Coyote Slingshot - Oblivion Fever Forever on Super Secret Records

Dom from Coyote Slingshot is back... almost a year later with another single on Super Secret Records, this one entitled the Oblivion Fever Forever EP and it's 3 tracks from his recently expanded live band.
The A-Side sounds like it's sort of split into two tracks (at least on the myspace), I still think it's one connected piece, the track list either says 'Sleeptight, ya morons' or Sleeptight is the first track and Ya Morons is the second. There's not really a break between the tracks, so I'm guessing they're meant to be together. This long intro piece of Sleeptight has all of Dom's wavering raw vocals and an acoustic guitar. Almost cracking himself up in the beginning he seems to be taking his own liner notes to heart: 'If we cannot laugh in the face of sadness, why laugh at all?' I'm reminded a little of an old John Davis single or Conor Oberst. Nearly acapella, Dom drives the melody singlehandedly with his raw, spontaneous sounding vocal delivery captured by a single mic in the middle of a big room with what sounds like a band rehearsing just through the wall next door. There's something sad about that moment, literally Dom is trying to make himself heard above the annoying clatter next door. He counts off and a kick drum thumps in with guitars and keys. A chorus of voices join the scene and it's definitely a 'Fevers & Mirrors' moment...an artist in complete control but breaking down right in front of you. His vibrato voice breaking, half laugh, half cry. You can't expect many people to legitimately get top this place and then to capture it on vinyl is an art itself beyond this catharsis.
The B-Side, Jump Rope, starts with a high register far off flute sound, that gives way to massively blown out drums and guitar. Dom is letting go again in an even higher pitch vocal, yelling over the instruments in order to hear himself. In both of these tracks, he's competing with these kind of outside elements, just to make himself heard. He's feeling tiny and insignificant, no one notices, passing on the street until his devastating sentiment starts. Coyote states in the liner notes it's 'a devotional song for a girl emblematic of small town confusion', the lofty inspirations are right in line with his approach, these are the sounds of desperation, of being completely overwhelmed and lost. The drums get a little lost themselves at times, barely keeping up, but again Coyote is concerned with the raw emotion of a first take, imperfections and all. The flute comes back to take it out and I also got a little Jeff Magnum cacophonous carnival sound here, the result of really pushing rhythms and the collaboration into some weird places...when a chorus sings these sentiments...it's a little creepy.
This effort is decidedly different than the last single which given the density of his controlled one man, home recorded project, has definitely loosened up with the same unhinged vocal performance. He's letting go of the layers that made up the previous release, opting instead to invite that chaos in through other performers, after all it's not a world that can be so easily controlled by a single individual. It takes collaboration to allow for a compromise of other ideas, and leave Dom to what he does best: focus on that complete breakdown.
The extensive xerox liner notes over textbook photos of hyena's makes this feel even more like peering into his diary entry.

I got a copy on clear blue vinyl at 33 1/3.


Super Secret Records say to you:

New Cayote Slingshot 7" out now. You can sample his sound at his myspace. The seven inch is for sale at $6 each, this includes shipping and paypal fees.

Paypal to supersecretrecords(at)hotmail.com for a copy, 100 color, 200 black.