Cows

Veterans of the Minneapolis rock circuit, the Cows rank among the nation’s most unhinged punk outfits. They began as near-complete novices yet grew into far more capable players throughout the 1990s, even as their searing noise rock stayed utterly untamed. In nearly every respect the group has remained as wildly chaotic, raw, and electrifying as on their earliest day. Assembled in the middle of the 1980s by the eccentric frontman Shannon Selberg, the Cows borrowed the hardcore guitar roar typical of their fellow Twin Cities band Hüsker Dü while discarding every trace of melody, hooks, riffs—anything even faintly pop-oriented. The result was an unrelenting barrage of distortion that represented punk in its rawest state, a savage clamor suggesting the guitars were scraped with metal rasps. Over that barrage Selberg delivered stream-of-consciousness, dreamlike scenes whose subjects remained obscure, his piercing wails, screams, and general derangement supplying the strange yet compelling center of attention. He also handles trumpet, though the instrument receives little more than an occasional blast when he tires of vocalizing. Following the appearance of their debut album in 1987, the Cows were widely dismissed as an inept and crude prank, a criticism later aimed at Babes in Toyland. They nevertheless held fast to their rejection of commercial compromise and their punk origins, issuing several eccentric, thunderous, and unrepentantly deranged albums that gradually grew more coherent while preserving the band’s commitment to frenzy.