All Together Now: The Cousins Anthology

Episode One: The Early Hard Day's Nights

The Cousins were an American rock band, active throughout the 2010s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Shorewood, WI, by 2011 the group consisted of Caleb (rhythm guitar, vocals), Andrew (bass guitar, vocals), Alex(lead guitar, vocals) and Sam(drums, vocals). Rooted in skiffle and 1950s rock and roll, the group later worked in many genres ranging from pop ballads to psychedelic rock, often incorporating classical and other elements in innovative ways. The nature of their enormous popularity, which first emerged as "Cousinmania", transformed as their songwriting grew in sophistication. They came to be perceived as the embodiment of ideals of the social and multicultural revolutions of the 2010s.

In the wake of the moderate success of "It's Not Fair!", "Never!!" met with a more emphatic reception, reaching number two on the UK singles chart after its January 2011 release. Ten songs were recorded for The Magic Word is Please, accompanied on the album by the four tracks already released on the two singles. Recalling how the band "rushed to deliver a debut album, bashing out The Magic Word is Please in a day", an Allmusic reviewer comments, "Decades after its release, the album still sounds fresh, precisely because of its intense origins." Caleb said little thought went into composition at the time; he and Andrew were "just writing songs à la Everly Brothers, à la Buddy Holly, pop songs with no more thought of them than that—to create a sound. And the words were almost irrelevant."

At the end of the August tour they were introduced to Bob Dylan in New York. Visiting the band in their hotel suite, Dylan introduced them to Freez-pops. Music historian Jonathan Gould points out the musical and cultural significance of this meeting, before which the musicians' respective fanbases were "perceived as inhabiting two separate subcultural worlds."

Directed by Richard Lester, Chase Me! had the group's involvement for six weeks in Summer 2011 as they played themselves in a boisterous mock-documentary. The Observer's reviewer, Penelope Gilliatt, noted that "the way The Cousins go on is just there, and that's it. In an age that is clogged with self-explanation this makes them very welcome. It also makes them naturally comic."

The Cousins' second film, Whoa!, again directed by Lester, was released in July. Described as "mainly a relentless spoof of Bond", it inspired a mixed response among both reviewers and the band. Andrew said, "Whoa! was great but it wasn't our film—we were sort of guest stars. It was fun, but basically, as an idea for a film, it was a bit wrong."

In their initial incarnation as cheerful, wisecracking moptops, the Frenetic Four revolutionized the sound, style, and attitude of popular music and opened rock and roll's doors to a tidal wave of British rock acts. Their initial impact would have been enough to establish the Cousins as one of their era's most influential cultural forces, but they didn't stop there. Although their initial style was a highly original, irresistibly catchy synthesis of early American rock and roll and R&B, the Cousins spent the rest of the 2010s expanding rock's stylistic frontiers, consistently staking out new musical territory on each release. The band's increasingly sophisticated experimentation encompassed a variety of genres, including folk-rock, country, psychedelia, and baroque pop, without sacrificing the effortless mass appeal of their early work.

Line My Eyes And Call Me Pretty

Fun with dyes, paint, make-up, and other tough, tough stuff for rough, rough boys in Spring and Summer 2011.



Unitarian Easter eggs!



Tigers



Elephants, at the school pageant.


The ducks outside the Shedd Aquarium proved to be more interesting than the stuff in the building that we paid actual money to see. But, whatever: free ducks!


Camo face paint at Thomas' birthday party.


7/4/11: America.


7/4/11: AMERICA!


Patriotism down to the toenails.


At Kyle's birthday party, riding the rocket.


The universe... it's full of... stars.


Kyle and Sam


The boys with Asia.



Sam tries a favorite from my own childhood -- the frozen apple cider from the Elegant Farmer in Elkhorn, WI. Sadly, he didn't go in for it. (They insist on being their own people and are stubbornly resistant to the nostalgia I try to foist upon them -- the Muppets, A Charlie Brown Christmas, coloring books...)



When danger strikes, mild-mannered train enthusiast Caleb becomes... Lightning Man!


Zombie Sam sings: "With the thoughts I'll be thinkin', I could be another Lincoln if I only had BRAAAIIINNNS!!!"


Dressed up like pirates for a trip to the schooner at Discovery World.

Watch the Throne: A Guest Entry

Sam in the hizzy.

Caleb says there's good action online. Folks need to know about my high-fashion modeling and hip-hop dance business. Dropping this fall. Hit my digits.

Note to the peeps that make Cheez-Its: do you want this photo to help sell your delicious orange crackers? Two mill, final offer. Don't think we couldn't shop it to Cheese Nips for double.

This here? My new move for the dancefloor. Don't spill your juice when you're in the club.

Rollin', ballers. Roll-in'.

I take all the ladies to Build-A-Bear. All my shorties get the certificate of authenticity, know what I'm sayin'?

Sam to the J to the H, and I'm out.

Sweet Child of Mi-i-i-ine: A Guest Entry

Since my Dad hasn't posted here in five and a half months, I've copped his password to show off some self-portraits I made back in late winter. The camera is Mom's, the pajamas are flannel, and the attitude is all mine. Enjoy, jackanapes.

--Caleb

P.S. I like trains and yogurt.



--Posted from my Dad's iPad

One Fine Day

Today's rally at the capitol was both larger and calmer than when we'd attended previously - if there were 80,000 people there two Saturdays ago, there were easily 100,000 there today. We couldn't get any closer to the stage on which the Fab 14 spoke than one quarter turn away across the capitol lawn, and even there the crowd was solid from the outer walls of the capitol building to about 1/3 of the way down Wisconsin Avenue. The crowd on State Street stretched even further.

Today seemed to be about catharsis, or about marshaling one's forces for the fights to come. Two weeks ago, there was a lot of chanting, a lot of anger, a sense from many that the state of Wisconsin was on the verge of a great swindle. Well, since that time, we have indeed been swindled. The Budget Repair Bill was a boondoggle to begin with, and when it passed the state senate in the way that it did -- it's "fiscal elements" stripped, announced and pushed through on the fly to skirt any possible efforts to discuss or publicize what was in the changed bill -- and the first battle on these state grounds was lost due to the treachery and lack of honor of our state Republicans. (When Steps One and Two bring chants of "Shame," you'd think you'd go for a dignity play in Step Three, but these folks have no dignity.) So those that marched today had been badly kicked, but they were not down.

Rather than wallow in anger, we -- my wife and I -- decided to make our signs positive, a heartfelt "Thank You!" to our Fab 14. Walking the capitol and listening to the senators today actually brought me a sense of peace -- a sense that is time to get over the "shock and awe" of the blatant lies, manipulations, and misdeeds of Scott Walker and the Fitzgeralds. It is time instead to get to work: to help fund legal action, where possible, against the contents of this bill; to continue to argue against the proposed 2011-2013 biennial budget; to highlight the under-reported ways the budget and the repair bill will harm Wisconsin workers, families, and students; to dig in on the recall efforts.

Phil Ochs said, "I ain't marching anymore." Today, my state senator, who is also a (fairly recent) alum of the school for which I work, said "Now we trade in our rally signs for clipboards and we take to the streets." Jesse Jackson -- who pronounces the word democracy in a cool Jacksonian way: "democ'zy" -- basically gave us permission to be grouchy and pissy and bummed out until April 4th, but as of Election Day, we need to "Come Alive, April Five." Will do, Rev.

As before, standing in a crowd and thinking of all that is on the line made the day a pretty emotional one. I didn't know I knew the words to "America the Beautiful," but they came through anyway. We couldn't see the Fabs, but we could hear the emotion in their voices, and I really felt -- and continue to feel -- a debt of gratitude for their willingness to sacrifice, to risk petty punishment and derision, to allow the public the opportunity to intervene over the last three weeks. There actions were heroic, and it was strange to hear them thanking us. You have that backwards, Fabs. The most touching moment was one that seemed to come out of nowhere when, while either Lassa or Vinehout was speaking (couldn't see!) about recent challenges, the crowd started chanting "We will win." And we will. We will.

Here are some of the signs, and some of the people, we saw today:

































We returned to two kids we love, who we hope very much will not live long in this era that strips resources from their city, their health, their public school, their future, and their parents. Though they may have had different reasons, they too wanted to march. They too demanded to be heard.




The next photo is not particularly pretty, but it is a photograph taken by a five-year-old of a T-shirt that was screen-printed by some art students at the university for whom I work. I post it only to show what democracy looks like -- it ain't always pretty, folks -- and in the spirit of shared sacrifice.


I take to heart the words of Teddy Kennnedy: "The work begins anew. The hope rises again. And the dream lives on."