This year’s Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition winners Westside Cowboy have announced details of their debut EP ‘This Better Be Something Great’ by sharing the joyous ‘Alright Alright Alright’.
Back in April, the Manchester-based four-piece and NME 100 alumni won a spot at this year’s Glastonbury festival when they were triumphant over thousands of online entries before beating eight finalists at the live final in Pilton – impressing a judging panel that included an array of Glasto stage bookers as well as DJ Huw Stephens and festival bosses Michael and Emily Eavis.
Previous ETC finalists include the likes of English Teacher, Flohio, Declan McKenna, She Drew The Gun, Scouting For Girls, The Subways and Izzy Bizu.
Now, after a string of releases and impressing at showcase festivals including this year’s Great Escape, the indie upstarts have announced that ‘This Better Be Something Great’ will arrive on Friday August 8 via Nice Swan Recordings / Heist or Hit (pre-order here) – as well as sharing the rollicking single ‘Alright Alright Alright’, produced by Lewis Whiting of 2024 Mercury Prize winners English Teacher. The song has a gun-slinging energy and imagery befitting of the band’s name.
“This song was the first original thing we ever played as a band, before we had any real ambition for the project to reach the ears of anyone outside of that room,” said the band of the track. “It is a punk song about a cowboy, and if anyone can take away any more from it than that, consider us impressed.”
The band’s sound – inspired by the likes of slacker rock giants like Pavement alongside more contemporary influences like Nice Swan labelmates English Teacher – won a £5,000 PRS slot and earned the band a slot on the iconic Woodsies Stage at this year’s festival back in Spring. Speaking on those influences, singer Aoife Anson O’Connell explained the band are humbled by comparisons to such big names.
“Reuben (Haycocks vocals / guitars ) and Paddy (Murphy, drums) formed their first band because of their love for Pavement,” O’Connell told NME. “We all saw them together and they’re a huge influence for us. Even travelling down in the car we had a lot of The Flaming Lips on the playlist, so we channel a lot of those cool guitar sounds but hopefully we bring something of our own as well.”
Westside Cowboy will open the Woodsies Stage on Sunday June 20, with three other performances scheduled across the weekend. Alongside a busy summer of shows, they also have support tours approaching with Black Country, New Road and Blondshell kicking off in September. Visit here for tickets and more information.