Fresh Cow Pie
#6
$6.00 (comes with CD)
CONTACT:
Farmer P
Fresh Cow Pie
5112 77th Ave. SE
Montpelier, ND 58472
farmerp@daktel.com
Available from Insound and Parasol.
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As was the case with its predecessors, Fresh Cow Pie #6 is mainly filled
with reviews. There are close to 150 of them, packed tightly between the
black and white newsprint covers. For those of you who don't know, the
mastermind behind FCP calls himself Farmer P and is, in fact, a real
farmer who lives in North Dakota and reviews music while driving around on
his tractor. His predilection is for stuff that "rocks", and his commentary
is always entertaining if not sometimes a bit hyperbolic, an indulgence
which is allowable in fanzines, after all. He only reviews what he likes, so
you don't get thorough coverage, but what you do get is honest and fun.
Review lengths aren't standardized at all -- some bands get almost a quarter
page, while others get only a sentence or two. Here is Farmer P's entire
review for The Donnas' Turn 21: "The Donnas rule. Period. End of
story. If you don't love this CD -- you suck."
FCP #6 includes a CD of exclusive music -- Tractor Tunes, Vol.
2. It's a solid compilation, featuring bands like AMP, Mothmus, Spooky J,
Xiu Xiu, Charlie Brown Gets a Valentine, Snake Forcefield and The Enola
Gays. As I listened to it for the first time, I remarked repeatedly how
enjoyable it was. Farmer P should be commended for the hustle it must have
taken to wrangle such a nice collection of exclusive material.
I've heard it more than once now, and it could easily end up in my regular
music rotation. The AMP tune, "Let's Go", is atmospheric yet somehow urgent.
Mothmus' "Station" is loose, noisy and raw. Xiu Xiu's "Susha" is
melancholic, beautiful. Spooky J (ex-Archers of Loaf guitarist Eric
Johnson) is more intellectual, more post-rock. Take it from me -- the CD is
well done.
Besides the reviews and the CD, you get a couple of small advertisements,
a page-long editorial in which Farmer P discusses his pending first child and reports on the outcome of a recent lawsuit he's been involved in,
and a two-page interview with an Oklahoman criminal defense lawyer who
specializes in death row cases. The interview scores points for being
novel, rather than being another interview with some indie rock auteur. And it's
interesting, I suppose, to get into the mind of this guy who feels so
strongly about what he does. He doesn't come across as a stereotypical
criminal defense attorney, and while his comments aren't necessarily
surprising, they are informative. You might not agree with what he says, but
you'll probably read the interview anyway.
If you've enjoyed previous issues of FCP, there's no reason to suggest you won't like this one. It's perhaps a bit slimmer, but the CD more than makes up for that. If you've
never read it, and don't mind the generally "rough" approach of a DIY zine (i.e. you'll get your hands dirty), it's worth the $6.
-- Noah Wane
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