Teen Cobra

Reviews

Teen Cobra Buzzkill LP

This is right up my alley. It’s a husband-and-wife rock’n’roll duo on a budget, with crunchy guitars and primal drums. This formula can become one-note very quickly, but they’re able to switch up the pace very nicely, like the slow stomp of the intro to “Closer (Satan’s Watching)” and the upbeat chorus of “I Don’t Wanna Walk Alone.” I love the female backing vocals, they almost remind me of BEAT HAPPENING and they add a lot to the music. I don’t think the LP would be what it is without them, because it would be harder to ignore the fact that the singer sounds a lot like KING KHAN. They don’t reinvent the wheel, but this group is very good at taking the limited skills they have musically and just playing with as much energy as possible. Good LP, but I bet they sound even better live.

Teen Cobra Live at Funtastic Dracula Carnival 2021 cassette

Bad sound quality can hurt a recording, but here it is truly a member of the band. The guitars are playing straight out of the LEUSEMIA and RAMONES playbooks, and the drums are a spartan but joyful bass-and-snare stomp. Maybe there’s a tambourine? Or is that feedback? No new tricks here, but that spareness is engaging. It could also be that the songs are satisfyingly catchy and snotty. This is not as easy to pull off as one might believe. “Any fool can make something complicated, but it takes genius to keep it simple.”