Two Cow Garage – The Wall Against Our Back

This bunch from Columbus, Ohio, has all the familiar hallmarks — an agreeably scruffy sound, a mile-wide blue-collar populist streak, and the kind of persistent hunger that has driven many a like-minded band down this particular path: the Replacements, Uncle Tupelo, Drive-By Truckers. In fact, they’re third-generation alt-country rockers, having taken their cues from, among others, hometown ’90s upstarts Big Back Forty.

The Wall Against Our Back, their second album, captures its fair share of the pent-up fury in Two Cow’s stage show, presenting rough-and-tumble twang and thrash. Produced by Slobberbone’s Brent Best, it would get by on heart alone. “Smell Of Blood” and the standout “Make It Out Alive” are gritty, gnarled, small-town desperation set to explosive rock ‘n’ roll — nothing new, but gripping all the same.

Throughout, singer Micah Schnabel sounds like the perpetual underdog that he is, approaching every song (save the becalming acoustic ballad “Saturday Night”) with a ferocity that borders on vocal cord abuse (a brutal cover of the Beatles’ “Don’t Let Me Down” has to be heard to be believed).

That the band only sometimes has the songwriting strength (and depth) to back up the ragged emotion in their stance is secondary for the moment. For now, it’s enough to revel in rock ‘n’ roll’s regenerative qualities, and its proclivity for nurturing those alienated souls who find themselves boiling mad at the status quo.