With their "high octane" punk rock and heavy metal, The Cooters are an inspiration to all high school rock bands who think they have to give up hard rock after graduation.
After over 10 years of hard work and dedication, The Cooters have managed to make a career out of the music they love. The band has proven that even in Mississippi, which is not known for its heavy metal audiences, a rock group can be successful.
The Cooters began playing as a band in 1993. Made up of Oxford natives, the band began to play at venues all over the South. Over the years they have played everything from seedy honky-tonks to music festivals, perfecting their sound along the way.
The band is made up of the classic punk/metal trio of instruments: Gentry Webb, also known as Raw Cooter on guitar; Newt Rayburn, also named Neuter Cooter on bass, and Michael Namorato also known as Judas Cooter on drums. Rayburn said that it is important to The Cooters to keep the heavy metal tradition and sound alive.
Though they pride themselves on their dedication to their genre, The Cooters are by no means your average metal band. Among their quirks are the fact that their name refers to "any of the various freshwater turtles usually found in the Southern United States," and the fact that they have not only a mascot (the cooter), but also a talisman, the scarecrow. In fact, The Cooters have several names for their scarecrow talisman, including, but not limited to, Supreme Cooter, the Commissioner of Chaos and the Harvester of Heavy.
As the band's web site, www.thecooters.com, says "Together the cooter and the scarecrow form an unstoppable force capable of uniting the universe or destroying it all!"
Though The Cooters have gained success as well as respect for their music, Rayburn said that the band is mostly about having fun.
"I wouldn't do it if it wasn't fun," Rayburn said. "There's a lot of work involved, and sometimes I think people don't realize how much work goes into keeping aband like this together, but it's what we love. We were born to play music."
The Cooters have a new album set for release in April. Rayburn said that the new album, Punk Metal, is more of a down-to-earth punk recording with less experimentation than their 2002 release, The Moon Will Rise Again.
Another change in this record is that it will be distributed by a label, Profane Existence, whereas The Cooters had previously distributed their own albums without the aid of a label. Rayburn said that though the music on Punk Metal is different from their previous releases, anyone who has been to a recent Cooters show will recognize the songs.
Along with new music, The Cooters have been working on improving the look of their shows. Rayburn said slide projection and 8mm films makes their shows a multimedia experience.
This year for Double Decker, they have been invited to play on one of the two main stages, as opposed to their usual street show outstide of Two Stick. The Cooters are the first punk band to score such an invitation.
"I don't think anyone has to give up music after high school. I know people twice my age who still play the music they love," Rayburn said. "It's an art. No one is going to tell you to give up painting."
