The Detroit Cobras “Mink Rat or Rabbit” 1998. Sympathy For the Record Industry. Limited edition. I was saddened to learn of Rachel Nagy’s death this past Saturday as we’ve been Detroit Cobra fans since the late 90’s. There’s a bunch of news articles on the web right now that say she died at age 37 and/or was born in ’84, neither of which can possibly be true: The Detroit Cobras formed in ’94. She’s an original member and I highly doubt she was either 9 or 10 years old at the time, especially because I’ve read that before joining the Cobras she did exotic dance. My guess is she was around the 50 year old mark, give or take a couple of years. Also if you saw the Cobras play out in the past few years – and I do not mean at all to be unkind with this – there is no way she was in her 30’s; the lady had lived some life. We saw the Cobras perform a few times, the most recent show was in 2018 when they opened for MC5 on the MC50 tour. I got one shitty picture of Nagy which I’ll share here.

I really love Mink Rat or Rabbit, their debut album, and it’s been on rotation here since its release. My favorite tracks are the opener “Cha Cha Twist,” “Out of This World,” the jungle-beat mostly instrumental “Chumbawa,” the frenetic “Breakaway” and I absolutely love “Putty (in Your Hands).” Retro garagey dance music with a 60’s girl group vibe, always with a killer beat, topped by Nagy’s rich, bluesy voice: always a delight.