#Stylianos Ou & The Cortisol Cows

[dustedmagazine]

Stylianos Ou and the Cortisol Cows — Fucked Forever (ever/never)

Stylianos Ou belongs to a long tradition of hangdog poets with raging country-politan bands, David Berman, Ryan Davis, Strapping Fieldhands and Palace Music. The fact that he’s Greek detracts not a bit from the charm of discouraged lyrics lifted up by banjo and a deconstructed string band. “We’re fucked forever, we truly are,” he warbles, the words knocked just off center by a European accent. The sentiment, however, scans universally, especially here, especially now.

Stylianos Ou, whose real name is Stelios Papagrigoriou, is a bit of a renaissance man, a visual artist across multiple media, a novelist and a musician. He’s done some solo work under his current name, as well as one other album backed by his band the Cortisol Cows.  This current record demonstrates a wide-ranging, verbal and sonic intelligence, however ungovernable. He namechecks France’s controversial novelist Micheal Houllebeqc in one song, something not every indie twang singer could do.

And yet while the intellectual firepower is impressive, Fucked Forever is not, by any measure, a cerebral album. It thuds with blood-in-the-ear rhythms and squalls with tortured string squeals. It reels and surges and cavorts atop unscalable mountains of tone. It reaches through your gut as much as your brain, and often at the same time.

Consider, for instance, the frolicsome “Death Will Come for You,” with its antic, agitated banjo, its enveloping masses of guitar tone, its wobbly intimations of mortality that nonetheless vibrate with joy. This one will remind you a lot of Ryan Davis and his Roadhouse band, in the way that it swings and swaggers and blares triumphantly, despite the bleakness of its narrative. Speaking of death, Ou intones, “It will come like a tax collector, she will wash you with your hair, you were born to life, but death will stick it right in if he’s able.”

Ou deploys a black kind of humor, bringing the absurdities of modern life into his blasted stories. Songs like “Fake Tits” and “Pornhub Spiritual” transmute artifacts of a cultural wasteland into profound and funny spirituals. But even as he cracks the listener up, he’s got an abyss in his pocket. “There’s no end in this bottomless pit, no global positioning system here,” he observes in “Kokkinopoulos (GPS Lament).” It’s a dismal mix that’s simultaneously giddy and very much in line with the current state of affairs. It’s an ideal soundtrack for considering exactly how fucked we are. Which is very. And forever.  

Jennifer Kelly 

[bandcampsnoop]

12/5/24.

Stylianos Ou & The Cortisol Cows is the work of Greek musician Stelios Papagrigoriou and his Cortisol Cows (who also appear to be Greek). This was recorded in Athens, Greece between May and July of 2024. ever/never records (New York) just released this.

The sound is reminiscent of Fortunato Durutti Marinetti and Royal City (listen to the banjo!!).

The Bandcamp page states, "the way the songs roll and twang and hint at a wildness simmering beneath the tattered elegance resembles acclaimed labelmates Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band, old hands like Bonnie “Prince” Billy, departed masters like Sparklehorse and rising stars like MJ Lenderman."