Heavy Rotation: Job For A Cowboy’s Nick Shinz Goes Deep on “Careless Whisper”

Today marks the triumphant return of Job For A Cowboy with the brand new album Moon Healer. As we said in our review of the album, it’s a certified fucking banger. Everyone who’s everyone should stop what they’re doing and listen to the damn thing because it’s a banger.

With such a killer record now out in the wild and what’s sure to be tour dates to be announced in the near future, we reached out to the guys to see what music they had playing while making the damn thing. Enter bassist Nick “Nicky Shinz” Schendzielos, who took the task at hand and laid out a handful of songs that stand out as personally important tunes.

Whether the songs below inspired Shinz’ bass lines or they just hit different these days, we want to give a huge shout out and thanks to the man for taking the time with this one. So sit back and let the personification of JFAC’s heavy as fuck low-end take you through his own personal “heavy rotation.”

Queens of the Stone Age — “In the Fade”

I first heard this song on the gramophone back in the Cephalic Carnage van 100 years ago, and when the record wasn’t skipping from the bumps in the road, I instantly felt a strong connection to it. That lullingly magnetic intro leading into the unparalleled tastefulness of the bass line is just chef’s kiss level perfection.

The haunting truth of Mark Lanegan’s vocals and especially lyrics of this tune ring eerily loud now that he’s passed. Powerful stuff.

Depeche Mode — “Stripped”

“Heavy” is one of those subjective terms humans toss around to describe a plethora of things: it can refer to physical mass or density, cream (like a bowl of heavy cream- which is great for lunch if you’re ever in Europe), rotations, or a lot of times and specifically in regards to music it can refer to emotional weight.

In that respect I think this is one of the heaviest songs there has ever been. It’s got infectiously haunting melodies melted with soaringly lush synth tones and a constant feeling of elevation. It’s so damn good, I can listen to it on repeat for a half hour and not once get tired of it. Whatever subliminal mind control VH1 was emitting through the airwaves back in the late 80’s was some seriously effective shit!

Cattle Decapitation — “Bring Back the Plague”

I can never get enough of this song. I’m such a lover of hooks that once (Cattle Decapitation’s) Travis (Ryan) brought out the pop goblin chorus, it was like only John Popper knew how I felt. Travis has a firm grasp of pop sensibilities and knows how to barb said hooks into the deepest recesses of your grey matter.

The simple and yet undeniably crushing main riff underneath those super Pyrrhic Victory-esque underlying melodic tones do such a killer job at conveying this emotional sense of necessary doom. I feel like they nailed the essence of that justifiable self-destruction quote from the self-immolating man in Richard Linklater’s Waking Life: “Man wants chaos. In fact, he’s got to have it. Depression, strife, riots, murder. All this dread. We’re irresistibly drawn to that almost orgiastic state created out of death and destruction. It’s in all of us.”

In addition to transmitting such a stoically somber message, the buildup and breakdown at the end is easily one of the heaviest burtations in modern extreme music.

George Michael — “Careless Whisper”

One crispy and mint spring day in Colorado, I decided to keep the song on repeat the entire day snowboarding, and even once on the way home. Twenty-three plays in a row. What a phenomenal song!

Here’s the rub… the whole song emits this essence that he’s so distraught from ruining his relationship with this person, that he says he’s NEVER going to dance again. But then at the very last line of the chorus, he says, “the way I danced with you.” So instead of the more permanent sense of “I’m never gonna dance again,” which implies that he’s never going to dance again with anyone EVER — which would be a testament to the depth of his feelings of regret and ability to empathize with this person — we get this serious dilution of the song’s implicit meaning and subsequently are left knowing that he, in fact, WILL dance again. Just not the way he danced with “you.”

This “bait and switch” approach to the song’s lyrics is borderline sadistic, as the person the song is written for might at first feel the song is an attempt to convey Michael’s heartfelt regret and willingness to withdraw from emotionally attaching to anyone else, but upon further inspection reveals that he will not only be dancing again, but even dating or entering a relationship. What an amazingly powerful deception and in turn, amazingly powerful song.

Parked By The Lake — “Dean Summerwind”

Sometimes less really is more, and there’s no greater example of the power of brevity than this masterpiece. Some folks need a whole Bible worth of lyrics to get the essence of their sentiment across, but not Dean Summerwind. Dean manages to convey a tsunami of feeling with just a handful of words and showed everyone else in the genre exactly how it’s done.

It is one of the greatest country songs of all time…I seriously can just put this song on repeat for a good hour or two, and it just continues to cut deeper and deeper.

Soften the Glare — “Yearning Heart/Mountain of Hope”

In January 2021, Ryan Martinie, Bon Lozaga, and Mitch Hull invited me out to film the recording process of their self-titled EP. It was such a magical experience getting to capture everything, and this song in particular has this bass melody I’ve heard Ryan play since like 2015-ish or so that is just an earworm of epic proportions to me.

Combined with Mitch’s ocean-deep pocket and Bon’s intricate, subtle, and incredibly tasty use of licks, chords, and tones, the song takes you on a wildly gorgeous and ethereal ride. They are such a dynamic, laser tight, and creative group of truly fantastic musicians. I highly recommend checking out their entire discography.

Nuclear Power Trio — “Anti-Saxxers (Mandatory Saxination)”

This group continues to surprise me with every new thing they drop. The blending of genres in this track is just crazy — seamlessly melding extreme slap-bass-fusion to parts that sound like Sade and “Pure Imagination” from Willy Wonka tripped acid together.

From the credits, it looks like Bruce Lamont did the saxophone which makes a lot of sense. It has that smooth-as-butter horn crooning he does, but with his signature elephant squeals poking out in there to inject some chaos into the vibe. Add in what I think is one of Chris Broderick’s coolest solos I’ve ever heard and it is truly just a fun track to listen to, much like the whole record, really.

Lastly, I don’t know who the bassist is, but I feel such a strong connection to the way he composes his lines. It’s like I’m inside his head because it’s exactly what I would choose to write to these insane guitar lines and super creative and unique drum parts.