SO COW (Ireland)

So Cow on Myspace

So Cow came into being in late 2006 in Seoul, South Korea. Up to that point, So Cow was plain Brian Kelly, a much-too-young tourism college lecturer and occasional Open Mic participant from Tuam, Ireland. This one-man musical project has now becoming something much bigger than he could/should have hoped for or expected. 2010 sees him release his second LP Meaningless Friendly on Chicago’s Tic Tac Totally Records, as well as extensive touring throughout North America and the European Union, with trips further afield in the offing. Often described as a marriage between any number of groups – expect to see Television Personalities, The Clean, The Nerves, Abba and Swell Maps end up in these pairings – So Cow has also forged a sound that exhibits ambitions and a vision well beyond the dank sheds and freezing bedrooms he tends to record in.

The first 18 months of So Cow saw Kelly operate in any number of often-chaotic live outfits or experiences, entertaining and befuddling audiences in his home of Ireland and his adopted home of South Korea. Rousing choral moments, guitar insanity and occasionally upsetting self-injury were very much par for the course. A series of albums were self-released on Kelly’s own Covert Bear Records, leading to a small army of excitable fans and a great deal of blog-love. The line-up solidified into a power trio, taking in shows with Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, Dan Deacon, Deerhoof, Maximo Park and Frightened Rabbit amongst others. 7” singles Moon Guen Young (Almost Ready Records, Hawaii) and Commuting (Going Underground Records, Bakersfield) soon found themselves out of print.

2009 saw the release of the So Cow LP, the first release with Tic Tac Totally. A compilation of the best recorded moments from Kelly’s self-released CDs, it found favour with Pitchfork, the Washington Post and Maximumrocknroll, as well as positive write-ups in Italy’s premier music monthly Rumore. The year continued in such fashion, with appearances at the Fence Homegame festival in Fife, Scotland, an exhaustive tour of the US – sharing bills with Love Is All, Girls and Tyvek - and extremely well-received performances at the Primavera Club festival in Madrid and Barcelona. The LP also found a home at South Korea’s Pastel Records, leading to a still-bizarre appearance in Vogue Girl Korea magazine, a first and presumably last for a member of the underground pop community.

The months ahead see not only the Meaningless Friendly LP and accompanying tour, but an appearance on Under the Covers Vol. 2: A Tribute to Paul Collins, Peter Case, and Jack Lee on I Hate Rock N Roll/Volar Records. There's a lot more to all this, but that'll do for now.