Sunday night. I'm returning from the traditional "sausage hang" weekend that I spend with my high school buddies every year. We drink to vomiting, play "asshole" (not much of a stretch for me) and listen to punk/ hardcore/ ska very loud from the moment we get there to the moment we leave. My ears are still wringing and my Depends are soaking wet. I want to find something like Lifeless Ambient Non-Hits of the 90's in my mailbox. No such luck. Triplefastaction. Gulp. Sounds harsh. My ears say no, my chronic music consumption urge says yes.

And, for once it's right. Cattlemen Don't turns out to be a pretty solid little recording. Triplefastaction (which you may remember me mentioning in my review of The Emo Diaries) has collected up just about every rock-n-roll bell-n-whistle into one large empty keg, rolled it down a hill, thrown it into a trash can with ice, and tapped it -- foamy. You name it -- feedback, intense, distorted guitars and lyrics, solemn, acoustic moments, it's all there. Quintessential up-n-cumming indie-rock material delivered with emphatic believability (I'm glad someone still believes). Sure, it's white-boy band-rock, it's been done before and will be done again, but Cattlemen Don't is better than most. If you prefer your rock without the gloss of over-production and the invasion of samples that the 90's have brought us, this is genuine article.

Don't take my word for it though, my ears are still ringing.

-James P. Wisdom