This release caught me out of left-field as I haven't heard a good cow-punk band in years.

HTR are Dallas-to-Brooklyn transplants and their sounds fits in there with the 'first-wave' cowpunk bands like Green on Red and The Divine Horsemen. The band arrived in Brooklyn in 2005 and recorded their first EP, Cause/Solution, with Ellis Traver at Brooklyn's Loiter Studios. The band just released a new four-song EP, Let It Die, which was produced and engineered by Richard Lloyd.

Let It Die is a great slice of whiskey-soaked cowpunk and Richard Lloyd's production is near-perfect. The band doesn't loose any of the overall grittiness of their sound but Lloyd's production brings out some great guitar licks which is complemented by steady-on bass work and I really love the snare drums. All four tracks from the new EP are streaming on the band's MySpace page (link below) and the standout track is "The Shaker".

Here are HTR's upcoming shows:
Aug 20 2008 8:00PM, Maxwells, Hoboken, New Jersey
Sep 12 2008 8:00PM, The Castle in Hell Brooklyn, New York

Links:
HTR's MySpace Profile