Featured photo by Travis Shinn
Considering he doesn’t even have a record out yet, Los Angeles’ Joshua Ostrander is creating quite a bit of buzz for his Mondo Cozmo project. Some of that has come from celebrity endorsements (he wrote the theme song for Anna Faris’ Anna Faris Is Unqualified podcast), and some is the result of his already legendary antics (asked by his record label to prove he could sing live, he sent them a video of him performing in front of TV playing porn while the label staff’s emails and cell numbers scrolled along the screen).
But above all, most of the attention paid to Mondo Cozmo has been because of his music. His recent single “Shine” has been seen by many as an uplifting bright spot in the midst of a rather drab year. For those looking for a pick me up, however, they might want to check out the danceable beat of his latest cut, “Higher”.
There’s a bit of LCD Soundsystem in the song’s dance-punk structure, but it’s spliced with a brightness as if Damon Albarn was actually Beck in disguise. That allows it to maintain the feel of ’90s Britpop that drew many to “Shine”, while its beat shows a completely new side of Cozmo’s talent. Making that talent even more evident is the fact that he wrote the track only after the video was filmed.
“We shot the video for a different song and then I wrote ‘Higher’ after seeing [actress Paz de la Huerta’s] performance,” Cozmo tells Consequence of Sound. And this might not be the only song to come out of that video shoot, either. “She signed a video release form from my label and she wrote on it that I had to ‘write a song with her by next Sunday’ on the agreement… Still owe her that song.”
While we wait for that collaboration, take a check out “Higher” via the de la Huerta-starring video above. You can also catch it live when Mondo Cozmo performs three East Coast shows next year. Find those dates below.
Mondo Cozmo 2017 Tour Dates:
01/30 – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right
01/31 – New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge
02/01 – Philadelphia, PA @ Boot & Saddle
06/16-18 – Louisville, KY @ Forecastle Festival
