A vinyl release of a coveted record is a blessing. There was a time where labels only pushed CDs upon us. At the time, it’s what we demanded. A small, round disc was portable, it could be kept on your shelf amongst hundreds of others; perhaps nice and snug in your car’s center console or stuck in your Discman. Everything has been flipped on its head today. Where once convenience was king, I strategically opt for a slower, more immersive experience. The perfect accompaniment that satisfies my late 90s self and my more mature, wiser ears has arrived: Cattlemen Don’t on wax from the surging Chicago quartet Triple Fast Action.
Like many acts of this era, their CD became a relic in my collection; they created two timeless albums and disbanded. It wasn’t atypical during their era and post TFA to run into fans claiming them as one of the best acts to come out of Chicago. “One of the best bands ever”, a drunken Chicago front man confided in me after his set at Gunther Murphy’s. This release sees Local H’s Scott Lucas penning the liner notes and corroborating my long held belief: the sheer strength this album holds from front to back.
Triple Fast Action possessed the ability to erupt sonically. They had fully charged guitars ready to rip; their sound was typical of a raging roller coaster that slowly ascended, catapulted you down the descent, and jostled your entire body and blasted your auditory system through the flat transitions. This record debuted a tighter, more confident act, one not scared to call out label suits, share a softer side, and crank all dials to 11. Loaded with hooks, masterful songwriting, intense guitar play, emotional ballads, and a regal assemblage of horns, this was an album that was the alternative to the alternative many think of from this period. Where many records from this period consisted of the same song 10 times over, Cattlemen Don’t consists of 13 unique offerings; each song was meticulously chiseled using a mold from the Broadcaster era, but this time, the band dug deep, stayed focused, and crafted a dizzying array of inventive guitar-based power pop to create an album sounding as fresh and formidable today as it was two plus decades ago.
It’s the end of the year, everyone has assembled their Best of Lists. I question how many of these records will be spun 23 years from now. Dropping the needle on a freshly pressed Cattlemen Don’t is cheer, it’s nostalgia, it’s loud, it’s without a doubt one of the strongest records in my collection, and it’s an excellent reminder of why we should all love Triple Fast Action.
And the loudest, biggest props to Forge Again Records for getting these much-anticipated records out to fans before Christmas. When I heard Justin from Forge Again was personally delivering records to Chicago residents, I realized how wise the band was to work with a label of this great integrity. Much respect!
MiS | Moving in Stereo 
I can’t wait to hear this. I think I have only heard “Broadcaster!?”