Starting with their intentionally confrontational (and controversial) name, New York City's Cop Shoot Cop are descended from the darker impulses of the early-'80s no wave movement that produced noisy, disagreeable, anti-social, but often very intriguing bands such as Mars, DNA, and Teenage Jesus & the Jerks. As with those combos, the Cops eschew the impulse of pop altogether, preferring a rumbling, clattering, deafening, metallic sound that focuses on the band's two-bass, no-guitar attack. The song narratives tend toward simplistic doom-and-gloom observations -- a point they often belabor. But when this bummer-rock clicks, it's oddly compelling, if slightly intimidating stuff, crammed to the gills with the standard litany of contemporary urban angst: anomie, alienation, and boredom.
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© 2008