John Petkovic is a Copycat Killer                                                                                                                                                                                            

"What do you think about Ron Artest?" asks Cobra Verde front man John Petkovic. Petkovic is sporting a worn corduroy jacket, some frayed jeans, and a thrift shop-looking cardigan with the limp collar of a wholly unmatched check shirt peaking out from underneath. Hardly your prototype sports bar going type; but then again, the brand new Westlake "sports bar" we found ourselves in was hardly a real sports bar.

"I think he’s been unfairly judged – and rather harshly," I respond. "He’s a phenomenal defender who has developed an offensive game that damn near matches his defense. And he comes across as being pretty damn intelligent."

"So you think he’d be a good addition to the Cavs?" Petkovic asks with an agreeable smile. "Something like Artest and Jeff Foster for Zydrunas (Ilgauskas) in a sign and trade?"

"Absoutely," I reply, "in a heartbeat."

This isn’t quite the line of conversation I’d had in mind for the evening, but that is what you get when you talk to John Petkovic; his interests and passions are varied and many. Movies (Death Wish 3, we agreed, is an essential, nihilistic, decadent, and yes, artful 80’s "classic"); politics ("I have my views, but I at least realize that they are flawed and dysfunctional – there aren’t any politicians in office who’d ever admit that to themselves or anyone else"); sports (especially NBA basketball; Petkovic has satellite radio in his car for the sole purpose of being able to listen to NBA action all the time); and music – both his own and other artists’, all filled the night’s conversational plate. And while it took some time to get around to the latter (Petkovic comes off as awkwardly humble and strives to remain unpretentious when talking about his music), it was other musicians work that dominated the conversation. Which, considering the texture of Cobra Verde’s new album – a brilliant collection of "cover" songs ranging from Donna Summer disco ("I Feel Love") to Leonard Cohen (Petkovic channeling Nick Cave on "So Long, Marianne") titled Copycat Killers – was utterly fitting.

"I think that great songs, I mean truly, truly great songs," Petkovic says, "are ones that are clearly connected to the artist who created them, but that can be performed effectively by anyone who wanted to. That’s what makes a song great."

But there were great (probably the best ever) Cobra Verde songs on Easy Listening – Cobra Verde’s critically-acclaimed platter from 2003 – so why a "covers’ record now? Why not ride the crest of a wave that’d been building over the past year and a half with more original Cobra Verde rock and roll?

"Because everyone in the band loved playing those songs," Petkovic explains. "Everyone liked playing them so much that I felt if we’d go into the studio right now to write new songs we’d wind up with the same record twice."

Petkovic winces at what he just heard himself say; his lips actually seem to pucker a bit – as though the very words left a sour taste in his mouth. You don’t have to know John Petkovic very long before you know that anything remotely akin to just such a folly (tiredly repeating a once successful formula) would be considered something beyond a mortal sin by the man.

"Oh wow," he sighs when asked about this, "can you imagine even wanting to do that?"

"We sure didn’t. So it seemed like a good idea to force ourselves away from our own music in order to find a new voice again. So we picked out some songs, none of these were specific choices, they could have been any songs really, and we decided to put out a record filled with them."

Yet Copycat Killers stay true to the Cobra Verde esthetic that says nothing done the same way twice has been done right. And unlike the approach of other rock bands that fit into the "indie" or "alternative" mold, Cobra Verde delivers very little, or no, irony in their approach (save possibly the breathy take on Pink’s "Get the Party Started"); Petkovic and his band truly dig these songs, and thus treat them with an uncommon reverence.

"The Stones "Play with Fire", The Fall’s "The Dice Man", Mott’s (the Hoople) "Rock and Roll Queen", why wouldn’t you treat them reverently?" Petkovic says. "They are all great songs. We may approach them differently, but we’re still approaching them as the great songs they are."

And on Copycat Killers, Cobra Verde’s approach is one to truly savor.

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