When The Cooters play Oxford, you never know what will happen.
On Halloween of 1996, guest vocalist Reverend Eloy Alfaro caught himself on fire by blowing shots of Everclear over a lighter to make plumes of flame shoot forth. And more recently, when the band was playing Shotgun Willie's in October, some of the patrons expressed their appreciation in an unusual way for The Cooters' cover of a Motorhead song.
"We had some people doing the two-step to Motorhead," said Newt Rayburn, the bassist.
The next show at Shotgun Willie's Saturday night could be just as surprising.
The Cooters, an Oxford band that has been together since 1994, can be described as a three-person punk-metal combo. In addition to Rayburn, 27, there is drummer Mikey Namorato, 24, and guitarist Gentry Webb, also 24. The group doesn't just play bizarre gigs around Oxford, but the band also spends time writing and recording music, practicing, touring and eating lots of road food.
"We're working on recording a new CD," said Rayburn.
The debut CD, which the band released in September of 1996, was called "Invasion of the Cooters." Webb and Rayburn describe the first CD as a learning experience.
"We're taking our time on this one,' said Rayburn. "We've learned alot since then."
"We all like the (first) CD, to an extent, but we could have done better, Webb said.
Speaking about the punk-metal label that is sometimes applied to the band, Rayburn said: "I still think it's hard to categorize our music. The punks all call us metal and the metalheads call us punk, so I guess we are somewhere in between."
Everyone in the band seems to agree.
"We've gotta little bit of '70s rock in there!" Webb said.
"Lots of Southern flavor!" Rayburn added.
The Cooters display a collision of sensibilities in both their image and their music. Their musical and artistic styling could be characterized as Southern Gothic meets futuristic-space punk. For example, the Supreme Cooter, an ominous-looking scarecrow figure pictured on their CD, was (supposedly) created when space aliens abducted a "chaw chewing good ol' boy" and imbued him with mystical powers.
"He watches over the band," Rayburn said, describing the role the Supreme Cooter plays in the band's mythos.
The band has taken its personal folklore on the road. Some of the places they've played include Hattiesburg, Birmingham, Memphis, and Batesville. Batesville?
"The show was in the Finch building," said Rayburn, explaining that they were playing for (former Mississippi Govenor) Cliff Finch's son.
Also, they were once booked to play a double-wide trailer in Biloxi, along with four other bands. In addition to suffering through whimsical venues, there is yet another price to be paid - one of a gastric nature.
"I think we've eaten at just about every Waffle House in Mississippi," Rayburn said.
"They like to eat at the Waffle House, but I don't!" Webb said.
"Because they have the coolest jukebox with Waffle House songs," Rayburn said. "I'm infatuated with the Waffle House songs."
"If we have one goal in this band, and I will not rest until it happens," added Rayburn, "It's that we're going to get a song on that Waffle House jukebox. We've already written it. We just need to record it."
What's it called?
"Waffle House Rock!" said Rayburn, with a straight face.
Despite Rayburn's and Namorato's affinity for the Waffle House, Rayburn said that his most recent culinary experience at a Mississippi Waffle House was not the best.
"They gave me an omelet that looked like a greasy sponge," said Rayburn. "It was brown!"
"There was, like, a full cup of oil in there," said Webb.
Rayburn said he couldn't eat it, that it made him feel sick just looking at it.
"The funny thing is that before I ordered I was giving these guys (Namorato and Webb) hints on what to order so they wouldn't get so much grease!" Rayburn said.
But the grease isn't their biggest obstacle. A bigger, though necessary, obstacle is their jobs, which limit the band's travel to the weekend and to about an eight-hour radius around Oxford. Both Namorato and Webb work at Proud Larry's. Namorato, in addition to being a full-time student at Ole Miss, is Larry's head doorman. Webb, on the other hand, is a "prep" man; he makes bread, pizza dough, salad mix, etc. Rayburn is the art director for The Oxford American, the only national magazine that is based in Oxford.
"I think they're maybe Oxford's most underrated band," said Calvin Sheppard, a graduate student who works part-time as an editorial assistant at The Oxford American.
"I must admit, when I first heard them I was appalled," Sheppard said. "I wanted to turn away from that chaos and retreat. It was like a heart-breaking rage. It's not like a misanthropic rage or aggression. It's kind of like a cathartic aggression."
"We're not a band about anger. Some people write us off as this angry band," Rayburn said.
Some of their songs are very subtle, and some are tinged with humor. Other songs are angry and funny at the same time, because the lyrics are so over the top.
Max Hipp, a student at Ole Miss and guitarist for metal band Kincain, described The Cooters' shows as being loud and energetic.
"For those who want to hear some old-fashioned punk rock 'n roll, The Cooters are your band," Hipp said.
Reprinted with permission.
