Tag Archives: production

A great review of “Mountain” from Indiesource.com!

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And yet another great review on “Mountain”- Happy Monday, now let’s get to the rock and roll…

IndieSource Review of Mountain

“In “Way Gets Dark,” one of the more homespun acoustic tracks to behold on The Cold Stares’ awesome new alternative blues juggernaut Mountain, the band doesn’t rely on imagistic lyrics alone to create a visual experience to accompany the music. The eerie echo of the lightly plucked strings sends a chilling sense of danger in our direction, and the lack of emotion in lead singer Chris Tapp’s voice kills any comfortability that his warm southern drawl may have provided. It’s like the path in front of us is literally getting darker; we’re trapped in this dry but sharply tuned mix next to the guitar, our minds left to wander after the crisp melody that could be waiting just beyond the horizon.
Mountain is driven by its evocative soundscapes, which appear when we’re least expecting them. At fifteen tracks, this is a monstrous LP that offers plenty of intriguing moments for newcomers to The Cold Stares’ sound to get acquainted with their style, but its cohesive, somewhat progressive qualities are what will satisfy the group’s longtime fans more than anything else. As incredibly different in rhythm as “Cold Black Water” and “The Plan” are, they play together in this record flawlessly, as if they were two sides of the same coin. What they have in common is the jarring, neo-noir soundscape that we’re greeted with in track one, “The Great Unknown,” and unable shake for the duration of the record.
I found myself taken aback when I discovered that The Cold Stares are comprised only of singer/guitarist Chris Tapp and drummer Brian Mullins. The abrasive “Stickemup” gets started with a colorful little guitar tizzy that sounds like an amalgamation of several string instruments layered on top of each other, while Mullins’ drum kit sounds twice the size of any other I’ve heard lately. “Wade In The Darkness,” “Gone Not Dead,” and really any of the heavier tracks on the record feel so much more mechanical in their execution than what I was expecting, and yet they’re so far removed from the digitalized sound of robotic pop/rock that even the most subtle differences between their melodies and that of their contemporaries is hard to ignore in these songs.
The most somber moment in Mountain ironically might also be The Cold Stares’ most triumphantly reverent so far – “Under His Command,” a Gothic folk ballad that brands us with a smoky vocal by Tapp that plays more like an epitaph than it does a rock song. His words stick to the paper thin strings like glue, and wherever his prose takes them, they melodically respond – in the gauntest of minor keys. This is my favorite song on the record, not because of any machismo-fueled rock luster, but because of its dark, witty minimalism.
I think that the best way to experience Mountain is to listen to its fifteen songs from beginning to end in the chronological order that The Cold Stares’ arranged them. In what can only be described as an operatic approach to making a bluesy garage rock record, this album starts off with a sonic beat down (“The Great Unknown” and more modest “Friend of Mine”), escalates to more methodical, emotional grounds (“Under His Command,” and “Stickemup”) before letting the harmonies go off the rails (“Gone Not Dead,” “Wade in the Darkness,” and the bone-rattling “Child of God”) and giving into this duo’s penchant for fusing nimbly wound rock songs into analogue-style blues rants (“Cold Black Water,” “Two Keys and a Good Book” and “Killing Machine” just to name some highlights). There’s a lot for music enthusiasts to ponder in this album, but there’s just as much excitement for casual fans to discover in its intricately stylized songs as well.”

Mountain on Spotify!

Thanks to the folks at No Depression Magazine for the great review of our new album Mountain.

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Thanks to the folks at No Depression Magazine for the great review of our new album Mountain.

“You don’t need a lot of crazy, overindulgent solos to make a good guitar record in 2018, and The Cold Stares’ Chris Tapp proves as much in the band’s new album Mountain. The record’s opening set includes the stop-start alternative rocker “The Great Unknown,” the swinging blues tune “Friend of Mine” and the organic “Under His Command,” which together set the table for what we can expect in the dozen tracks that follow by showing off the three pillars of The Cold Stares’ guitar-oriented sound. “The Great Unknown” represents the trudging power chord rock that we were introduced to in their last record Head Bent; “Friend of Mine” offers us a taste of their more relaxed, radio-friendly side in the form of a patient guitar lick; and “Under His Command” serves as a sampling of their uniquely contrasting acoustic songs that leave a trail of hostile energy in their wake.

Mountain is structured in three song suites that steamroll over our senses without a second thought; “Stickemup,” rises from the ashes of “Under His Command” and bleeds right into “Gone Not Dead” and the bulging “Wade In The Darkness,” which pristinely reverberates like a lonely voice bouncing off of huge canyon walls. Drummer Brian Mullins doesn’t command every song with his calculated arrangements, but the songs that he does make a big impact on (“Sleeping With Lions” and “Cold Black Water” particularly) are the best of the album. Tapp’s lyrics are a constant presence and tend to overshadow some of the more plaintive musical bits in tracks like “Child of God” or the correspondingly muted “The River,” and I actually think that his style of prose goes out of its way to be more creative and freewheeling than it has to be exclusively with this result in mind.

The Cold Stares are very good at taking a simple song and transforming it into a roots rocking firestorm, which is demonstrated perfectly in “The Plan.” The mix of this track is what takes it out of the pastureland and drops it into a crowded concert hall – every gilded nuance of Tapp’s heart-pumping blues guitar is highlighted with great detail, and Mullins’ drumming occasionally gets so overwhelming that it feels like his cymbals are going to come crashing through the invisible barrier between recorded music and tangible reality itself. The same can be said of the familiar melody we find in “Way Gets Dark,” which borrows heavily from the folk/blues of yesteryear but comes across as authentic and original thanks to The Cold Stares’ tailor-made equalization.

For a record that feels like it’s actually two LPs crammed into a single disc, there isn’t a spot of filler in Mountain to be skipped over, and if anything the more streamlined tracks make the progressive flow even more lucid and relatable to the listener. Obviously our attention is, more often than not, drawn to Tapp’s vicious guitar play on this record, which flirts with classic rock tonality but remains relatively contemporary courtesy of this sublimely textured mix. But to be frank, what probably affected me more than anything else here was the relationship between his verses and the riffs; the way they seem to reflect each other’s pain and longing for calm amidst all this musical chaos. In that sense Mountain isn’t just more sonically mature than what The Cold Stares have produced in the past, it’s also more aesthetically evocative and creatively diverse.”

No Depression Review of Mountain

Mountain is now available!

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“Mountain” available from online retailers – here! –> Mountain

“Mountain” on Vinyl is available – here! –> Mountain – Limited Edition, Limited Run Vinyl

TCS - Mountain

Breaking down the songs of Mountain, day seven – “The Great Unknown”

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TWO DAYS until the official release of Mountain. So much news coming your way today, new reviews, new playlists adds, continued success leading up to this release and we want to thank all of you again for your role in helping getting the word spread and turning people on to our music.

Today I’ll break down the first track on the album “The Great Unknown”. Lyrically this is one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written. It’s set in the open western landscape as early Americans travel west. The songs meaning is really that no man knows his future. No two days are exactly alike in our lifetime, and if you make plans and think you know exactly how your life will go you can bet it will not follow that path. I was focusing on settlers moving west and how that must have felt, not knowing what the future would hold, so many obstacles, such beautiful land, how native Americans must have felt. Life was so hopeful then, but also so fragile.

First verse a stranded young husband has lost his wife, standing on a hill, looking up and questioning God. Meanwhile his brothers have made it out west and have hit gold. Their sister broke, has turned to prostitution in an effort to stay alive.

Second verse we have an man coming back north from a train robbery in mexico, perhaps to get money to start his family back home. In the meantime his wife at home has taken up with another man, by the time that he gets home he has lost what he sat out to build.

Third verse a solider has returned from a battle and finds a war tribe has destroyed his home and killed his family. It discusses the topic of revenge and war and how that cycle never seems to end.

The Great Unknown

Young man stands high on a hill shakes his fists at the sky above.
Down below in the valley there’s a grave with a name of a woman he loved.
Out west cross the rivers and plains now his brothers striking rich with gold
Their sister in hotel room working money off a man she knows

Just beyond the great unknown
Are the answers that nobody knows
Just beyond the great unknown
Are the answers that nobody knows

Pale rider on a jet black mare, got a rifle and a .44
500 dollars from a train he robbed down south in Mexico
Back home now his wife got a suitor, got a ring and an evening gown
By the time that he reach Sioux City, she done laid that poor boy down, down, down

Just beyond the great unknown
Are the answers that we will never know
Just beyond the great unknown
Are the answers that nobody knows

Red man with a scalp in his hand on a horse that he calls war
Soldier just beyond two days ride walks back in through his front door
Someone always gotta debt to pay, someone always gotta settle the score.
No matter how the blood is shed, someone always wants more, more, more.

Breaking down the songs of Mountain, day six – “Mountain”

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3 DAYS until the Release of MOUNTAIN. Wanted to apologize for the delay in breaking some of the songs down. It’s been crazy last few days with things going on and we are trying to catch up. Putting together the kickstarter rewards to ship, working with our PR folks in Nashville, radio interviews, licensing projects. But hey, it’s Sunday and we are slowing catching up.

Today I’ll break down the title song from the album “Mountain”.
One of the first things you have to do when you find out you have cancer is come to grips with it, and come to terms with death. For the first two weeks after I got a diagnosis that I may live 6 months I woke up each morning and cried. Each morning you wake up, and realize it’s not a dream and that you may be dead soon. It’s very humbling for me to even write this, and I’m not embarrassed to say that I woke up to cry and speak to God, and to pace the floor and try to understand things for hours each morning. After that shock passes, and you “man up” and say, hey, I might die, the first thing you do is prepare. There are people every day that get hit by a car, or have a heart attack and go into the afterlife with no preparation. Cancer is like an bill notice that you get in the mail, it’s a warning that death is seeking you. So you say ok, nothing I can do to stop it, so how do I prepare? I spent a day thinking about any ill will or issues I had with anyone, and I called and apologized. That apology goes like this “I don’t know what happened, or why it happened, but I need to let you know that I take 100% of the blame, and I’m seeking your forgiveness”. I did that with my dad. I asked him to come over, and I told him exactly that, and I told him I had cancer and may die. Not going too far into that, but man you can see things clearer in the position I was in, and how petty things can get. I cleaned up any relationship I had and got any negativity out of my life. I know a lot of our fans may not believe in God, and I respect that decision, and I’m not trying to convert anyone, but I can’t not be who I am in explaining this. It’s very easy at times in your life to question if there is a God, or God’s role, but I can tell you- bluntly, that if you look death in the face it’s very easy to find some clarity in your faith. If you want to pass out of this world with the mindset that there’s no afterlife, that’s on you my friend, but I am not willing to take that risk. Also will say, for whatever reason I’m compelled to tell you, that I’m a sinner. I sin every day, I make mistakes every day, I slide closer and farther away from God due to decisions I make all the time. I’m not your role model, but I know someone who can be. I believe in grace and forgiveness, in Jesus and his message, and as much as a failure as I am in some aspect of my faith, the one thing I refuse to do is coward down and not say what I believe.
I wrote the song “Mountain” just as a prayer of a very flawed human, who seeks God’s help, who’s trying to “get right”. It’s about being humble, and small, and giving God the glory. I write plenty of songs about old west hangings, other worldly things, and the human condition, but this is not one of them. This is my Johnny Cash influence, or U2 or Ben Harper who don’t cower when the question is asked “yea, but what do you believe?”. The main riff was somewhat lifted from my favorite band Led Zeppelin, “In My Time of Dying”, a gospel song which they lifted from the early delta greats. Production with our friend Greg Pearce who helped us work the break down section after the 2nd chorus, which to this day gives me chills. I always loved what mountains represented to our ancestors. It was the highest place, and place they believed to be closest to God. “Go child go, high up on a mountain”, simply means get yourself closer to God. I wrote this from a very honest place, and hope it resonates with some of you as well. And yes tomorrow we may return to a song with someone getting hung or shot, but for today…. this is MOUNTAIN-

MOUNTAIN
If I am a blind man, Lord help me see you
If I am a thief, Lord help me change my ways
If I’ve been a liar, lord save me from the fires
If I’ve been a saint, remind me that I AIN’T

And say go child, go
stand on a mountain
go child go
for all the world to see
I said go child,
high upon a mountain
go child
far above the seas

If I’ve been greedy, lord make me HUMBLE
If I’ve gotten lost, help me find my way
If I’ve not forgiven, lord please forgive me
Remind me that a master, no better than a slave

And go child, go
stand on a mountain
go child go
for all the world to see
I said go child,
high up on a mountain-go child -far above the seas

If I start to backslide, Lord please correct me
If I start to tremble, Lord make me still
Meet me at the Jordan, walk me through the valley
Lead me to the place, way high above the hills

And go child, go
stand on a mountain
go child go
for all the world to see
I said go child,
high up on a mountain
go child

Kickstarter goal exceeded!

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So we want to officially say THANK YOU to every single person that pitched in with the “Mountain” album Kickstarter. It says a lot about the quality of fans, friends and family that we have. Looking through the lists the last couple of days, seeing names of folks that have been friends from our youth, family that always has our backs, or fans that want so bad for us to just catch a break. Very emotional for us. I can tell you this, those of you on this list- we will never forget your help- and wether it was $5 or $100, you are just as much a part of this album as we are now. We are humbled, and we are excited to show you what we are going to do with this album. Details on the track listing, some new merch designs, and some other news will be out in the next few weeks. God bless you, and thank you for doing your part in keeping rock and roll alive, now it’s our turn to put your investment to work— TCS

Kickstarter for album “Mountain” to help self fund “Ways”

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Please check out our Kickstarter for “Mountain”, share and tag your friends. And thank you very much for playing a role in Cold Stares history- TCS

A tale of two records, publishing rights, and the struggles of a roots rock band in 2018.

As we began to discuss our next record which would have been titled “Ways” we decided together to pass on the record label offers we had and try to self fund the album in an attempt keep our music publishing this time. For those of you that don’t know when you see our music on a Monster Energy commercial, ESPN or a show on TNT, the money made from those performances actually go back to the record company instead of the artist.

Every record deal offer out there for us at the moment had the record label holding our publishing. Our last record deal the record label held our publishing. At this point in our career we were no longer willing to give that up, and artists shouldn’t have to. It’s hard enough to be a rock band out there right now, and for us to sustain our career we have to hold our licensing. So we decided to try to fund our record with our fans.

Here’s the dilemma. To properly record, produce, and promote “WAYS” we needed to raise around 20k. We have been really struggling on asking our fans to contribute that kind of money. We are a working class band, and we know a lot of our fans are blue collar working folks and to be honest it just felt a bit heavy to us. We built a kickstarter and then mulled for weeks over a discussion on what to do. We lost a lot of sleep, but through a lot of prayer and meditation we came to an answer.

What we decided. We decided we wanted to try to pay for the “WAYS” album ourselves. But how could we do that? Release “MOUNTAIN”.

Backstory- In the beginning of 2016 I was a bit over 2 years out cancer free. At that point I wasn’t for sure what life held ahead, but I knew my goal was to just live and make it to the goal we set with my doctors, five years. I also knew a lot of my friends that had gone through treatment with me had lost their battles. Not knowing exactly what we might have to deal with in the near future, we wanted to write and record everything I could so that if something happened to me I would leave a musical legacy behind for The Cold Stares. So we went in the studio with Greg Pearce and recorded “Dark Dark Blue”, and then “The Southern”. Both of these EP’s were released in 2016 with ZERO PR budget, zero buzz behind them. We also released some singles “Stickemup”, “Sleeping with Lions” and our version of the Allman’s classic “Whipping Post”. What we thought at the time, was that later when we got more well known our new fans would find these older EP’s. What we didn’t understand and what we have learned over the years is that without some PR budget behind ANY release- no one will hear or find it. No one is exactly pushing rock music onto the front page of Spotify or iTunes these days to be seen if you haven’t noticed. Those EP’s were very difficult to find online and most of these songs have never been heard outside of our close immediate fan base. So what we decided to do was take that group of songs, along with a few others our fans had never heard, remix and master them together and release as one album “Mountain”.

This group of 15 songs, all written around the same time, share a common theme and feel and we have always felt that they are just too important not to be presented correctly. Releasing “Mountain” will do a couple things, it will give these songs an opportunity to be heard, give our old fans a few new songs and remasters, and it will also give us an avenue to raise money for our February release “Ways”. We felt much better about raising the money with our fans in this fashion and we think it’s the proper way to move forward.

With your help we can meet or exceed our goal of 5k that will allow us to release “Mountain” and have a reasonable PR budget to get “Mountain” heard. Sales from “Mountain” and any additional money that might be possibly raised from this campaign will go to the funding of “Ways”. Any money we might be short of for “Ways” we will be funding ourselves. We honestly feel that “Mountain” will be our best album release to date, and when we look at the song listing I can’t say any other release comes close to summing up who we are musically. “Mountain” symbolically means so many different things to us, but more than anything what we’ve overcome, on our terms to be here with you. Thank you for your support in getting us here, and beyond. God Bless-

THE COLD STARES

“Head Bent ” Release Date!

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And…. we finally have a release date. More behind the scenes (as usual), but “Head Bent” will be released world wide June 6 2017. Digital, CD and Vinyl. Single and video coming just weeks prior TBA.

Head Bent - TCS

“The Gospel Blues…” – Release Dates!

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“The Gospel Blues and Southern Gothic Companion” by Chris Tapp – Available for pre-order March 1st and download the single “Killing Machine.”

Full album release date March 15th.

High Plains
Killing Machine
Mind on Jesus
The River
Wade in the Darkness
Under His Command
If Your Way Gets Dark
Lead’em On
Last of Grace
Mountain
Medicine Wheel