Other show highlights included one of their newer songs, “Pop Song,” and the epically thundering “Welcome to Cashville” (Eleot’s drum prowess is always beyond!) from their 2021 debut Cashville. Both tracks are on Towards the Setting Sun: “Pop Song” recorded at Three Links Deep Ellum in Dallas (Chris threatens to go Dee Synder on the crowd’s “mother-fucking asses,” I’m not sure why!) and “Cashville” at Alex’s Bar in Long Beach.

But far and away the afternoon’s highlight was their performance of the Ray Wylie Hubbard cover “Snake Farm.” It was so nice, they played it twice! Once midway through the main set and then again as part of the encore. The crowd was equally as enthusiastic both times, with a crowd sing along and dancing (well, really one dude doing a skank/pogo hybrid thing, the rest of us doing the stand-in-one-place head-nod/ass-shake). I think this is also when Chris did a guitar solo, strolling down the bar. On Towards the Setting Sun that track was recorded at the Swan Dive in Austin, Texas. (I bet they didn’t get to hear it twice)

I didn’t record any video on Sunday, but here’s a relatively recent performance of “Snake Farm” from a show at Mortimers in Minneapolis (2023); it’s been fun to see how this song has evolved at their shows over the past few years – each time it’s different, sometimes more punk and sometimes a bit psychedelic (like in this video):

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Volk “Cashville” 2021. Romanus Records, limited edition, literally cash-filled Cashville. Last night we saw Volk perform at Shank Hall here in Milwaukee (they’re on tour with the Finnish band Steve ‘n’ Seagulls who were fucking brilliant!); it’s been just over a year since the last show of theirs we attended so it was excellent to rock out to some cow punk!

Volk (Eleot Reich on drums/vocals, Chris Lowe on guitar/vocals) performed some of my favorite songs from Cashville including the title track “Welcome to Cashville,” the sultry and somewhat sinister “I Fed Animals,” “Snake Farm” (originally by Ray Wylie Hubbard) which they’ve revamped slightly since last year and I’m totally digging the changes, and one of the best ass-shaking alt-country rockers ever, “Honey Bee.” It’s foot-stomping and head-banging. Volk is on a pretty heavy tour at the moment and they’re just out of the studio from recording their forthcoming LP. They teased at least one of the new songs at Shank: it was wildly funky and I’m really excited to hear the rest of the album. Like last year, they crashed at our house after the show and, being the hard-working duo that they are, were up early to keep putting the final touches on that record before they head up to Appleton for their next show tonight.

Chris and Eleot on dualing laptops, working their new LP magic

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Volk “Cashville” 2021. Romanus Records. Very limited pre-release* edition, liquid filled colored vinyl, cover hand-drawn by drummer/singer Eleot Reich, signed by Reich and guitarist/singer Chris Lowe. Cow punk from Nashville, Volk’s debut LP is so freaking amazing! It’s big, thundering power out of the hard-working two-piece with a sound like the White Stripes spent a month jamming with Dolly and Waylon in a down-south garage. I love the whole album, but my top songs are “Welcome to Cashville” (with a lead-in from Romanus’ Chris Banta on the audio and video), the wicked-high energy “Honey Bee” (with another Banta cameo), “I Fed Animals” which is dark and menacing (a sound I’m particularly fond of), and their cover of Ray Wylie Hubbard’s “Snake Farm” which is hilarious.

Volk performed all of those songs (and more!) at the show we saw this past week up in Green Bay at the Lyric Room. Volk puts on a killer show, super high-energy. They’re on tour with Electric Six and though the Six is a dance rock band, the combo totally worked and I danced pretty much non-stop for over 2 hours. (Volk will be back in Wisconsin for Mile of Music in Appleton at the beginning of August and we can’t wait to see them again.)

Volk and Electric Six played in Milwaukee the following night at Shank Hall (we chose the Green Bay date because we don’t like Shank) and the band crashed at our house. They finally got a chance to see the liquid-filled variant, which they hadn’t seen before, and signed our copy. Great folks, Volk!

*The official release on Romanus came out at the end of May and we will be getting another copy of Cashville, this time of the limited edition literal cash-filled vinyl variant as soon as it goes through production.

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There are just four tracks on this EP – really wishing for more! – the hard-rock goes a little country “Hat & Boots” and the stompin’ garage-punk “Land of Toys” are on Side A. On Side B is “January” (a little country, a LOT of rock-n-roll) and my absolute favorite, the contagious barn-burner “Honey Bee,” which features Brother O’Brother’s (and Romanus Record’s) Chris Banta on an impassioned solo vocal – his trademark white boots also make a cameo in the lyrics and on the video. Chris has been talking about how great Volk are for awhile and I completely agree – they are the whole package: tight, rockin’, ass-shaking, totally exhilarating. I hope they come around our area to play soon.

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