[.ca] Songs of the Cows

Wonderful, ecstatic, spirituality:
I cannot understand the comments of the two reviewers below who gave this CD 1 star. They must be very young--with a very limited frame of reference--maybe they grew up on hip-hop. If you did, this is probably not for you. If you grew up on Hendrix and the Dead, Pink Floyd--or appreciate Jazz from the likes of Gabor Szabo--then you have come to the right place. For me, personally, the Mermen are very uplifting. They reflect the solemn beauty of the natural world--and the mysteries of the human dreamtime. If your banal existence is defined by the Marketing Mavens that run EmpTV--then don't waste your time--Mooks and Mid-riffs need not apply.

Wonderful stuff:
If you are even remotely interested in the "new" surf, this EP does not disappoint. In fact, it is one of the best pieces of music I own. Jim Thomas' hands are on speed and his head is on acid, as he double picks his way through a moody, melancholy landscape of sound. Play this at my wedding and play it at my wake.

My Intro to the Mermen Experience:
Songs of the Cows was my first Mermen listening experience. I had read an interesting article about them while on a surf trip to San Diego somewhere around '96 and decided to check them out since the band was portrayed as rather "out there." I found a used copy of "Songs" at a Penny Lane record store and wasn't prepared for their psychedelic brand of surf music, so I might have been a tad let down at first listen (I agree with another reviewer's assessment that the album is "challenging.") So it grew on me - in a big way. Since then, The Mermen have become one of my all-time favorite bands and Jim Thomas is an excellent dude, always recognizing me at L.A. shows and saying hi. Plain and simp, The Mermen rule.

Mermen at their most challenging!:
The Mermen breathed new life into the genre of surf music, and kick started its evolution again from the back eddies of traditional music and cover bands. This disk is one of their most challenging--but it is one of my favorites. The other reviewers who gave it a bad rating just simply do not get it. I don't know how else to put it. To understand where the Mermen are coming from--you need to spend some time surfing Ocean Beach, or Mavericks, to grasp their awesome power. Other times, cruise up hwy 1 from Santa Cruz at sunset and watch the glow on the horizon, the swirling phosphorescent plankton in the water, while driving through darkness and mist. The Mermen completely defined both the genre of Surf and the genre of psychedelic music. If you are up to the challenge, you will discover how ecstatic their music truly is.

An epic neo-surf album:
Unlike the big long wave of chillin' surfiness that is Krill Slippin', Songs of the Cows is a bit more disturbed and turbulent. It's also a very well-constructed album, one that I can listen all the way through and not get lulled softly to sleep. The Mermen are the kings of experimental surf rock, following a more mellow and introspective path than the other modern incarnations of surf. Don't look here for the punk enthusiasm of MoAM? or the bouncy foamy surf of Laika and the Cosmonauts -- the Mermen are prog rock meets Dick Dale, and it shows most on this epic-in-an-EP.

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