I’ve had a confusing history with bands named Cousins and/or Cousin.  A few years back I booked a band from Windsor by the name of Cousins; they were a pop/punk band and a not very great one at that.  I’d added them to a show last minute after a band had said they had a show fall through and wanted to do them a solid.  I had checked out Halifax’s Cousins and they were fantastic, so I added them in a heartbeat.  Alas, the Cousins I added were the pop-punk Windsor one and not the amazing Halifax band that is still rockin’ out to this day.

I almost made that same mistake when the good people of Young Lions Music Club told me about their new artist, Cousin (hence the singular).  So when I got home from my errands and saw the band wasn’t from Halifax I was relieved to find out I didn’t make the mistake again.  I was even more relieved that Cousin — and their album, being released at Sneaky Dee’s on May 18th as part of the successful “Songs: A Dance Party” series curated this month by Holy Fuck — is pretty damn promising!

This Niagara Falls outfit have managed to make something that sounds familiar in a Canadian indie-rock way. I hear a fair amount of Plaskett influence in here but at the same time it works in dizzying guitars and some really innovative and modern indie-pop melodies.  That’s why I can imagine their sound appealing to a wide cross section of music listeners.  If you listen closely enough there is something here for pretty much everyone who gives it a chance.  As a music booker I hear my share of indie-pop/indie-rock, but I can’t think of many instances when I’ve heard influences combined like this.

Confused yet?  Thankfully, Young Lions are letting us put up a stream of one of the songs off the album. It’s called “Jawbreakah” and it’s a nice 2:15 snapshot of what you can expect to hear from the album.  Details on the show on the 18th can be found here!

Cousin – COUSIN – 05 Jawbreakah

Cheers,

Dan