Premiere: King Cop “Honcho” EP

11 Oct 2013 — Henry Schiller

There's definitely a strong flavor of Spacemen 3 on Honcho, the latest EP from Massachusetts' King Cop, but that psychedelic injection comes with some additional grit and grime. King Cop could weather comparison to the aforementioned Warwickshire duo, to Led Zeppelin, and at times even to the likes of Portishead and the Bristol set, but there's a spiritual depth to which King Cop plunges that none of Honcho's influences could conceivably approach. "Junk Cruzn", for example, is a (hopefully) tongue in cheek anecdote about a hard drug binge gone horribly (or perhaps incredibly) wrong. This is not a 2013 version of "Royal Orleans"; this is something sadder, darker, and perhaps better. The track combines a standard hip hop beat with Zeppelinesque harmonica parts, road-weary guitars, and King Cop mastermind Drew K.'s best western snarl.

But on tracks like "The Haunt Show" and "Don't Get it Twisted" K.'s voice is more nearly comprable to the likes of Ducktails' Matt Mondanile or even Steven Malkmus. "Don't Get it Twisted" in particular strays more towards the hazy, bedroom grunge stylings of the Underwater Peoples back catalogue than it does the twisted guitar rock that Honcho seems to have based its blueprint on. With its disjointed (but exceptional) combination of shimmering, Roxy Music-remniscent glimmer pop and hardline western guitar strutting, Honcho reminds me somewhat of this year's Phosphorescent album Muchacho. But where Muchacho is an unbalanced affair, Honcho manages to strike a strange symmetry between doe-eyed pop pleasance and strung out cowboy rock.

Honcho's strange, low quality album art says everything I could about the EP, and begs every question I need to. Is it for real? Is this all some sort of LSD nightmare? The only way for you to find out, my sweet simple reader, is to listen below: