Bringing troubled darkness back to rock’n’roll: Cold Sweats

Remember the good old days when some religious entities believed rock’n’roll was evil, and – trying to prove that – dissected songs and lyrics by artists as extreme as… QUEEN? That demonization had only the effect of inciting more and more radical forms of musical rebellion, in most cases in the shape of terrible metal acts with devilish looks and lyrics, that were soon exploited by record labels targeting alienated teens. Undeniably though, rock music has always been flirting with – if not evil – at least dark impulses, in the varying form of personal despair, violent desire for change, rebellion against society’s accepted structures and conventions, or even just sexual, intellectual and behavioral anti-conformism. Rock artists seems to cyclically rediscover these powerful thematic, always pairing it with an aggressive sound. Cold Sweats is a NYC based band that does that to perfection: with a singer that sounds as apocalyptic as Nick Cave in his early days with The Birthday Party, and a backing band able to pull off any kind of shock inducing sonic trick, these guys are pure, unadulterated, quality tension. Abuse of the cathartic power of their music, it may prove liberating.

We added this song to The Deli’s playlist of Best NYC songs by emerging NYC artists – check it out!