Listening to The Cockles' Demonstration Tapes is like listening to a young Elvis Costello going through a Jonathan Richman phase, then a Sonic Youth phase, followed by a 70âs era Stones phase.

8 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Acoustic, POP: Power Pop



Details:
The Cockles were formed in 1990 by a teenage Huck DeMilo and his best friend, Eric Grossman. The NYC-based band featured Johnny Marvelous and the late, great Neil Sherman on drums and bass, respectively. Philadelphia radio giant WXPN broke The Cockles by repeatedly spinning the bandâs dark-but-hooky âChoking Jenniferâ in 1991.The Demonstration Tapes is both a simple collection of The Cockles' best recordings and an aural window into the world of a band in the act of delivering itself from the trembling hands of quirky, three-minute pop songs into the vice-like grip of three-minute epics. By the last song, "Reason To Riot (part 1)", it becomes abundantly clear that songwriter Huck DeMilo is going places.

Prague, to be specific.