Self-mockery suits the country of the wall boss like a tailor-made suit.
In the video clip for “Horsebait Sabotage”, the same suit wearer keeps running across the desert towards the camera – only to be quickly shot. In the end he lies in the sand dozens of times and bleeds from himself. It’s a pretty metaphor for what Cory Hanson, who otherwise fronts the psychedelic band Wand, is doing with the country genre as a soloist on WESTERN CUM: He sends an overdressed idea into an unfamiliar environment, kills it and leaves then tune in to the unbroken sunshine in the beautiful landscape – and the corpses modern like that.
This becomes very clear on “Persuasion Architecture”, which begins with a thrash metal excursion, only to suddenly transform into a romantic ballad like an ambushed pistol shot, slide guitar included. But then the evil metal riff breaks through again. The concept isn’t implemented that explicitly everywhere, but WESTERN CUM isn’t just Americana, which, although rejecting Nashville, bows devoutly to tradition like Calexico, but also proudly wears self-irony through the dustiest song like a well-edited one Men’s suit.