Song of the Day: So Cow - Get Down Off That Thing

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Morning Show with John Richards, is “Get Down Off That Thing” by So Cow from the 2014 album The Long Con on Goner Records.

So Cow - Get Down Off That Thing (MP3)

So Cow's punk and lo fi-informed garage rock is engaging not only because of its scratchy, loose aplomb, but also because of its casually-delivered lyrical depth. Although now based in the Republic of Ireland, frontman Brian Kelly began So Cow as a solo home recording project in Seoul, South Korea while he was employed as a teacher in the country. Finding himself bored when not working, he began working on songs, and upon returning to the Emerald Isle, recruited bassist Jonny White and drummer Peter O'Shea to help him flesh out the songs. Now on their fifth album, this year's The Long Con, the trio have toured internationally and briefly gained notoriety in Kelly's former country of residence for naming a song after the South Korean actress/model Moon Geun-young.

The opening track on The Long Con, "Get Down Off That Thing" is a self-aware look at aging at a breakneck pace. Between lethargically half-singing verses criticizing "kids these days" and trying to relive his glory days, Kelly and the boys explode into a punkish burst of energy, sprinting with sixteenth-note power chords from reflection to reflection. "Get Down Off That Thing", and The Long Con, isn't quite slack, but it's not taut either – like an older, more grumpy, just as honest counterpart to Courtney Barnett's A Sea of Split Peas. It boldly catches Kelly and the boys moving towards middle age with the same ambivalence that anyone experiences, but as they express their sentiment with hooky melodies and sharp band interplay at 120 BPM, it makes for a much more charming, entertaining take than if they'd just bought a sports car.

So Cow are currently at home in Ireland after finishing up an American tour, but if they return to the States, that news will be on their Facebook page and Kelly's Twitter. Below, watch the video for The Long Con track "Sugar Factory".