When Cody Cox and his girlfriend, Caitlin McNally come home from a long day at work, the last thing they want to do is be serious. Instead, they piece together the absurd moments of their day, grab instruments, and sing about things like donkeys, nachos and making love.
Last summer, Cox and McNally formed Liver Mousse. McNally says she was watching the Bravo TV show "Top Chef" when two contestants began making liver mousse for desert. The name stuck.
"I was just fascinated," McNally says. "I liked that there could be such a thing. … It's the idea of something that ought to be light and fluffy, but it's a meat paste. It was kind of disturbing."
McNally swears she is not a musician, but she started singing and playing the tambourine and writing lyrics with Cox, who is the lead singer and guitarist for the band Furrows. McNally even picked up the drums, despite having no prior experience.
"I have two drums that I beat the hell out of," she says. "It makes me happier to play them than how it sounds."
Cox is careful to call the duo's music lo-fi but says their first CD released this spring, "Sans Pants," was purposely recorded to sound raw, complete with mistakes and spontaneous moments to sound "honest."
The song, "Nachos are Forever," juxtaposes two unrelated themes: nachos and sex. Cox opens the song with his rough, weathered voice and breaks with his harmonica while McNally plays the tambourine. She joins in the chorus, interrupting with a few short giggles.
"It's all pretty silly and kitschy," McNally says. "It's just about having fun. And the songs are really lighthearted. … If there is any theme to our music, it's that the only thing to be serious about is being silly."
Cox says Liver Mousse is an escape from the confinements of achieving musical perfection, which Furrows attempts to obtain in their recordings.
"Music can be just enjoyed; it doesn't have to be precise all the time," Cox says. "There can be some miscues and some mistakes. This is a way to celebrate that. It doesn't have be spot on every note. It gives us a certain kind of freedom."
Liver Mousse performs July 2 at Ole Tavern at 10 p.m. "Sans Pants" is currently available at Sneaky Beans.
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