Cockfighters EP
Matador
2017
Rating: 8 electronic moons out of 10
It's been twenty years since Chavez released anything new, and then out of the blue (at least to me) they release a three song EP called "Cockfighters" that sounds exactly like Chavez of old. The release has the same label, same font, same design aesthetic, same heavy, melodic jams. Is that a good thing, that there has been no growth of their sound? It certainly works for me, but then again my taste is pretty well entrenched in the nineties and I listened to Chavez's two full lengths "Gone Glimmering" and "Ride The Fader" a LOT all through college. This was gold to my ears, especially coming from a band I had never considered might reform. As always, the band sounds big, almost polished, but still with an edge...think the "heavy alternative" type of music Foo Fighters plays, only Chavez is awesome and not roundly mediocre.
The real question: is there more to come? Sometime soon, or in twenty more years? I would be shocked if they even told us...some new music will just show up again in a year or ten, and it will probably be rad, and then I'll be left wondering if there is more music to come yet again...
