Cop Shoot Cop was a noise rock group founded in New York City in 1987. They disbanded in 1996. The band were frequently classified as industrial rock, but were often quite different from many bands so dubbed: having a distinctive instrumental lineup that encompassed twin bass guitars, found metal percussion, and no lead guitar. The group had little mainstream success (scoring a few hits on college radio), despite tours with Iggy Pop and music videos on MTV's Headbangers Ball and 120 Minutes (notably for "$10 Bill", featuring a number of little people). They retain a cult following—their out-of-print releases sometimes sell for large amounts.
Initially, the group was a trio of Tod A. (vocals, bass guitar), David Ouimet (keyboards, sampler) and Phil Puleo on drums and "metal" (he incorporated various found objects into his drum set). (Tod and Puleo had earlier played in a short-lived Providence, Rhode Island group, Dig Dat Hole, with guitarist John Rose.) The A./Puleo/Ouimet lineup was captured on the "Headkick Facsimile" 12" EP, which was released in a small pressing by the Japanese record label Supernatural Organization in 1989 (later reissued by the group's own Subvert Entertainment in 1994 with the addition of the song "Robert Tilton Handjob" from the "Piece Man" 7"). Wharton Tiers engineered the EP.
Puleo reports their name was inspired by both the band members' shared dislike of police officers, and a newspaper headline about a botched police raid, reading "'Cop Shot Cop" or "Cop Shoots Cop".
The trio placed a number of posters stating only "CopShootCop" around New York, which helped generate discussion and interest; some observers reportedly thought the posters were a political protest against police brutality.
The trio added Jack Natz (formerly bassist in early New York hardcore band The Undead) on bass guitar and Tod briefly sang without playing bass. They missed Tod's distinctive "high end" bass playing, however, and they realized only popular convention required a single bass player in a rock band, and both Tod and Natz decided to play the instrument with the group. The relative novelty of a dual-bass, no-guitar rock group certainly helped gather attention. Natz sang occasionally, and various members wrote songs, but Tod remained the group's primary singer and songwriter.
Ouimet rejoined and left the group several times; Jim Coleman was recruited to replace him on sampler, and both men were in the group for their debut recording, the "Piece Man" 7" in 1989. The single's cover was spattered with real pig's blood, gaining them some notoriety in record collecting circles. Their first full-length album, Consumer Revolt, recorded by notable producer Martin Bisi, is probably the only dual-bass, dual-sampler, no-guitar album in rock music's history. The band quickly earned a reputation as one of the best live bands in NYC,[citation needed] as well as for prolific band graffiti.
After the first album and tour, Ouimet left for good: he founded the short-lived Motherhead Bug and would later guest with Cop Shoot Cop, playing trombone or leading the "Motherhead Horns" horn section.
Cop Shoot Cop continued recording and touring; they surprised some fans by recruiting guitarist Steve McMillen for Release, released by Interscope Records. Ned Raggett argues that McMillen's appearance "Given how Cop Shoot Cop had evolved its own unique sound out of the basses, drums, and samplers from the original members, becoming more of a straight-ahead rock group inevitably made the band a little less special."[1] (Still, he offers a largely positive review). A different review notes that "TodA. is the Andrew Vachss of underground rock, telling stories of pathetic losers and maniac outsiders who believe they are the sane ones",[2] while Black and Sprague note that Release finds Cop Shoot Cop "sneaking surreptitiously toward the mainstream". In late 1995, Michael Kaminski replaced McMillen on guitar.[3]
The band dissolved later on in 1996. Tod claimed the group had been treated poorly by Interscope, and refused to allow the company to issue their final album. The other band members disagreed, noting the album was very nearly complete, and that they had all worked on the $150,000 recording sessions. The remaining members of Cop Shoot Cop (Natz, Puleo, Coleman, and Kaminski) attempted to complete the album, but Interscope declined to release the material. It eventually found an outlet in the album Red Expendables.
Post-Cop Shoot Cop
Tod A formed Firewater, who have released seven albums. Coleman has recorded as "Phylr" and "Here" (with Teho Teardo), Puleo played with both Congo Norvell and Swans as well composing for film, and Jack Natz most recently teamed up with Stu Spasm to handle bass duties for a reformed Lubricated Goat. Coleman and Puleo have worked together on a project called Audio Dyslexia. More recently, Coleman and Puleo have collaborated with film and theater actor and writer Michael Wiener on a project called "The Children...", releasing a self-titled CD and performing a number of show-events typically integrating projections and theatrical elements, and occurring in nontraditional venues such as multimedia dinner theaters and churches.
In 2005, Cop Shoot Cop's "Migration" (Puleo) was used in a television ad for Nike.
Kaminski continued to play music in Europe, eventually returning to his hometown of Akron, Ohio. In 2008, he made headlines after he conducted a botched robbery with a cologne bottle (shaped as a gun).[3]
In late 2019, Phil Puleo and Jim Coleman joined Chris Spencer (from the now disbanded UNSANE) and Chris Pravdica (former Puleo bandmate from Swans) to form the industrial/rock/noise supergroup Human Impact. Their first self-titled album was released in March 2020.
The Reverend Horton Heat is the stage name of American musician James C. Heath as well as the name of his Dallas, Texas-based psychobilly trio. Heath is a singer, songwriter and guitarist. A Prick magazine reviewer called Heath the "godfather of modern rockabilly and psychobilly".
Firewater is an American band founded by American singer/instrumentalist Tod A. in New York City in 1995, after the breakup of his previous group Cop Shoot Cop. A self-described "world punk" band, Firewater incorporate diverse elements of world music with punk rock rhythms, including cabaret, ska, jazz, folk and most notably Eastern European influences such as klezmer and gypsy music, which has led to their inclusion in the gypsy punk genre.
Motherhead Bug was an American folk punk band, founded in 1989 in New York City by singer and trombone player David Ouimet and bass guitarist Tony Lee.
James F. Coleman is an American musician who plays keyboards and sampler. He was a member of the 1990s noise rock band Cop Shoot Cop, and afterwards worked as a solo musician specializing in instrumental electronic music and film scores.
Lubricated Goat are an Australian noise rock band which originally formed in 1986 by multi-instrumentalist Stu Spasm. They achieved brief notoriety in November 1988 for appearing nude on the ABC TV program Blah Blah Blah, wearing only their instruments and shoes. Mainly influenced by the Stooges and the Birthday Party, they are credited for playing a grimy, confrontational style of rock, which preceded grunge. They have issued five studio albums, Plays the Devil's Music (1987), Paddock of Love (1988), Psychedelicatessen (1990), Forces You Don't Understand (1994) and The Great Old Ones (2003).
Outlaws is an American Southern rock band from Tampa, Florida. They are best known for their 1975 hit "There Goes Another Love Song" and extended guitar jam "Green Grass and High Tides" from their 1975 debut album, plus their 1980 cover of the Stan Jones classic "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky".
David Ouimet is an American artist, author, and musician. He was a band member of Cop Shoot Cop, Motherhead Bug, Firewater, and Sulfur but has since moved on to interests other than music.
Unsane is an American noise rock trio from New York City, formed in 1988. The band's music incorporates elements of hardcore punk and metal. Patrick Kennedy of Allmusic wrote, "while developing the blueprint for noise-metal bands to follow, Unsane cut a remarkable swath through underground music, inspiring a devoted, cult-like following around the world."
The Storm was an American supergroup rock band, formed in the Bay Area of San Francisco during the early 1990s. The band's first single, power ballad "I've Got a Lot to Learn About Love", peaked at #6 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and #26 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The Undead is an American horror punk band formed in 1980 in New York City's East Village by Bobby Steele, Chris "Jack" Natz (bass) and Patrick Blanck (drums). They were one of the pioneers in the New York hardcore scene.
The Choir was a garage rock band largely active in the greater Cleveland area from the mid-1960s into the early 1970s. Originally called The Mods, their largest commercial success came with the release of their first single "It's Cold Outside" in December 1966. The song, considered to be a classic of the garage rock era, was featured on Pebbles, Volume 2, one of the earlier garage rock compilation LPs. The flipside, "I'm Going Home" was included as a bonus track when the Pebbles album was reissued as a CD, and it can also be found on a garage rock compilation LP on Ohio bands, Highs in the Mid-Sixties, Volume 9. The Choir is well known for containing three of the four original members of Raspberries.
Consumer Revolt is the debut studio album by American noise rock group Cop Shoot Cop, released in 1990 by Circuit Records.
White Noise is the second album by the American noise rock group Cop Shoot Cop, released in 1991 by Big Cat. The band supported the album with a North American tour.
Get Off the Cross, We Need the Wood for the Fire is the debut studio album by Firewater, released in 1996 via Jetset Records. It is a marked difference in sound from Tod Ashley's previous work in Cop Shoot Cop. In 2017, the album was re-issued on vinyl in celebration of the twentieth anniversary of its release by Checkered Past Records.
Release is the fourth and final album by American noise rock group Cop Shoot Cop, released on September 13, 1994 by Interscope Records.
Zambodia is the only studio album by the American experimental music ensemble Motherhead Bug. It was released on October 15, 1993, by Pow Wow Records. The record is dedicated to Masami Shinoda, a Japanese alto-saxophonist and composer who died the year prior to its release.
Headkick Facsimile is an EP by American noise rock band Cop Shoot Cop, released in 1989 by Supernatural Organization.
Gamalon is a progressive/jazz-rock fusion band from Buffalo, NY founded by Ted Reinhardt, George Puleo, and Bruce Brucato. Albums were recorded from the late 1980s to late 1990s, with the band performing with various line-ups until 2012.
Dick Smoker Plus is the debut split EP by Meathead and Cop Shoot Cop, released in September 24, 1996 by Fused Coil. The album comprises the first four tracks of Cop Shoot Cop and Meathead's Kill a Cop for Christ and Bring U His Head single and the last five tracks are from Meathead's Dick Smoker single. It also contains Cop Shoot Cop's final recording before disbanding, titled "¡Schweinhund!".
Human Impact are an American noise rock supergroup made up of members from Unsane, Swans, and Cop Shoot Cop. Chris Spencer announced the band while also confirming that he will no longer be playing with Unsane. The band released their self titled debut album on March 13, 2020. This was followed by the non-album single "Contact" on April 7. The proceeds from the single went to the New York City COVID-19 emergency relief fund. On June 29, they released a further two singles, "Transist" and "Subversion".
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