Cousin Brian’s aptly named debut LP First had been floating around the internet for a while before Slutever’s Nicole Snyder had the brilliant idea to make it the inaugural release on her label Mallrat Records last year. A truly underrated album (which ranked quite high on my year end list of “Favorite Philly Releases of 2012”), First was filled with plenty of delightful tunes that eventually garnered a bit of praise from the local music community. However, some of our readers were a bit confused by our description of Cousin Brian as a “punk” band due to the unabashed amount of pop hooks and oohs and aahs found on their record. That was until I invited them to perform at one of my Tuesday Tune-Outs at PhilaMOCA, where they ferociously tore through their songs five-times as fast as what might be heard on the recordings while vocalist Sean Caruthers flailed around on and off the stage like he was having an epileptic seizure and physically assaulted their fans with his mic. After their volatile set, drummer Ben Harper proceeded to sit in the front row and heckle the next band throughout their performance. Ha…I think that the questions about Cousin Brian being a punk band were squashed that evening. – Q.D. Tran
