`“Come for the urgent, wistful guitars, and stay for the heart-wrenching harmonies” Stereogum
“The four-piece trade as much in affecting, multi-layer harmonies as they do serious slacker-rock shredding” DIY
“One of the new acts heralding a gloriously ramshackle new era of ’90s-styled slacker rock” NME
JUNE 17 – Manchester quartet Westside Cowboy announce debut EP ‘This Better Be Something Great’, set for release August 8th via Nice Swan Recordings / Heist or Hit and share brand new track ‘Alright Alright Alright’ (video here), out today (June 17th – on DSPs 5pm following its BBC 6 Music Huw Stephens premiere).
Produced by Lewis Whiting of 2024 Mercury Prize winners English Teacher, ‘Alright Alright Alright’ arrives ahead of the group’s prestigious slots at Glastonbury Festival next week (25th-29th June), which will see the Emerging Talent Competition winners open the Woodsies stage on Sunday 29th June (with three other performances scheduled across the weekend). This precedes a huge run of live dates, including support tours with Black Country, New Road and Blondshell kicking off in September.
Marking the third preview from their upcoming debut EP, ‘Alright, Alright, Alright’ is a barn dance of headrush guitars and blitzkrieg drums. Fuzz pedals and distortion leak out of the track’s edges with such ferocity, showcasing the band at their explosive best.
Speaking ahead of its release, the group stated:
“This song was the first original thing we ever played as a band, before we had any real ambition for the project to reach the ears of anyone outside of that room. It is a punk song about a cowboy, and if anyone can take away any more from it than that, consider us impressed.”
This confluence of each member is central to Westside Cowboy’s infectious magic – each player has their distinct style and personality, a call-back to classic 60s groups, yet together they’re elevated into a timeless flow state. All four members sing and it’s via their harmonies, and competing lead melodies which battle before combining, that the true connection is witnessed, especially live.
It’s in this setting that the quartet are truly turning heads – four heroic capacity shows at The Great Escape in Brighton last month saw them essentially become the talk of the festival, and they’ve already received personal invites onto support slots by the likes of English Teacher, Blondshell and mary in the junkyard. Evangelising by the likes of Black Country, New Road and Ezra Furman have augmented the ‘artist’s artist’ tag as well.
‘Alright Alright Alright’ follows initial EP reveals ‘I’ve Never Met Anyone I Thought I Could Really Love (Until I Met You)’ and the BBC 6 Music-playlisted ‘Shells’. The band are certainly not short of admirers, with early praise from the likes of Stereogum, Uncut, NME, DIY, DORK, So Young, The Line Of Best Fit, Clash, Rolling Stone UK, Rough Trade and Paste. Whilst the four-piece have landed primary support from Huw Stephens, Steve Lamacq, Nick Grimshaw and Jo Whiley (BBC Radio 2), Matt Wilkinson (Apple Music), KEXP and John Kennedy (Radio X).
Sprouting from unserious jams in their drummer Paddy Murphy’s bedroom, what initially began as an inside joke as a welcome distraction from mediocre employment and higher education for Westside Cowboy has quickly gotten out of hand, resulting in a quite gargantuan live plot for the rest of the year.
Sonically riding a thrilling lo-fi boxcar tuned to the melodic precision of fuzzy alt-rock and held together with slacker cool, for most bands this would be enough, but not for Westside Cowboy. Just when you think you have them pinned, they career the entire thing into a brick wall of country, trad and early harmony-coated, major-key rock’n’roll. They call this process ‘Britainicana’.
Westside Cowboy’s ‘Alright Alright Alright’ is out now via Nice Swan Recordings / Heist or Hit and available on all digital platforms.
Westside Cowboy is Reuben Haycocks (guitar, vocals), James (Jimmy) Bradbury (guitar, vocals), Aoife Anson O’Connell (bass guitar, vocals), Paddy Murphy (drums)
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Full Live Schedule Over Page
Live Dates
25th-29th June – Glastonbury Festival
18th July – Midi Festival, Hyères
25th July – Latitude, Suffolk
26th July – Truck Festival, Oxford
27th July – On The Beach, Brighton
2nd August – Humber Street Sesh, Hull
9th August – YES (Pink Room), Manchester (EP launch show)
16th August – Green Man Festival, Brecon Beacons
28th August – End Of The Road Festival, Dorset
30th August – Manchester Psych Fest, Manchester
2nd September – Button Factory, Dublin (with Blondshell)
4th September – New Century Hall, Manchester (with Blondshell)
6th September – Oran Mor, Glasgow (with Blondshell)
7th September – Project House, Leeds (with Blondshell)
8th September – SWX, Bristol (with Blondshell)
10th September – CHALK Live, Brighton (with Blondshell)
11th September – Electric Brixton, London (with Blondshell)
12th September – Electric Brixton, London (with Blondshell)
27th September – Float Along Festival, Sheffield
9th October – Casino de Paris, Paris (with BCNR)
10th October – Stereolux, Nantes (with BCNR)
12th October – Paradiso, Amsterdam (with BCNR)
13th October – Paradiso, Amsterdam (with BCNR)
14th October – Gloria, Cologne (with BCNR)
15th October – Astra Kulturhaus, Berlin (with BCNR)
17th October – VEGA, Copenhagen (with BCNR)
18th October – Fållan, Stockholm (with BCNR)
19th October – Sentrum Scene, Oslo (with BCNR)
21st October – Mojo Club, Hamburg (with BCNR)
22nd October – Roxy, Prague (with BCNR)
23rd October – Les Docks, Lausanne (with BCNR)
25th October – Magazzini Generali, Milan (with BCNR)
26th October – Epicerie Moderne, Lyon (with BCNR)
28th October – Ancienne Belgique, Brussels (with BCNR)