You may be more familiar with David Kumler through his work in the gloomy (and great) darkwave duo Foxxxy Mulder, but he’s currently prepping his first solo venture as Cosmic Bummer. His first release from the moniker is a five-track EP, simply titled EP, and we’re honored to be premiering it early. The release is in some ways a stark contrast to his work in Mulder, although it still contains some resemblances as well. Although EP plays around with different influences and sensibilities, it is primarily a garage rock album (much in the vein of The Stooges). All five tracks include jangly, repetitive guitar rhythms that are constantly in competition with Kumler’s vocals to see which can get more fuzzed-out.
As noisy and busy as this EP is, it’s also surprisingly patient at points. The two opening tracks, “brainwashed” and “cosmic bummer,” are gleefully messy, but Kumler uses his rhythms and production to revel in chaos rather than relying on any lightning-speed tempos. “serotonin” is a great minimalist ballad, just vocals and guitar, that also works as an exercise in tremolo, while the quickest song is “scumbag,” the closest thing on the release to a true surf-punk song. The EP’s closing song is a loud and straightforward cover of Johnny Thunders’ “you can’t put your arms around a memory” that serves as a fitting finale.
Lyrically, Kumler complements the noisy and often fun music with meditations on loss, failure and – most commonly – regret. Sometimes it’s tongue-in-cheek, like when he muses “I’m a cosmic bummer, man / never could write ampersands” on “cosmic bummer.” Other times it’s more serious, like when he pines “try to live just like Jesus lived / and you’ll know you’re born to die” on “brainwashed.” It makes the Johnny Thunders cover, a song about the ennui felt by loneliness, an even more apropos finishing track. It’s also timely, if inadvertently; this type of lonely regret and guilt couples with our own currently isolated lives, a longing for things we used to consider normal and a desire to see old friends again. The EP is in fact a cosmic bummer, but it’s honest, intelligent and all too relatable.
As a complete package, EP feels like something that could’ve been produced by together PANGEA during their heyday (or even a small Ty Segall compilation). It’s brief, breezy and mostly fun in spite of its densely cynical lyrics. It demands re-listens and offers more on each pass. The EP will be available on streaming sites (excepting Amazon) on 7/3. A video for “cosmic bummer” was released on 6/26. A stream of the EP is available below: