Faulty Cognitions Faulty Cognitions demo cassette
I have always been drawn to the sound of bands’ demos, or their first album when it’s a mish-mash of the singles and bedroom recordings, more so than polished formal studio albums. Think of the BANANAS’ collection The First Ten Years of… having way more guts and heart than the albums which followed. Maybe it’s that bit of feedback, out-of-tune vocal, or bass flub that gets left in. Often the songs are played off-speed or faster than the album that follows. Don’t get me wrong, FAULTY COGNITIONS stellar album Somehow, Here We Are is already on a lot of top album lists for 2024, but the preceding demo has a gritty charm all its own. The opener “Las Cruces” has the anthemic heart-on-sleeve spirit of SHANG-A-LANG. The only track not included on the full-length, “Thin Blue Line,” bottles the anger of the DICKS as if it’s an homage to the recent passing of Gary Floyd. “Center of the World” shifts to a proto-punk pace like the ONLY ONES. The closer, “Let the Kids Have the Scene,” laments elder statesmen observations in a MENZINGERS-like style. All of this, packaged with cassette art reminiscent of Pettibon’s work on Nervous Breakdown.