Cobra Verde - Biography
Guitar, bass, drums and vocals: Music has millions of permutations, instrumentations, genres, moods, and an even more infinite array of possibilities. But sometimes there’s only thing that will tame the wild adolescent beast that lurks in us all, male and female, gnashing its teeth, awash in sweat and testosterone and glitter, while the semen backs up into its primitive brain, fusing the synapses into useless neural globules. Sometimes there is a desperate, urgent necessity for raw, raunchy, dirty-assed Cleveland rock ‘n’ roll, and for the last few decades, the gents in Cobra Verde have been more than happy to oblige. They vivify the spirit of Ohio’s much-maligned Rock ‘n’ Roll Capital of the World, strutting and swaggering and slobbering with a perfectly simple and simple-minded version of raw guitar heroics that anyone can attempt and few can perfect. Over the course of numerous platters, they fused a brand of pseudo-glam cock-meistering and out-of-the-garage-and-into-the-streets punk-rock mayhem that is enough to reaffirm one’s faith in the power of a Les Paul to set the world aflame. It’s not rocket science, but it rockets, and if you’re old, and miss the bop of Sweet, the head-banging pop purity of the Raspberries, or the alarmingly low-cut rubber trousers of a microphone-fellating Lux Interior, you probably own a Cobra Verde album or three, and if not, stop reading and start shopping. Oh, and if you require the hard-sell approach, know this: the dudes in Cobra Verde also took a detour and embarked on a drunken, high-octane joyride as the backing band for Robert Pollard’s mythically awesome Guided by Voices, which automatically makes them impeccable indie-rock royalty.
Lead singer John Petkovic had been in Gerard Cosloy’s 80s Homestead Records darlings, Death of Samantha. Upon that fine act’s regrettable demise in 1990, he assembled new guys and grabbed the next band’s name from the thoroughly bitching Werner Herzog/Klaus Kinski film. (Gratuitous digression: Why isn’t there a band called “Aguirre: Wrath of God” out there somewhere?) Cobra Verde initially consisted of Petkovic, Doug Gillard on lead guitar, Don Depew on bass, and Dave Swanson on drums. On the debut, Viva La Muerte (1994 Scat Records), the group doesn’t just deconstruct the blues; they disembowel the blues, then they decapitate them for random shits and giggles. It’s a rowdy, raucous and lurching affair, as Petkovic flings himself against the walls of convention, propriety, and diminished expectations, to cataclysmically fun effect. There’s no slacking on the follow-up EP, either. Vintage Crime (1995 Scat Records) is brief, but potent, and more than a tad cocky. This is a band that can blithely toggle from hard to soft and atmospherics to pig shit in the course of any given moment.
Vintage Crime gave Cobra Verde heightened visibility in the crowded, post-Nirvana indie-rock community; it also gave them a crucial insider’s with Robert Pollard, who had concurrently dissolved the then-current version of Guided by Voices. Cobra Verde stepped in as the new GBV, while retaining their individual identity as a band. They nailed it, and their stupendous efforts on behalf of the GBV classic Mag Earwhig! (1997 Matador) gave Pollard what might be the best record of his career, and Cobra Verde’s Gillard contributed the album’s ebullient, powerful anthem, “I am a Tree.” After that, Cobre Verde promptly resurfaced. Having been spewing a spray of singles into the marketplace, they compiled them alongside rarities, outtakes, and electrified flotsam in the incessantly compelling Egomania [Love Songs] (1997 Scat Records). After that, Petkovic undertook a coup d’etat, and tore through a dazzling array of band members, who contributed to the excellent Easy Listening (2003 Muscletone Records), as well as the covers-intensive Copycat Killers (2007 Scat Records) and Haven’t Slept All Year (2008 Scat Records). Petkovic scored even more mainstream with success with contributions to True Blood: Music from and Inspired by the HBO Original Series (2009 Elektra), but it’s his next media event that defines Cobra Verde’s enduring appeal. They appeared on the television show The O.C. — as a Foreigner cover band.
