Recording: Cousins

Artist: Cousins

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at The Great Hall (Long Winter 4.5 – Night 2), March 18, 2016.

Cousins - unknown

You can't fault Long Winter for being ambitious and for wanting to close out the season by cramming in as much music and art into the Great Hall as possible, but their plan to close the year out with a two-night stand didn't entirely pay off. Giving patrons the choice of two nights (and holding them at the end of Spring Break) seemed to especially cut into the younger crowd and both nights (especially Friday) lacked that "about to burst" feeling that makes LW unique. But even if the crowd was at less than maximum strength, there was no certainly no lack of music spread throughout the building.

I remain intrigued by the contours and contradictions of Aaron Mangle's Cousins project. As the band (this time out a quartet augmented with Will Vandermeulen's keyb) haltingly evolves into bro-friendly classic rock terrain, Mangle resists that sort of easy meat-and-potatoes categorization, giving a hearty shout-out to LW art co-ordinator Alison Creba and inviting Lido Pimienta onstage to add some backing vocals. His songs, meanwhile, continue to explore the world around him, from the price of the air we breathe to the size of his SOCAN cheque — all part of a quest to ask, "what do you want to be?"

^* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!