Cows - Old Gold (1989-91) (1996)

Serving as both an excellent introduction to the Cows' freaked-out, discordant universe and as a reissue of older, out-of-print album tracks and singles, Old Gold captures this quartet's arc of development from a sloppy, discordant Butthole Surfer-esque punk band to legendary noise rock merchants. Culling tracks from 1989's massively off-kilter Daddy Has a Tail, 1990s more developed Effete and Impudent Snobs, and the band's first classic album, 1991's Peacetika, Old Gold also contains "One O'Clock High" from the "Slapback" single. With a tone that most clearly resembles the damaging, atonal scraping Ted Falconi employed in Flipper, guitarist Thor Eisentrager's shrill feedback and distortion is perfectly foiled by Kevin Rutmanis' amorphous, melting bass tone; truly it sounds as though Rutmanis' bass is melting through the amps. As the tracks on Old Gold progress, so do the Cows musically, and by the time the cuts from Peacetika have been reached, the band is capable of harnessing and developing melody while retaining their signature noise attack.~ Review by Patrick Kennedy