Cowboy Mouth fire off a love letter to The Replacements with their barnburning take on the ’Mats classic Can’t Hardly Wait — premiering today on Tinnitist.
The latest sneak peek at the New Orleans party rockers’ upcoming tribute set Cover Yo’ Azz!, Can’t Hardly Wait comes in hot and heavy, bursting out of your speakers with all the jittery urgency and ragged passion of any great Paul Westerberg creation. But even though the searing guitars, propulsive drumming and heart-on-sleeve vocals will be instantly recognizable to fans, Cowboy Mouth’s take is more homage than Xerox. Unlike the horn-flecked track from The Replacements’ 1987 album Pleased To Meet Me, CW’s stripped-down, bare-knuckle raver hews closer to the raw, raucous recording heard on the ’Mats’ 1985 live cassette The Shit Hits The Fans. And rightly so, since that’s where singer-drummer Fred LeBlanc first heard the song.
“They’re playing to maybe 20 30 people somewhere in Oklahoma City and it’s just a bad night, and they start doing a bunch of covers,” he says. “But they also threw out this song, Can’t Hardly Wait — Westerberg didn’t finish the lyrics, they played it just for the hell of it, it was unreleased, and they were obviousliy still workin’ on it. But it just had such a fire and intensity to it. I love that version. Bob Stinson, the original lead guitar player, is just sizzing all over it. The band plays like a bunch of angry desperate kids… stuck in Oklahoma City!”
LeBlanc can identify. “In late 1983 through the middle of 1984, I was kind of lost, thinking my life as a musician was over because my first band, The Backbeats, broke up. While playing the South Louisiana frat circuit in a rockabilly cover band called The Mistreaters, I also spent some time in Athens, Georgia, taking in the thriving music scene there at the time. Staying with some buddies who went to UGA, I got turned on to bands I never heard of in Louisiana: Hüsker Dü, The Minutemen, Jason & The Scorchers and The Replacements. These groups were very different from what was being developed in mainstream American rock at the time. Harder, edgier, and relatable to a kid from New Orleans who loved the connection between Delta blues and punk rock.
“The newer bands were perfect for the energy-filled angry young man I was at the time, especially after The Clash broke up. My favorite of these newer groups, The Replacements, particularly captured my ear and heart. Not only with their devotion to classic pop and punk rock but also their attitude of IDGAF to the entire music industry.”
Cowboy Mouth have brought a dash of that attitude to everything they do — including Cover Yo’ Azz. A tribute to some favorite songwriters and beloved gems from their youth, the 10-track set (due Aug. 15) marks the Louisiana stalwarts’ first full-length of newly recorded material since 2014’s Go!
“Why did we make an album of covers after all these years?” LeBlanc asks. “Because we needed an outlet to use the album title Cover Yo’ Azz! Just kidding. There’s no rhyme or reason. It just kind of… happened. We compiled a bunch of songs we liked and threw them together. Everybody brought a different sound and vibe to the tracks, and we had a blast re-creating some amazing songs — with a CM twist.”
Adds guitarist/co-founder John Thomas Griffith, “An old friend used to advise me, ‘Dance with who brung ya.’ In other words, always keep in mind to be grateful for what you have, and never forget how you got here. The tunes on these recordings represent a minute portion of influences that made our life experience both palpable and exciting. Music of any flavor has a way of being your own personal sage advisor. Listen closely, and you will hear the wind blow.”
Elsewhere on Cover Yo’ Azz!, the band tackle jukebox favorites like My Way (splitting the diff between Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and Sid Vicious), The Who’s Quadrophenia rocker The Real Me, Fats Domino’s I’m Gonna Be A Wheel Someday, Rodney Crowell’s masterwork ‘Til I Gain Control Again, Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson’s Just Another Night and even Queen’s Fat Bottomed Girls, spun into a bluegrass number sung like a pirate. Yes, you read that right.
Hear that version below, check out Can’t Hardly Wait above, find Cowboy Mouth on their website, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and watch my exclusive interview with Fred LeBlanc right HERE.
