White Cowbell Oklahoma brings extra saucy, sleazy rock 'n' roll to Sault Ste. Marie

White Cowbell Oklahoma is taking its raucous brand of 70s-inspired boogie rock on the road for a tour of Ontario and Quebec in support of the band’s latest album, Seven Seas of Sleaze.   

That tour, according to guitarist and vocalist Clem C. Clemson, will be heading in a northerly direction to Sault Ste. Marie when White Cowbell takes the stage at LopLops Jan. 26.

“LopLops is sort of going to fold inwards into itself, into a seventh dimensional space,” drawled Clemson while speaking with SooToday. “It’s going to fold inwards and collapse - and then re-energize, there’s going to be so much rock n’ roll energy packed into that little room.”

“It’s going to be a good time.”

The number seven is thrown around quite a bit while talking with Clemson, as Seven Seas of Sleaze is the seventh album featuring seven band members.

The album also contains seven tracks - two new cuts packaged with five live performances of songs from previous albums.  

“We found these multi-tracks from a radio session we did in Lethbridge, Alta., and they’re extended live versions of tracks that kind of surpassed the studio versions, if you ask me,” said Clemson. “They went live to air as they were. The only thing we’ve done to them is we remixed them so they sound a bit, you know, snazzier.”

White Cowbell Oklahoma recently released a video of Into The Sun - the first track on Seven Seas of Sleaze - with plans to release a video for Harder Come, Harder Fall, the other studio cut from the new album, within the next month or so.

Clemson tells SooToday that some of the live radio performances that appear on Seven Seas of Sleaze can be found on YouTube.  

“If you look around, you’ll find us performing in the visual medium as well - all three dimensions smushed into two for your entertainment,” he said. “You have to see the show if you wanna see all seven dimensions.”

Not only is White Cowbell Oklahoma touring behind its latest album, it’s also celebrating two decades of existence.

“It’s the 20th year of shame in this snowballing juggernaut of shame that we call White Cowbell Oklahoma,” Clemson said.

The band began in 1999, “when Bill Clinton was still president and electronica was the rage, and people were buying cargo pants thinking they were cool, and people thought that Oasis was a good band,” Clemson told SooToday.

“It was a different century, it was a different millennium,” he continued. “However, nothing’s really changed with White Cowbell Oklahoma, because we’re static in space and time.”

The band kicks off its tour of Ontario and Quebec Jan. 18 in Hamilton, eventually working its way north to the Sault next weekend.

“We’re just doing Ontario and Quebec instead of going all the way out west, so there’s going to be extra special juice - there’s going to be some au jus on this French stick,” said Clemson. “It’s going to be extra saucy. Extra saucy indeed.”

Clemson says the band will pack so much explosiveness into LopLops, the structure may not even be standing by the time the ‘bell leaves town.

“It’s a border town - we like border towns, because there’s always sleazy things going on in a border town. Just the way we like it.”

Tickets for White Cowbell Oklahoma are $20, and can be purchased through the LopLops website.