Ears Wide Open: Cobra Man

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Cobra Man
Cobra Man

Lest we fall prone to taking everything seriously — and in these days of political and social upheaval, floods, fires and assorted nuclear scares, that’s easy — we give you Cobra Man. It’s the collaboration between Andrew Harris and Sarah Rayne (of the band Babes), and the duo’s first album is the soundtrack to a full-length skate video — with the kind of music you don’t often hear in skate videos: Disco.

As Harris explains: “Instead of filtering out the ideas some people might consider cheesy or too catchy we wanted to own them and go with it. “We’ve carved out a little space for ourselves to embrace whatever fun stuff we want. There was a process between Sarah and I about choosing vibes and pacing, so in a sense the whole thing was written in different characters but under the umbrella of our personalities.”

So check your self-importance at the door for “New Driveway Soundtrack,” out Friday via Memphis’ Goner Records and Danger Collective. It’s a tag-you’re-it romp through disco dalliances of the past, lovingly under-produced and charmingly camp. The project got its start when The Worble collective asked Harris to write music for its “Manramp” video, and from there it expanded into a full-blown soundtrack. The video, directed by Tom Mull, is below.

||| Stream: “Weekend Special,” “Fire” and “Ociffer”

||| Also: Watch “New Driveway” in it entirety

||| Live: Cobra Man celebrate their release with a free show Sept. 21 at the Hi Hat, joined by Wild Wing, Brutus VIII and Oldsol.