The Edmonton Muse June 2017 | Page 21

The Raygun Cowboys are a perfect mash up of Johnny Cash getting drunk on punk rock music while Elvis slam dances to some old country tunes. It's fun, it's fast, it gets weird and it all comes together to make a party that you probably won't remember the next day. But it will be fun and the music is awesome.

Their new CD, The Cowboy Code, is their fifth full length album. It's eleven songs that get political, a little romantic, a bit nostalgic with a hint of pop culture thrown in.

It is full of Jon Christopherson's lyrical woes and tricky guitar licks. He sings about life- in general, in love and on the road. Claiming 9 songs on the album, he proudly holds his lead guitar, vocals and song-writing roles.

Oakland Valleau herds his cow bass in and slaps up some serious psychobilly beats. He shifts the mood of the album for a song with his unique style of songwriting for Robocop.

Derek Thiessen completes the original trio behind the drums with his trademark train beats.

Back in 2007 this band introduced a horn section and this my friends, is what really makes this band stand out.The current horn section includes Jonny McCormack on sax, Mike Androschuk on trombone and Zach Semanuik on trumpet. Tossing in some harmonic melodies, jazzing it up with their individuality, this brings an awesome element to this rockabilly beat.

Let's not forget their tribute to SNFU with their cover of Painful Reminder which was inspired by Jon and Jonny going on tour with these guys a few months ago. Every punk rocker knows this song and the Cowboys did a great job adding their own element into the mix while still keeping some of its' originality.

The CD release party was excellently executed and was an awesome way to launch this album and kick off their cross Canada tour. Starting the party off was The Devil's Sons followed by The Real Sickies and The Gutter Demons. (And I will get to these guys later) This line up could not have been better chosen as they each had their own style to bring to the stage. With an almost completely local set of bands, the Needle Vinyl Tavern had to of been sold out, or close to. The place was packed and it was great from start to finish.

And this brings me to my favorite thing about the Raygun Cowboys. The real magic behind these guys is in their performance. This is brought on to a whole new level that is contested by few and it comes down to that AMAZING horn section. These guys are standing on speakers, jumping off the double bass, riding on each others shoulders and crowd surfing. This full on audience interaction mixed with their music makes the crowd dance from song one to song twenty. But by song twenty, I do see the crowd thinning out a bit because their sets can be quite long. That does not stop them from selling out their shows though. Edmonton loves this band. They have become a piece of musical history in this city, going on seventeen years and counting.

What's next for these guys? Well a European tour in September for starters! After that? Well we are eager to know ourselves. Who knows where this band will go but it's only up from here boys!