Photo by Nicole Miller/ Words by Willa Rudolph
Queens-based experimental punk band Cohort B recently put out the eruptive and incendiary single and music video “Yee Yee (Or You Have a Direct Connection to Change).” Inspired by bands like IDLES, Show Me The Body, and Black Midi, Cohort B. has their own take on post-hardcore and noise rock.
Cohort B is Jhonattan Nuñez on guitar and vocals, Hunter Factor on bass and vocals, and Don Pardo on drums, with Joe Ippolito filling in on guitar for their sets and guest engineering for “Yee Yee.”
Nuñez tells Deli, “At its core, the song is critical of people who speak out against the status quo, yet do nothing to change those circumstances. But in my opinion, any meaning I’ve assigned to Yee Yee wouldn’t really be as interesting as what the listener could come up with.” Nuñez describes his music in three words as “I’m bored frantic,” while Factor describes it as “indecisive, heavy, and melodic.” Personally, using only three words, I’d describe it as “heavy, rousing, and chaotic.”
The hypnotic video for their latest single features trippy three-dimensional computer-generated images like a beetle, an army of severed hands, a minecraft-esque forest with a man petting a sheep…it’s frantic and haunting.
Hunter Factor (bass, vocals) tells the Deli, “I had a very vivid image of a beetle orb displayed on a twisted hand pedestal. Couldn’t tell you why, but it had been in my brain. The Beetle has been a recent Cohort mascot though–the video was a way to display it on a canvas other than a shirt or something physical. I had mentioned the beetle-hand-pedestal to my friend Michael Rowe Jones, and he got really hyped on it, creating a mockup in Blender. Kinda just ran with it after that, throwing ideas sporadically at Michael and seeing how he’d translate them into a computer reality.”
About “Yee Yee (Or You Have a Direct Connection to Change),” Nuñez remarks, “It’s a ridiculous song so a ridiculous title only seemed appropriate. The alternate title serves as a bit of substance.”
Released in late 2023, And If You Truly Liked Ants… is a split EP created between Cohort B., Don Pardo, and Shiverboard. Cohort B prioritizes collaboration, and all three bands contributed to the project. “Don Pardo and Shiverboard create some of the most exciting and harrowing music in New York,” Hunter explains. “We are beyond lucky to be able to play with them and have ‘Yee Yee’ sit alongside their tunes. Felt like we needed to get tracklisting 100% correct for such a short release. Despite its punchiness, ‘Yee Yee’ sounds small if played after the other gargantuan tracks. Decided on Cohort > Shiver > Don so that there is an interesting progression, an ascension in intensity as you listen to the EP. Label of Goods has put out some killer splits and creates amazing artwork, so a big thank you to Logan for making it happen.”
If You Truly Liked Ants can be purchased digitally here. Sadly, the ten “frosted ice clear [cassette] tapes” are sold out.
Upper-left photo by Jordan Meiland; all other photos by Jeff
[Editor’s note: The band’s cover of “Pluto” on this 2023 Björk covers comp is something to behold as well–with Don Pardo covering “Big Time Sensuality.” Tomorrow night (Saturday 1.20) Cohort B will be supporting Shybaby on their single release at Purgatory (11pm) with Extra Special on DJ duty spinning the figurative wax–tickets available here]
C*O*H*O*R*T*B: BANDCAMP, SPOTIFY, INSTAGRAM, YOUTUBE