Grits and Greens

Cockfight Club
Acockalypse Now
Weapons Grade Records

In full-disclosure, Kenny Calloway is a dear friend of mine. We met when he was the editor of the “Planet Weekly,” The revolutionary free press that once filled the new stands of Tupelo, MS. We both had a passion for all things alt.country and rockabilly and our friendship has lasted through the years. Hell, we even went to see “Revenge Of The Sith” together the night that it opened. Yes, I heart Kenny Calloway. However, that has nothing to do with my feelings regarding Kenneth Calloway and Cockfight Club.
Kenneth Calloway is genius and it shows through his band, Cockfight Club. Whereas Kenny Calloway was the person that turned me on to Whiskeytown, there is nothing alt.country about the Kenneth Calloway of Cockfight Club. Cockfight Club is intricate electronic that is being made in a basement studio literally a stone’s throw away from the birthplace of Elvis Presley. If Elvis the musical past to which Tupelo overly clings to, the Cockfight Club represents the future of Tupelo, which is so bright from nuclear fallout that one has no choice but to wear shades, lest one’s eyes disintegrate.
“Acockalypse Now” is Cockfight Club’s second release and it is a beautiful, scary quagmire of ugliness that one is not likely to forget for a long time, if ever. There is no sophomore-slump here, as the album surpasses its predecessor, which was no easy feat. Calloway may have been finding his footing on “Cockfight Club,” but “Acockalypse Now” is so solid that it sounds as if Calloway has made 50 albums as opposed to two.
One of the reasons that the new album is more fluid is that despite Calloway’s production and songwriting skills, Cockfight Club is now a band and not just a project. It’s probably a good idea for Calloway to have like-minded people to swap ideas with. Members Elusive and Dustin Gant make contributions on keyboards and guitar, respectively that give the album a band-feeling. However, it is the addition of keyboardist-vocalist Graceless Lacy Babcock that really makes Cockfight Club V.2.0 something to remember.
The album opens with its namesake, “Acockalypse Now,” and everything previously mentioned about Tupelo is soon forgotten, although its North Mississippi roots will come to the surface in other ways. “Acockalypse Now” is a harrowing vision of dystopia with banshee-like wailing from Babcock that will make one’s blood turn cold. It is also the reason that you cannot wait to hit repeat and hear the song again. And again.
The intensity of “Acockalypse Now” continues on the next two tracks, “Darwin’s Monkey Blues” and “Supermassive,” as do the themes of the religious-right, Creationism, darkness, destruction and the failings of the Bush administration, all according to the Gospel of Calloway and Company.
“Mouth of Madness” drops about midway through the album and it is the centerpiece of the record. With fat, round hip-hop beats and a groove that weaves itself around the listener like a snake charmer’s snake, it should definitely make the summer playlist on many an iPod. It is pure listening pleasure.
The song also somewhat sets the tone for the second part of the album, which is far more dance and groove oriented than the first half. “Children of Dagon” is 2007 disco, bound to make anyone hit the dance floor with its syncopated beats and pumping bass line.
One way that “Acockalypse Now” triumphs over its predecessor is the trance element that is present throughout the entire disc. As previously mentioned, this is where Cockfight Club shows its North Mississippi Roots. The songs flow much in the same manner as the blues music of the Hill Country of North Mississippi. If R.L. Burnside was a fan of Kraftwerk and had a Mac, hell, he might have created this type of music.
Saving the blast for last, the album ends with “Extinction Level Event,” which samples the title track and is six minutes of avant-garde Earth destruction. This is The Beatles “Revolution 9” made on a Mac and existing in a universe where Cockflight Club brings about Armageddon with the assistance of Pres. George W. Bush. It is the end of Bush’s self-proclaimed “season of peace on Earth.”
The ugly head of Bush rears itself throughout the album as does American Family Association’s Donald Wildmon, various aliens, zombies and a continuing fascination with horror master H.P. Lovecraft. Cockfight Club is influenced by Gary Newman, The Cramps, B-grade horror movies, absinthe, Brian Eno and the political climate of the world and it is music that will stay with long after the record has ended.
On the track “Dying Alone,” Calloway wishes that “someday when you’re dying alone, you remember the words I said.” I don’t what I will thinking when that day dawns, but I know that when I’m sitting alone I can’t forget the words of Cockfight Club, especially when I’m attempting to sleep.