Written by Autumn Swiers

An ode to you, DIY Darling. How can we write a hagiography that is effusive, affecting, and roughly two pages long? Easy – The Goobs & My Friend Cowboy already did it, on wax. The entire nine-song album clocks in at just over 17 minutes. 

Fans of Nilsson Schmilsson will discover much to adore in Happy Loving Couples, the latest album from The Goobs & My Friend Cowboy, which dropped on Friday. Or, perhaps it’d be more fitting to liken the record to Nilsson’s 1974 collab with friend and accessory John Lennon, “Pussy Cats.” We don’t want to put too fine a point on it. Either way, if mimicry is the sincerest form of flattery, then mucho mungo – this is the sweetest little thing we ever seen. 

The album is almost entirely written and performed by Carson Brom (aka The Goobs) and Logan Adam (My Friend Cowboy). Philly heads might recognize Adam as the bass player in Fib. New Yorkers might recognize Brom from his bitchin VHS tape collection or equally bitchin amateur baseball team. These are two musicians molded by intelligentsia, and while their earworm influences certainly show in Happy Loving Couples, so do their diversified interests away from music-making. Jaunty, avant-garde, almost absurdist tunes lilt with the occasional (and welcome) jagged edge. Add in vocals that ask “What would happen if Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker was Suicide’s Ghost Rider Motorcycle Hero?” and those 17 minutes fly by like a pleasure cruise leather bruise. This bite-sized smorgasbord is the summit of two far-out minds, and the result is psychedelic art rock with a mile-wide ripple of bubblegum pop (scrumptious).

Last August, after Brom released a surreal stop-motion music video for “Baby, I’m a Star” – the first single and the album’s opening track – Kellen Baker of Indiana-based Good Flying Birds reached out with an offer for Happy Loving Couples to be the inaugural release on his new label, Painty Pot. Curious parties: Let this video be your introduction to The Goobs’ sound portfolio, and buckle up to enter an abstract world with no hard lines or scruples. It’s all good company, high rollers, reasonable alternatives, and heat lightnin’. The record’s cover art (the masterwork of Adam) encapsulates that uniquely mind-bending whimsy in 2-D. (Also, shoutout Guided by Voices. I’m from Ohio and that’s a huge deal to us all.)

By your self-aggrandized reporter’s count, the stars of this collection are “Friend & Foe” and “Goodnight,” the third single off the record. “I’ve been sitting on ‘Goodnight’ for nearly five years, surviving many iterations since its conception in Portland, Oregon during the thick of COVID,” Brom tells Ugly Hug. “It was the first song I ever wrote and performed on a piano, a recording I’m so glad I held onto. It really wasn’t until I phoned a few friends last spring when the song started to come alive. Logan added drums and bass, my pal from Portland Zeke Ganschow provides the wonderful Nilsson-esque backing vocals, and then I recruited Wyatt Corder from my hometown Austin, Texas, a childhood bestie, to contribute trumpets throughout. This one was such a long time coming and a family affair, it warms my dang heart.”

Happy Loving Couples by The Goobs & My Friend Cowboy is currently available for streaming on Bandcamp or via cassette. As for Brom, he smokes American Spirit Celadons, and his favorite way to kill an afternoon right now is (like all rock n rollers) latch hooking. “I like to keep the hands and brain busy,” quoth The Goobs. “I do a lot of cooking, playing baseball, refinishing wood, upholstering, Mets games, and goin to da movies.” Outta sight. Your reporter once ate potato salad on a dive bar patio avec The Goobs on a summer Sunday afternoon, and we both agreed that it was a perfect day. Shoutout Jones Bar. Point is, our hero is hung up and strung out on thee real good stuff. Jonesing to take a cue? Course y’are! Brom’s daily-rider playlist consists of Emitt Rhodes, The Byrds, Wings, The Beach Boys’ “Love You,” and (of course) “always Nilsson.” 

The world-weary modern music lover deserves to romp around in early-1970s leisure euphoria, without having to derail on a Lost Weekend of their own. Cultural imagination: Feast thine eyes. “After a year of tinkering with this record, which started as just goofing off on a four track in Philly and then evolved into a real labor of love, it’s just nice that it’s finally out in the world,” he says. “We hope you like it.” Peace and blessings and Easter Ham.

Listen to Happy Loving Couples by The Goobs & My Friend Cowboy and snag a cassette released via the newly christened, painty pot.