Artist: The Drugstore Cowboys
Album: Chapter 3006 Of Dance Moves For The Apocalypse: If The Octamaiden Was A Diabetic Joykill Addict
Label: Lujo Records
Tracks: 12
Length: 37:47
Review By: Jacob Gehman

When the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 happened, it shocked this nation, the United States of America, out of the comfort zone we had enjoyed for so long. One of the results of this is that that the artists of this world, visual, musical, and literary, responded and a flood of product hit stores in the years following that were essentially artistic reactions to the tragedy. Some of it were works of sorrow, people using their medium to work through the attacks in their own self. Others were the result of how 9/11 brought everyone’s focus to what really mattered, family and friends, and thus their output focused on those aspects of life. For some it was an excuse to start shouting political diatribes, their dissatisfaction with the way leaders run the world breaking free and coming out.

While I have not heard any comment about whether “Chapter 3006...” is a conscious reaction to that day when the United States stopped and gathered, horrified, around our television sets, 9/11’s fingerprints are all over this album. While the cover hints at fear and terror, it is the back of the insert that contains the image that will cause everyone to flash back to that day. Passenger airplanes, with fire streaming from their tails, in a fatal nosedive toward a city skyline.

That picture, combined with “These Clouds Will Never Catch Us,” which is the first song after the introduction track, sets the stage for an album that is as uncomfortable as it is catchy. The track cuts in the middle of the song with something that, whether artificially crafted or real, sounds like an audio clip from a newscast of a terrified bystander narrating a tragedy. It could be 9/11, or it could be some other event that ended up being a nightmare for a certain people. But it is gripping and terrifying all at the same time.

Each song seems to dabble in the broad theme of apocalypse, which the all-too-long album title alludes to. As in “These Clouds Will Never Catch Us” it might be an event like 9/11, or the lifestyles of celebrities, or the dangers of a futuristic society where we “number everyone with bar codes on their faces.” But apocalypse is definitely the sonic and lyrical aim of the album.

Musically the easiest comparison is to mash together The Blood Brothers, VCR, and a dab of indie hip-hop. Though there are any number of comparisons if you think hard enough about it. For example, there are definite aspects of “Throwing A Wrench Into The American Music Machine” era Training For Utopia. But for all the artists that could be used on a “recommended if you like” chart, the meshing of different sounds really works quite well. What little part of you is failed to be captivated by the theme will get picked up by the part of you that is actually listening to the artistic merit of the music.

This is a very well put together album. While the theme may be a stumbling block for many (and as a result, I probably wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who was at the twin towers on the day of the attack, it would just be too intense) this album has some of the better music of the genre on it.