Cotton Mather

Blending the Beatles, Squeeze, Guided by Voices, and both classic and current power pop elements, Cotton Mather belong to that uncommon breed of power pop bands able to surpass their sources and forge their own forceful, distinctive sound. The Austin, Texas outfit, named for the noted Puritan preacher and writer, came together in 1991 with singer/guitarist Robert Harrison, guitarist Whit Williams, bassist Matt Hovis, and drummer Greg Thibeaux, the last of whom also handled guitar. Their 1992 demo Crafty Flower Arranger never saw an official release yet circulated widely through bootlegs once the group later gained notice; several songs later appeared in markedly stronger form on the 1994 debut Cotton Is King, where the Squeeze influence registers most clearly as Harrison’s voice closely echoes Glenn Tilbrook on multiple tracks.

After Hovis and Thibeaux departed, Williams took on bass duties as well and Dana Mizer came in on drums. The resulting trio cut the second album, Kontiki, in 1998 inside Harrison’s garage using borrowed gear, then passed the tapes to producer Brad Jones for additional instrumentation and mixing. The finished record, which merged lo-fi production touches with timeless pop melodies, earned fervent praise within the American pop underground even though restricted distribution prevented wider commercial impact. Mizer exited before the album appeared, though his image still graces the sleeve photograph, leaving the impression that Cotton Mather might slip into obscurity.

A fortunate chain of events intervened when Oasis guitarist and songwriter Noel Gallagher obtained a copy of Kontiki and, in an uncommonly lucid assessment, concluded that Cotton Mather’s work represented a markedly stronger and more original take on the approach Oasis had pursued for years. Gallagher’s subsequent endorsements in the British press prompted the U.K. psych-pop imprint Rainbow Quartz to reissue Kontiki in late 1998. The release became a substantial indie success, and the standout track “My Before and After” secured notable radio exposure. Harrison and Williams promptly brought Mizer back and recruited bassist Josh Gravelin, enabling a well-received U.K. tour followed by the 1999 Hotel Baltimore EP.

The reactivated lineup began work on a third album with Jones producing again in early 2001; Rainbow Quartz issued the resulting The Big Picture late that year. The members went separate ways in 2003, each forming new projects, most prominently Harrison’s Future Clouds & Radar, which delivered two acclaimed albums toward the end of the decade. Cotton Mather’s reputation endured, however, and fan contributions gathered via a 2012 Kickstarter campaign allowed Harrison to release a deluxe two-disc edition of Kontiki on his own Star Apple Kingdom label. The band also reconvened for a SXSW reunion set that year, performing the album in full. Harrison soon launched another Cotton Mather undertaking, drawing on the I Ching to compose sixty-four songs—one for each hexagram—enlisting longtime collaborator Whit Williams among the musicians and tracking the material at his home studio. The initial completed tracks surfaced as the August 2016 album Death of the Cool on Star Apple Kingdom.