Cog
There are at least three bands that are named Cog. One from Australia, one from the Philippines, and one from Croatia.
1)
Cog is a rock band from Sydney, New South Wales. Cog consisted of members Flynn Gower (lead guitar, lead vocals), Lucius Borich (drums, samples, backing vocals) and Luke Gower (bass guitar and backing vocals), who had been a band since 1998.
Flynn Gower and Lucius Borich (the son of renowned Australian blues guitarist Kevin Borich) were friends at their Bondi high school in the 1980s. Borich being a drummer, and Flynn being a guitarist, they would occasionally jam. As their school careers finished, Borich formed the band Juice while Flynn formed the 5 piece metal band The Hanging Tree, popular in the Sydney live circuit.[citation needed] In 1995, after the release of Juice's debut album, Borich left the band and joined The Hanging Tree. Shortly after the release of their debut, Borich left the band and the country, travelling to the United States to follow a career of session drumming. There, Borich did session drumming for a large range of genres, writing songs on his guitar all the while. Flynn, in Sydney, wanted to form a band and contacted Lucius, eventually resulting in the formation of Cog.
Initially, the band was to form in the United States, but Borich chose to travel home. He'd find a disappointed Flynn, who had already sold all his gear in preparation for the move. The drum, bass, and guitar parts for what would become the Just Visiting EPs were recorded shortly after, in 1998, with Borich assuming bass duties. The vocals would be recorded two years later. To fill out the bass in live shows, Flynn recruited his brother Luke, formerly of the Sydney band Tax. After they formed this legitimate lineup, they toured aggressively, clocking up thousands of kilometres of weekly driving between Sydney and Melbourne.
Their first residency, at the Forrest Inn Hotel in the Sydney suburbs, was without a vocalist. They encouraged people to send them demos for the vocal job, but the band were so unimpressed with the demos that Flynn trained his voice to fill the vacancy. Their breakthrough gig was a Wednesday headlining slot at Excelsior Hotel in Surry Hills, where they packed out the club consistently for 4 months. They were recognised with a nomination for "best emerging live band in NSW" at the Australian Live Music Awards. In 2001, the band signed with underground label Little Samurai Records and prepared to release the Just Visiting Part One and Just Visiting Part Two EPs.
The two EPs, despite the slight differences in style between them, were written and recorded at the same time. The band chose not to release the studio session as a full album so they would not lose their debut album virginity, and would get twice the publicity. They grabbed a breakthrough gig just before the release of Just Visiting Part One, supporting System of a Down at the Hordern Pavilion. Just Visiting Part One was released in February 2002 and was still consistently appearing in the ARIA Top 20 Heavy Rock/Metal singles/EPs chart over 2 years after its release. In July, the song "Bondi" was added to Andrew Haug's Triple J 3 Hours of Power Compilation.
Just Visiting Part Two was released in October that same year and was also still appearing in the ARIA Top 20 Heavy Rock/Metal singles/EPs charts after two years. That year, Cog also won "best emerging live band in NSW" at the Australian Live Music Awards. After an extensive tour supporting the two EPs, including a slot at the Big Day Out in 2003, Cog recorded a cover of "Open Up", a single released in 1993 by Leftfield featuring John Lydon. This song had been a live favourite for the previous year.
Shortly afterwards, Cog continued to write and demo for their debut album.
The New Normal (2004–2006)
While the vast majority of the material for The New Normal had already been demoed by late 2003, with some songs first performed live as far back as May 2002, Cog did not have the kind of financial backing needed to record their album as they desired. However, after months of limbo, Cog were signed by Aloha Management (Shihad, Killing Heidi) and subsequently, former Universal Music Australia head Paul Krige's label Difrnt Music.
During the later months of 2004, Cog recorded their debut album, The New Normal, in the small logging town of Weed, California with producer Sylvia Massy (System of a Down and Tool). Shortly afterwards, the band performed a short tour of the east coast and played at the inaugural Pyramid Rock Festival. The album was released in Australia in April 2005, to a debut of #19 in the ARIA Charts, and a #1 debut in the Australian Independent Recordings (AIR) album charts. The New Normal was one of the nominees for the 2005 Triple J J Award.
In support of the album, the band headlined a full Australian tour in April and May with supports from Karnivool and In the Grey. During July they supported Shihad on a tour of New Zealand. During October they toured the country with supports from The Fumes, Grand Fatal, and Jakob. They finished the year with appearances at Homebake, the Pyramid Rock Festival, and the Big Day Out. Cog supported Australian rock group Grinspoon at the Adelaide race event Clipsal 500 and appeared at the Rock-It Festival in Perth on March 19th with Silverchair, Grinspoon, and Shihad amongst others. During March and April, the band toured the country in support of the final radio single from The New Normal, "Resonate".
Sharing Space (2007–present)
Cog, from June onwards, planned to spend a portion of the year in the United States, promoting a release of The New Normal there through extensive touring. However, this release was pushed back to 2007. The New Normal will be released by Massy's label National Recorder. The band has recorded the follow up to The New Normal, again with Massy, in November, following the Detour tour in October. This trip to the United States was postponed until later in the year because of troubles Luke was having getting a visa.
On the 9th of January, Cog began to record and write tracks for their second album, entitled Sharing Space, at Weed, California, once again with Massy producing. They took a break from recording in June, bouncing back to Australia for the Boomerang Tour for a number of shows. The short tour run included Fremantle, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, where several new songs were premiered, including "Bird of Feather" (then titled "Double Triple") and "What If". Cog toured Australia more extensively in November 2007, in support of "What If?", the first single from the new album due April 2008. This tour marked Cog's first trip to North Queensland.
On the 3rd of November, Cog released "What If", the first single from Sharing Space with the title track to the album as a b-side. On the 12th of November, this song debuted at #21 on the physical ARIA singles chart, the only new entry debuting higher being Alicia Keys. Sharing Space was released on the 12th if April 2008. In February, the band announced that they will be touring around Australia in support of Sharing Space in May and June. They performed shows around the country with two New Zealand bands, Kora and Jakob, as well as local Melbourne prog-rock band Sleep Parade and Brisbane's Melodyssey. Despite the conflict and difficulty of the recording process of Sharing Space, Borich described the album as "some of our best work".
In July 2008, Cog performed in England for the first time at Shepherds Bush Empire and GuilFest with New Zealand band Shihad. The band also recently announced they are performing at the 2009 Big Day Out. The band will be performing at all the Australian dates. They also expressed interest in releasing Sharing Space in Europe, and will most likely be touring there in 2009.
More recently, the band had the opportunity to re-release their 2002 EPs Just Visiting Part One and Just Visiting Part Two as a full album; Just Visiting, with the intended track listing and the never previously heard original (long) version of Bondi. Lucius Borich spent time at Studios 301 mastering the album so the recordings sounded their best. Also, the band headlined the 2009 Peaches and Cream Festival.
Cog drew its primary influences from Tool, Isis, Nina Simone, Bob Marley, Leftfield, and Helmet.
Discography
[edit]
Albums
Just Visiting (Destra Corporation, 2002)
The New Normal (Difrnt Music/MGM Distribution, 2005) AUS #19
Sharing Space (Difrnt Music/Universal Music, 2008) AUS #2 Gold
[edit]
Singles and EPs
Pseudo (2000)
Just Visiting Part One (Little Samurai/MGM Distribution, 2002)
Just Visiting Part Two (Little Samurai/MGM Distribution, 2002)
Open Up (Little Samurai/MGM Distribution, 2003)
"Run" (Diffrnt Music/MGM Distribution, 2005)
"Resonate"
"Real Life"
"What If" (2007) AUS #45
"Bird of Feather" (2008)
[edit]
Videography
"The Sound of Three: 12 Years With You" (2010) AUS DVD Chart #1
[edit]
Music Videos
"Paris, Texas" (2002)
"Open Up" (2003)
"My Enemy" (2005)
"Run" (2005)
"What If" (2007)
"Bird of Feather" (2008)
"Are You Interested?" (2008)
2)
Cog (Philippines)
Cog's history starts in 1999, when guitarists Joel Patricio and Eric Perlas started writing riffs together. Vocalist Yagi Olaguera joined shortly after and the three began writing original material. A few months later, Alan Po, then drummer of funk band Wild Waters, joined upon hearing some of the songs. Bassist Richie Ramos rounded out the original band lineup, and Cog was up and running by the summer of 2000.
The band's first big break arrived when they had the chance to record for the No Seat Affair compilation. Of the two songs recorded for the release, "Drone", a mostly instrumental piece, was graced by saxophone lines from the band's friend and collaborator, Garon Honasan. Since then, he has formally joined the band.
Having survived possible disbanding and lineup changes, the band has been able to maintain their original lineup and continue to challenge themselves with their material. The band has released their first full-length album, Conflagration (following their Contact EP), and is currently playing gigs in and around Metro Manila. They have also appeared on television, and have played some of the larger local concert events. They are also one of the primary bands of the Tower of Doom record label.
Cog's music is hard to properly pin down in a genre, but all the members agree that "metal" should be in the basic decription. However, very diverse influences (from the 80's British Wave to classical music) can be heard in their sound.
3)
Cog (Croatia)
COG - CourseOverGround is a dynamic rock meets noise trio from Osijek, Croatia. They formed back in 1997 with an original lineup of Mario Majkic, Bojan Papic and Larson Benjamin Dijkgraaf. Current lineup has Antun Bilos on the drums, replacing Dijkgraaf.
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