CLUNK Recommends | Cowboy Hunters - Punched In The Head

Meg Ivy Brunning

Music journalist and photographer based in Cardiff (for now). Just trying to write about music that moves me in someway. If you do wish to find me though, I’ll usually be tucked away listening to music, talking to an animal on the street like a modern day Snow White or at a gig somewhere!

Cowboy Hunters’ newest single is abrasive, demonic and tinged with a grizzly nonchalance, earning the Glasgow two-piece nods of approval all round.

If you’ve spent any time on the internet over the last few weeks — or maybe you’ve just found yourself lurking in sticky-floored venue corners — then you’ll know that Glasgow duo Cowboy Hunters have had the UK punk scene completely trapped in a chokehold… or, in this case, taking individual blows to the head.

Megan Pollock and Desmond Johnston haven’t even dropped a debut album yet, but they’ve managed to rack up over three million Instagram views on a single snippet and left thousands of fans going feral in their comments, practically begging for an official release. As one YouTube commenter so perfectly put it under their recent Treacle Session video: “I love finding songs that scratch a specific part of my brain that I didn’t even know was itchy.”

‘Punched In The Head‘ is punk meets grime dragged through a demonic fairground ride and dumped right into the centre of a basement packed wall-to-wall. It’s the absolute fullest expression yet of Pollock and Johnston’s infectiously crass brand of distorted, grizzly nonchalance that spirals and bounces in every direction. You can instantly feel yourself wanting to throw your body around in the best way possible. Personally, I would never voluntarily go into a mosh pit… but for this song? I’d definitely think about it.

The vocals sit in that rare, golden sweet spot right between a spit-drenched sneer and a total, unfazed shrug — floating over razor-sharp, heavy-hitting instrumentals that make you want to jump off a speaker stack and just pray somebody below is there to catch you. It’s chaotic, of course it is, but it’s the exact kind of cathartic noise you need when life feels a bit too quiet or overwhelmingly heavy.

It’s mind-boggling to think a band with no full-length record to their name yet is already pulling over 200,000 monthly Spotify listeners and earning nods of approval from celebrities including Florence Pugh and Machine Gun Kelly.

Scroll through the comments on any live video with their name on it and the sentiment is unanimous. From fans declaring, “I’m gonna tell my kids this is the White Stripes”, to others admitting they “…feel 5 years younger just listening to this”, Cowboy Hunters are tapping into something genuinely alive, electric, and completely thrilling.

Listen to ‘Punched In The Head‘ here: