Rocktober Album #8: The Detroit Cobras – Mink Rat and Rabbit (1998)

The Detroit Cobras are one of many great bands to come out of Detroit's garage rock scene in the late '90s and early '00s.  I discovered them (as I did with many great garage bands) my last year of law school when I would listen to a couple garage-rock-focused online radio stations (LaunchCast and Yahoo, in particular) while studying or writing papers.

The band was signed to the Sympathy for the Record Industry label, which is perhaps most famous for putting out The White Stripes' first three albums.  Their shtick is that their albums are comprised entirely of covers, mostly obscure songs from the '50s and '60s, to which they add their own retro-garage feel.  Lead singer Rachel Nagy's voice has a classic '60s soul singer quality about it.  If you didn't know these were covers, you may very well think that they were actually from the '60s.

If you like garage rock or '60s pop/rock, check The Detroit Cobras out.  After each song below, I'll list the original artist.

1. "Cha Cha Twist" (Brice Coefield)

You may recognize "Cha Cha Twist" from the Jackass soundtrack.  It's got some eerie "oohs" to start it out, before kicking into the song, which appears to be a ripoff of "The Twist" – no doubt one of the many artists who was trying to take advantage of the Twist mania that took over the world in the early '60s.

2.  "I'll Keep Holding On" (The Marvelettes)

Not that I know much about the original version, but this is a rollicking cover.  Nagy belts some shit out on this one.

3.  "Putty (In Your Hands)" (The Shirelles)

This song is essentially about complete submission to a guy who treats a girl like shit.  Granted, it's not on par with The Crystals' "He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss)," but still.

4.  "Easier To Cry" (The Shangri-Las)

This is a slower, soulful song, explaining that it's easier to cry than forget about some dude.  Whether it's the same guy from "Putty" remains to be seen.

5.  "Bad Girl" (The Oblivians)

This one is actually one of their rare covers of a more recent song ("Bad Man" by The Oblivians).  Of course, it sounds like it could have been made in a suburban garage in 1965.

6.  "Slummer (The Slum)" (The 5 Royales)

I don't know if I would call this an ode to slums or not, but it's got a choppy feel to it and some good guitar work.

7.  "Midnight Blues" (Charlie Rich)

As the title implies, this one is kind of bluesy.  It's about midnight, as well.

8.  "You Knows What To Do" (Barrett Strong)

This one starts off with a nice riff and ends with murder, or so I assume.

9.  "Can't Do Without You" (Dusty Wilson)

This is a good, catchy girl group-esque song, with a nice crisp guitar solo.

10.  "Hittin' On Nothing" (Irma Thomas)

We've all been there.  You're standing in a bar, drunker than an Irishman, really putting the moves on this short chick.  You're spitting game like you've never spit game before, but you're not getting any reaction.  Then you look up and realize you're talking to a St. Pauli Girl sign.  "Not again!" you scream before vomiting on a real chick.  "Not again!" you scream again.

11.  "Out Of This World" (Gino Washington)

This is a nice, catchy, upbeat song, with a Beach Boys-like guitar solo.

12.  "Chumbawa" (Gabriel And The Angels)

Although the title may indicate otherwise, this is not about Cumbawumba.  It is an instrumental, surf rock-y song.  Living in Southern California in the early '60s must have been all that.

13.  "Breakaway" (Jackie DeShannon)

This is my favorite song on the album.  You will likely recognize this song from an NFL commercial from last year (for the NFL Red Zone channel).  It's an awesome song.  It wasn't on Playlist.com, so here's a YouTube link to the song.