BEST NEW MUSIC: COSMO GOLD - DROWN THE FLY

Right from the get-go these drums make it all too obvious that isn’t your average run of the mill funk-punk-dance-pop tune. But, since when has there ever been one?  Cosmo Gold’s “Drown the Fly” feels like the second-cousin to !!!’s “Me and Giuliani Down by the School Yard” bred with Annie’s “Chewing Gum,” which is about the best sort of compliment I can give a Best New Music tune in a world where everything else sounds like knockoffs of Odesza or Lana Del Rey, or Odesza covering Lana Del Rey. Pop meets punk in a way that I’d never describe as pop-punk.

COSMO GOLD - DROWN THE FLY

“Drown the Fly” seems to be co-opting a new little corner for itself into the kind of throwback pop that never actually existed. These swirling guitars and funk stabs are reminiscent of an era that never ever got this funky (okay, maybe P. Funk did, but they were also on their own planet). Perhaps Cosmo Gold is from a future-past, an alternate reality where an Austin Powers-like character has to travel back to the seventies to inject it with some funk. That’s the only explanation for where the heck this track came from.

This LA four-piece formed out of lead singer Emily Gold’s solo songwriting project. While they were once called Velvet, now Cosmo Gold seems fits their sunshiney seventies sound all the better. With acts like Parcels crushing festival circuits, expect Cosmo Gold to take that mantle this time next year.

My absolute favorite part of this discovery is that their first song sounds nothing like this one. “Dark Matter” is more of an alt-country crooner, rounding out the band’s sound into a more fully formed picture than one song ever could. An EP is coming soon from the band, with a west coast tour for June and July.  Can’t wait to hear more from these four. 

From deep within the murky depths of the Los Angeles River emerged a creature: 50% raver, 50% comedian, 10% Robotcop. Kurt Kroeber doesn’t own a dog, operates Soundbleed (the world’s only dance party comedy talk show rave), and is down to party with you. Come up some time and say “Hey dude!” But definitely make sure to casually drop the secret Illuminati password.