If you’ve kept up with COOKED from Burlington, Vermont the last couple of years, you know quite a bit about lead singer Bobby Bones’ traumatic battle with drug addiction and recovery. The theme has followed their tunes throughout all their releases and how could you blame them when it’s made for some insanely catchy yet violent tunes?
Playing in a band can be like reading a book and eventually it comes time to turn the page on a certain chapter that you’ve really enjoyed and as they look to record more music that’s just what they intend to do. COOKED have made a name for themselves throughout the Northeast for their frenzied hardcore punk with a capital P, influenced by the likes of Trash Talk and crust bands like Choking Victim and Aus-Rotten, mixing all that into a whirlwind of sounds that will have you maniacally laughing as you descend through all nine circles of hell.
That certainly seems to be where vocalist Bobby found his lyrical chops as he takes you through the highs and plummeting lows of his drug-addled youth. This crystal clear depiction of that lifestyle has really made them standout amongst the wealth of hardcore bands cropping up in the great white northeast.
Having kept in touch with Bobby he sent me COOKED's newest track, “When Will My Veins Return?,” another ripper in their classic style of hardcore punk that also fills the listener with a sense of impending doom. They’ve steadily been dropping singles lately with this one following the pop-punk-influenced track “The Alchemist” which they dropped in February. They’ve always liked to mix a little bit of pop-punk into their sound but this was the hardest they’d injected that style into their sound and it worked quite well.
Recorded with Jeremy Mendicino at the Vt. Music Lab, COOKED’s “When Will My Veins Return?” reigns them back into their hardcore sound and the energy remains off the charts especially in the frantic, almost breathless way Bobby delivers his dark lyrics:
“This was a song that I wanted to end a chapter of the band with. I'm a little sick of writing about shit that happened over 5 years ago now. ‘When Will My Veins Return?’ is the end of an era and into a transitional (subject matter) period for the band. All I ever wanted to do with COOKED was to tell a story, and this song just furthers said story.”
For Bobby to be putting these lyrical themes to rest it feels like he is finally able to move on from that point of his life and live a much more healthy existence free from hard drugs so it’s pretty poetic in that sense and refreshing for the band to be looking to try new things.
With these new releases COOKED is hinting at something major, perhaps finally releasing a full album of material which had been in the works but is currently up in the air. As Bobby succinctly puts it “The full length was always supposed to be called Temperance. The COOKED story was supposed to follow in order of the 3 tarot cards: 1. The Hanged Man, 2. Death (called ‘Ad Nauseam’ because every song deals with death), and 3. Temperance (as everything begins to find balance). What it will be called now… Who knows. Well just have to wait and see.”
There’s definitely something brewing for COOKED, they seem to be on a roll with all the new material they’ve put out recently so there’s no doubt they’ll get something out within the year. The band has always maintained a steady diet of playing shows along the Northeast and are right now looking further across the country to spread their depressing yet energetic brand of hardcore punk.
“We have one show in May which will be at the Sinclair in Boston opening up for our homie Nothing, Nowhere. Aside from that I am planning a 2-week West Coast run with my homie Ryan from No Choice (Phoenix, Arizona) that I am very excited about. By September, I am planning for us to have a whole new body of work completed, plus the 4 new ones coming out this May!”
Having spent some time out in Arizona myself I think COOKED will definitely get a great reaction from the kids out in that scene. It’s a youthful scene out west and the group's bread and butter has been that raucous energy of a youth gone awry.
So as we close this chapter on COOKED they look toward a new horizon for the band, “When Will My Veins Return?” feels like a last party at the collapse of Sodom & Gomorrah. There’s still a lot of life to be lived though, new experiences both good and bad to write about and Bobby’s got an eye for that while his bandmates have a way of soundtracking those observations into a riotous party or a dance to the death.
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