The Cops

by Stewart MasonSeattle pop-punk outfit the Cops favor an old-school sound, far more reminiscent of the Buzzcocks and Undertones than Green Day and Fall Out Boy, right down to the hints of British Invasion punk forefathers like the Kinks and the Move. The Cops formed in 2004, originally as a '60s-inspired garage rock band under the name Hello from Waveland. Lead singer and rhythm guitarist Michael Jaworski and lead guitarist John Randolph recruited drummer David Weeks, a college friend of Randolph who had been a founding member of the very different psychedelic post-rock outfit Kinski, and bassist Brian Wall before changing their name to the considerably less awful the Cops and moving their primary set of stylistic influences up about a decade and across the Atlantic Ocean. Signed to the Seattle indie Mt. Fuji Records, the Cops' debut EP, Why Kids Go Wrong, was released in the spring of 2005. After sessions with the band's spiritual godfather Kurt Bloch (the Fastbacks, the Young Fresh Fellows), the full-length Get Good or Stay Bad followed in the fall. Former Supersuckers and Hater bassist Drew Church replaced Wall in the summer of 2006, before recording started on their sophomore album.