty gross images of some indistinguishable food (or maybe some slop) paired together with a masked person, fork and knife in hand. It’s pretty ominous until the big dance number, another sign of Cumbie having a great time doing what they’re doing.