By It’s our Bandcamp Picks of the Week, including the sleep-when-you’re-dead Scottish punk of Cowboy Hunters’ EPEEPEE, and the wigged out slowcore of Maria BC’s MARATHON!
Cowboy Hunters – EPEEPEE EP
Genre: Punk
Favorite Tracks: “Shag Slags Not Flags” and “Money for Drugs”
Admittedly, my knowledge of Scotland centers on Irvine Welsh novels and James McAvoy films. But in that very limited scope, no one makes nihilism quite as cool as the Scots. (I mean, if you also ate dinner out of a sheep’s intestine, you would likely be a pro at facing the unblinking void that is life.) That strong tradition continues with the EPEEPEE EP, a five-track offering from the Glasgow duo Cowboy Hunters. Even at their most “derivative,” the pair deliver a chug-your-way-through-existential-dread ballad like few others (“Have A Pint”). And speaking of shiny re-hashings, “Dust Caps” at least tackles perpetual monotony while also spiraling the toilet with a genuinely disarming mix of Jerky Boys-esque humor and Slipknot intensity. And while I both extend and subsequently subtract points for the title alone, “Cuntry Girl” frames modern-day individuality as the only rational response to jingoism (while still rocking all the way the F out, of course).
But there’s really two tracks that best encapsulate Cowboy Hunters’ efforts across EPEEPEE. “Shag Slags Not Flags” is the headier, more compelling sibling of “Cuntry Girl,” an anthem for dismantling fascism’s rising tide by getting laid more—better than most plans I’ve seen. (The song may also be the best-worst/worst-best instance of UK bands’ sing-talk obsession, and it feels ripe with commentary without being bothered to be so overtly deep.) While “Money for Drugs” is also a familiar cry for help, it’s the EP’s most poppy offering, demonstrating a further understated, counterbalancing intellect that augments Cowboy Hunters’ “drink ‘til I expire” pathos.
The secret, I think, is that the band sees everything as both a joke and being deadly serious—a byproduct of being young-ish in 2026, when personal pain is both a social lubricant and the currency for lasting relevance. Sure, lots of artists employ black humor, but Cowboy Hunters’ pulverizing sonics and unwavering deadpan is Vantablack, that rare breed where you’re deeply, deeply uncomfortable at the face of their “LOLZ nihilism.”
Everything’s a laugh, but nothing’s really all that funny, and the real accomplishment is forcing people to reconcile with this emotional imbalance on their own terms. The band seem uninterested in making things easier for their audience (even when they’re being hella relatable), and if you cry, scream, sing-along, or some combination thereof, it’s because you’ve faced the abyss on your own dang time, with your own stupid reasoning.
So, are Cowboy Hunters cool? Yes, in the way that one Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson is: They’re loud, destructive, and prone to lashing out, and maybe that’s not charming, but it’s effective in the very same vein. Go Scotland! Listen to it now over on Bandcamp. [Chris Coplan]
Maria BC – MARATHON
Genre: Psychedelic Folk, Slowcore
Favorite Tracks: “Peacemaking,” “Rare,” “May this rain”
Through the years, Maria BC’s intuitive brand of folk has steadily evolved and branched out with each release. 2023’s SPIKE FIELD, an all-time favorite of mine, was a haunting album about rekindling with your past and everything you’ve buried to discover the tools needed to move forward. Electronics featured heavily, either as subtle effects or jagged shards of sound. It’s still their biggest, most restless-sounding record. It’s a delightful surprise that MARATHON, its follow-up, is barely anything like it.
Why? There’s two main factors at play. First, BC focused on pure songwriting this time around, leaning more weight into lyrics and song structures than production. Second, these are dire, dire times. The world’s troubles keep encroaching into any sense of normalcy, disrupting our ability to connect and feel. As much as bravely confronting these horrors is needed, it’s also necessary to search within and settle peace with yourself. Survival doesn’t always entail violent or desperate measures. It’s mostly just frail, resolute persistence. Their work has always felt lonely, but MARATHON is a desolate album that shows an artist retreating further and further into themselves in search for strength, almost disappearing. Every time they breach the surface, you might feel like gasping for air, too.
These moments of intense, striking clarity arrive without warning. Right out of the gate, the album opens with a sludgy burst of guitars while an overwhelmingly urban picture is painted: gas station logos, cracked streets, adorned doorways. Comforting in its familiarity, but still suffocating. A couple interludes (“Port authority” and “Channels”) are searingly bright and percussive, bringing rhythm into a largely formless, vaporous listen.
There’s wonder in the quiet moments too: “Peacemaking” is steadied by an hypnotic dance between a dusty snare-brush shuffle and rounded guitar arpeggios, elevating some of their most elegantly direct lyrics, depicting a dead-end in communication: “Yielding’s no good for no one / No peace-making, no making your case / I’ve done right / And I’ve tried taking silence for grace.” In “Rare,” the pause between phrases is colored in by subtle distortion and the sound of clattering trinkets, as the total unraveling of someone’s being is achingly described as life leaving them “rare and raw.” Most of the album develops through these languid, unhurried snapshots that don’t end as much as they vanish into thin air.
Even if the production is no longer the focus, there’s enough texture and ear candy to flesh the songs out and ensure most of them strike true (a special mention needs to go towards the sonorous low-end that lends these compositions much needed weight). Maria BC describes MARATHON as holding out hope for connection, intimacy, and most interestingly, interference. It suggests that against the onslaught of modern living, choosing to let beauty in, as rare as it is to come by, could be its own kind of resistance. You can check it out on Bandcamp! [Jay Bracho]
Comments