here is a review of the Cobra Verde show with J on guitar in Albany on May 20:

http://www.metroland.net

Rough Boys
By Kirsten Ferguson

Cobra Verde and J Mascis
Valentine’s, May 20

Outward expressions of nihilism in rock music—from Johnny Rotten spewing bile to Kurt Cobain smashing guitars—may be verging on cliché these days, but nihilism-turned-inward is still relatively fresh. Nobody drags his own ego through the gutter—at least in song—better than singer John Petkovic, who fronts the guitar-heavy Cleveland rock band Cobra Verde. During their headlining show at Valentine’s last Tuesday, Petkovic and his bandmates turned their second song, "My Name Is Nobody," into an unstoppable sing-along anthem of self-negation. "Modified Frankenstein," which came later in the set, was another arena-worthy rocker with train-wreck guitars, contagious choruses and self-hating lyrics: "Frankenstein ain’t got nothing on me/I’m a product of product and surgery."

Both songs were from the band’s new disc, Easy Listening. The album, released by MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer on his MuscleTone label, is Cobra Verde’s third full-length slab of hip-shaking, art-damaged rock. Through the churning guitars and lyrical misanthropy, the songs never fail to be highly infectious, and many are calling Easy Listening the band’s best recording yet. At Valentine’s, guitarist J Mascis joined Cobra Verde onstage as the band unveiled their new songs, though the former Dinosaur Jr. frontman kept a relatively low profile. With unkempt gray hair and saucer-sized glasses, Mascis looked like somebody you might dodge at a rest stop, but his guitar blasts added to the show’s blistering din (my ears were ringing after the first song) [:aliensmile: FC]

Mascis sat behind the drums on "Every God for Himself," [:!: FC] Petkovic’s cynical condemnation of bad actors and bad cinema. Mascis may have banged the kit like a guitarist (all wrists), but the song lost none of its bite. "No story is a true story, including this one," Petkovic declared midsong. Spoken like a journalist himself. The highly literate Petkovic, who dissects film, music and culture for the daily Cleveland Plain Dealer and his own online magazine called ScamCity: A Journal of American Anti-Culture and a Guide to Millennial Panic, is the rare musician who writes in print as well as he performs on stage.

"Tonight’s a little bit rough, so I apologize in advance," Petkovic announced during the show, which marked the opening night of the band’s mini-tour with Mascis playing guitar (they also toured briefly with him last fall). As he spastically flopped about the stage, clapped his hands and shook a tambourine, Petkovic then led the band through the gothic cabaret of "To Your Pretty Face," a song whose unhinged lyrics would sound cartoonish in any other singer’s hands ("Champagne kisses and crack-pipe suicide drones/Lipstick vampire sucking blood from bone"). The band offered up a sleaze-rock version of the Undertones’ classic "Teenage Kicks," before Mascis’ wailing guitar lit up an encore of songs by the Stooges.