Former Puddle of Mudd Members Team up on New Project “Cooker”

Cooker’s debut album Setting the Head on Fire is being slated as a “side-project of Jimmy Allen and his good friend, Troy McCoy.” If those names sound familiar it’s because Allen (Lead Guitar) and McCoy (Base) are both former members of the mega rock band Puddle of Mudd.

Allen, a guitar virtuoso and Award-Winning songwriter, was the talent behind Puddle hits such as “Blurry,” “Drift and Die,” and “She Hates Me.” In 2007, Allen formed the band Against All Will. Against’s debut EP Rhyme and Reason spawned popular singles “All About You” and “The Drug I Need.”

Released November 4th on V&R Records, Setting the Head on Fire is fast paced, hard driving, and full of kick ass guitar work. There’s a definite grunge vibe but, Cooker brings something new, fresh, and definitely hard.

Warning! Stretch your neck muscles out before listening to avoid injury…there will be head banging!

On the album’s opening track “Settle the Score,” Jimmy declares himself back with hard guitar riffs coming right out of the gate. The song has fantastic energy and heralds what’s coming.

Song 2, “Sugarmilk,”is another high energy song that delivers. After the intro, Jimmy comes out hard and heavy. Later in the song we are treated to a tempo change that slowly brings some drama into the tune.

“Bad Unit,” song 3, starts out with a pounding drum solo then Jimmy comes in.

I was in the cab of my truck when I first listened to Bad Unit. Without realizing it I heard myself screaming, “Hell Yeah” at the top of my lungs! On an album full of aggressive, hard, tracks this might be the rowdiest (and my favorite).

Song 4, “Choke Up,” is up tempo and this is where the grunge-vibe starts to come in.

Song 5, “Robot,” takes a slower pace through most of the song but comes a bit harder midway through and towards the end of the song.

“Brown Girl,” song 6, is slow to medium tempo song that stays that way until about 2:25 in when it builds to a RAGE then slowly drifts off.

Song 7, “Loop,” was another one I liked. Loop starts out with a pretty intro that turns into a nice ride. The intro reminded me of Surf Guitar music (a bit). I’d love to see this one live since it feels very fan-forward and almost conversational. This one builds to a rage! Wait for it… wait for it!

“Subconscious,” song 8, is a trippy song. I liked the vibe, although the guitar solo felt out of place.

Song 9 “Roach”. Perfect last song to cap off this album, a high energy period on a rock n roll conversation.

Listening to Setting the Head on Fire, you’ll feel distinct vibes of grunge. Instead of sounding like two guys hanging on to their past, this album sounds more like a loving homage to some great music they left back there.

These are my impressions of course, yours may vary. If you love hard rock, then I bet you’ll love this album as much as I do.

In a world where much of rock is careening into rap, this album is something different. Setting the Head on Fire, feels like an important reminder of our roots and introduces a new generation to some super cool rock.

Allen and McCoy are calling this a side-project but I’m crossing my fingers that this is the beginning of the next big thing!