As should be of no surprise to anyone, I run the “official” Cop Shoot Cop facebook page. It’s “official” in that all the former members of the band are more or less aware that I do it, and would just as soon I keep on doing it, just so they don’t have to. As such, I am routinely searching for images, videos and ephemera to host on said page, ... and much of that same content ends up here, as you may have noticed.
In any case, at one point last week, I stumbled upon an old, signature ad from presumably The Village Voice or possibly New York Press for then-upcoming gigs at CBGB. Dating back to probably about 1992 or 1993, the gig on said ad boasted Cop Shoot Cop supported by an estimable coterie of similarly inclined outfits like Barkmarket, Soul Coughing and Motherhood Bug. As I mentioned, it was, by all accounts, a solid evening of quality hearing loss.
Being that I’ve already posted a host of archival Cop Shoot Cop and Motherhead Bug footage (including some from the very interior of CBGB, like here and here), I thought I’d take the time to evangelize the other two bands on the bill.
I wrote about Soul Coughing here, back in 2015, but there were a pretty genuinely unique ensemble. As recounted in lead singer M. Doughty’s hilarious memoir, “The Book of Drugs,” it’s frankly pretty astonishing that they managed to last as long as they did, given the fact that they didn’t get along at all. These days, Doughty pursues a solo career as a singer/songwriter. Drummer Yuval Gabay played drums on the first album by Firewater (featuring, of course, former Cop Shoot Cop frontman Tod [A]). I have no idea what happened to the other two gents. Here they were in marginally happier days.
Barkmarket was the power trio led by Dave Sardy, who later found considerable renown as a mixer and producer. Not only did he work with Cop Shoot Cop, but he also helmed the production for bands like Helmet, Skeleton Key, Enon, Atari Teenage Riot, Monter Magnet, Slayer, System of a Down, Bush and Marilyn Manson, among others. As amply evident on Barkmarket’s own records, Sardy’s penchant for big, expansive sound served him well. His production work took off, so Barkmarket went onto the back burner, sadly. These days, I believe he’s scoring films to widespread acclaim. I rant into Barkmarket's drummer, the excellently named Rock Savage, not too long back, on the subway, and he enthusiastically told me about his new band, World of If, who play kind of psychedelic post-rock soundscapes. No idea what happened to bassist John Nowlin.
Anyway, as Barkmarket, they made a delightfully oomphy, heavy racket. Like so…
Today, Cop Shoot Cop is no more. Tod lives in Istanbul, working as a writer and threatens to revive Firewater someday soon. Jim Coleman and Phil Puleo play in Human Impact with Chris Spencer of The Unsane and Chris Pravdica of SWANS. Jack Natz is a full-time studio artist, but was recently working on a new musical project called EXP.
Motherhood Bug disbanded shortly after the release of their debut album, Zambodia. Ringmaster Dave Ouimet played with a number of other outfits, notably Foetus, Firewater and Sulfur, before fully concentrating on his career as an author and illustrator of truly striking children's books.
As mentioned, Soul Coughing broke up in 2000. Doughty used to openly shoot down talk of any reunions, but evidently did try to get them back together (as detailed here). He has a new project called Ghosts of Vroom.
Barkmarket made five albums and two EPs before disbanding.
Today (or yesterday, technically) CBGB looks like this....
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