''Cunning Stunts'' is the fifth studio album by the Minneapolis-based noise rock band

Cows Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...

, released in 1992 by Amphetamine Reptile Records. It was their first album where they began developing real melodies and patterns instead of their usual blasts of noise. The switch to producer

Iain Burgess Iain Burgess (24 November 1953 – 11 February 2010) was an English record producer and audio engineer. He helped define the sound of the Chicago post-punk music scene in the 1980s and early 1990s. Burgess worked with a number of key underground ...

brought an increase in sound quality from previous albums. It was long since out print; however, MVD Audio reissued and distributed the album on CD and a limited edition "Blue Opaque" vinyl LP in 2016. The title is a

spoonerism A spoonerism is an occurrence in speech in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched (see metathesis) between two words in a phrase. These are named after the Oxford don and ordained minister William Archibald Spooner, w ...

of the term "stunning cunts". The band Caravan used this title for their 1975 album. The album cover design alludes to the

Reid Miles Reid Miles (July 4, 1927 – February 2, 1993) was an American graphic designer and photographer best known for his work for Blue Note Records in the 1950s and 1960s. Biography Reid Miles was born in Chicago, Illinois, on July 4, 1927 but, ...

designed cover of Eric Dolphy's 1964 album '' Out to Lunch!'' The band supported the album with a North American tour.

Critical reception

The ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago ...

'' wrote that "the music is jarring and hannonSelberg's howling is initially user-unfriendly, yet his disturbed lyrics are undeniable." The ''

Lancaster New Era LNP Media Group owns and publishes '' LNP'', a daily newspaper based in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and ''LancasterOnline'', its online affiliate with monthly readership of over one million. ''LNP'' traces its roots to ''The Lancaster Journal ...

'' listed ''Cunning Stunts'' as one of 1992's best albums, deeming it "truly, truly demented and truly, truly beautiful." In 1999, '' City Pages'' included it on a list of Amphetamine Reptile's greatest albums; it was also given an honorable mention in an article about the best Minneapolis albums of the 1990s.

Track listing

Personnel

Adapted from the ''Cunning Stunts'' liner notes. ;Cows * Thor Eisentrager –

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

* Norm Rogers – drums *

Kevin Rutmanis Kevin Rutmanis (born October 17, 1958) is an American bass guitarist. He is of Latvian descent. Before getting into music, he was a student teacher. In late 1985, along with his younger brother Sandris Rutmanis, Thor Eisentrager, and then Jayh ...

–

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

* Shannon Selberg –

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

bugle The bugle is one of the simplest brass instruments, normally having no valves or other pitch-altering devices. All pitch control is done by varying the player's embouchure. History The bugle developed from early musical or communication ...

;Production and additional personnel *

–

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, r ...

* Günter Pauler – mastering

Release history

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cunning Stunts (Cows album) Cows (band) albums 1992 albums Amphetamine Reptile Records albums Albums produced by Iain Burgess