Coos control

Coos Control’s transcendent spurtles were first heard in the fall of 2016 in that region
where moss and sand cavort together, the Oregon Coast. The band was formed by Jed
Wyman (formerly with Grim Reefer, Non Drowsy, The Imbroglios, and El Indio) and Alex
Hinkle (formerly with The Joint Chiefs and Infectious Waste). The band’s first gig
occurred in the spring of 2017 in the Black Box at Southwestern Oregon Community
College. Notable at the gig was a euphonium played by legendary Aaron Hull, a
runaway drum, and a copious number of bananas duct-taped to the walls. Then Alex left
and baby seals cried and turtles lamented. The band continued on, charging harder with
each splash of a certain wave on a special rock in a specific cove. Which wave, which
rock, and which cove, the band has no clue, but they are seeking them out and when
they find them, the discovery should affect strongly this thing we love and cherish called
Rock and Roll.

The line up for the first album, Snorkels and Portals, released in the fall of 2019,
consisted of Jed Wyman: guitar and gurgles, Max Young: bass, and Tom Nakamura:
drums. Playing guitar on half of the album’s songs was Scott Clough who departed
midway through the recording to visit different planetary quadrants. Notable Rock
journalist Rick Redeckless called Snorkles and Portals “a burlap sack filled with more
genuine Psych-Rock and heavy grooves than there are beans in a bean can—the larger
cans.” The trio of Wyman, Young, and Nakamura unfurled cascades of radness at
numerous gigs, but their most memorable performance is generally considered to be
their epic show at Time Bomb in the band’s town of origin, Coos Bay, where they rocked
so hard that any ellipsis in the immediate vicinity grew to the length of five dots as
opposed to three. Coos Control is believed to be the only Rock band to ever have this
effect on ellipsis.

Following the departure of Young and Nakamura a year of directionless woe followed as
numerous people filtered through the band, none of whom were able to embrace the
grooves with any real commitment.

Then Alex Hinkle, now in the guise of Xela Bass Wizard, returned to the fold and the
glow began to again take hold. Enter Alissa Rocktopus McCord, and the band was on
its way to unadulterated majonka. Rockto’s drumming and vocals helped coat the band
in a sticky sheen of inspired nuance. The band’s second album, Let us Ram Our Rock
Into You, recorded with this line-up in 2024, so impressed Rick Redeckless he gave it
this simple seven-word review: “It is the ug of the sun.”

Then came Kalee Pipewrench Walter. For the first time since Coos Control’s first gig,
brass, courtesy of Pipewrench’s trombone, graced the band’s sound. But it is more than
brass as Pipewrench is also a fantastic singer, keyboardist, tambourine basher, and has a phenomenal voice. The band, bolstered by a slew of epiphanies pertaining to artichokes and song-writing returned to the studio to record its third album, Rocktopus Epiphanies. This album, released in the summer of 2025, Rick Redeckless called “The
ultimate effort in the realm of artichokean Rock. I strongly recommend people post
sticky notes of these songs on the inside of their skulls.”

All three of the bands albums were recorded by Tony Esperance at Bay Vu Studios in
North Bend, Oregon. The band is currently recording its fourth album, Mind Turtle.
Coos Control albums, available only on vinyl, can be found in record stores in thirty-
eight states and in Spain, Italy, and Ireland.

Coos Control is:
Jed Mwalimu Wyman: guitar and gurgles
Alex Xela Bass Wizrd Hinkle: bass
Alissa Rocktopus McCord: drums and vocals
Kalee Pipewrench Walter: Trombone, keyboards, vocals, tambourine,
harmonica

And we are having so much fun we don’t know where to put it except into songs that
then go into your ears and into your brains, and your brain is like a garden where we till
the soil and plant various vegetables of Rock. This action is almost more majonka than
we can handle. Please join us in our Rock canoe. Next stop, the Plateau of Rock. How
does one get a canoe on to the top of a plateau, you may be wondering. Watch closely.
We’ll find a way.