Pizza Bath: Skips the Douches

Pizza Bath, In Crust We Trust

10 February 2018 By Christine Leonard 

To each a calzone.

As zestful as a slice of well-seasoned za, the saucy foursome known as Pizza Bath enjoy the hell out of a good kitchen party. Punching upwards with a frantic and fraught punk rock sound, vocalist/guitarist Sean Hamilton, guitarist/vocalist Eric Andrews Svilpis, bassist/vocalist Gavin Howard and drummer Fergie McLean recall the thirsty days of yore when garage jams and Hot Pockets ruled the suburban wasteland.  

“We all play in a lot of bands,” Hamilton acknowledges. “Pizza Bath emerged as a project out of Rockin’ 4 Dollar$ at Broken City. I had all these punk songs I’d been writing while on tour drumming for Miesha and the Spanks and I just wanted them to have a purpose. Eric helped me put together a band that was only supposed to learn like four songs, but it just sounded too good to not pursue and put some energy into.” 

Pouring their collective steam into a fully-loaded EP seemed like the right direction to head in, and they got down to pounding out some speedy but generously proportioned tunes.

“The goals and values of Pizza Bath stem from the lyrical content,” he elaborates.

“We wanted to be fun and goofy, but then have a much darker message in our portrayal of what life means and what our role in the world is. What we try and promote through our lyrics and real-life actions is just a willingness to become better; in everything we are and through all of our failures. We want to grow and learn to be the best versions of ourselves with each new experience.” 

Salvation is where you find it. And in the case of the not-so-flippant-after-all Pizza Bath, a compelling melody, unguarded confession or even a decisive downbeat can all illuminate the path to a more fulsome experience. Proof that the group’s philosophy isn’t hopelessly mired in glutinous psychoanalysis and sadness, Pizza Bath always makes short work out of providing audiences with a cheesy good time. 

“Don’t get me wrong, Pizza Bath is a lot of fun and games. That’s important, as well,” Hamilton affirms. “If you aren’t actively trying to enjoy life, then I’d like to meet up, give you a high five, and try to explain that if this blip of an existence isn’t the coolest thing in the universe, I don’t know what is. But, we do acknowledge the darkness. Because if you don’t see the desperation in life, you might be missing out on living a little bit of it.” 

Pizza Bath will celebrate their EP release show on Saturday, Feb. 17th at Nite Owl (Calgary) with Abductees, Old Wives and All Hands on Jane. Abductees will also be releasing a new recording that night!

Delhi 2 Dublin: Hot Canadian Dub Masala

Delhi 2 Dublin: as Desi
as they wanna be

09 February 2018By Christine Leonard 

Delhi 2 Dublin serve up tasty sub continental turntable/tabla pop.

What happens when you slam together all of the most visceral dance music you can find? You get Vancouver’s Delhi 2 Dublin, a world-binding fusion of Bhangra, hip-hop, Celtic reels, and electronic. That’s exactly the kind of spicy Canadian Masala that the five-piece have been serving up since the group’s inception at the Vancouver Folk Festival over a decade ago. Following that fateful meeting, tabla player and beat wizard Tarun Nayar, dhol/dholak virtuoso Ravi Binning, and vocalist Sanjay Seran, have been steadily churning out groove-filled albums, including the bombastic ‘We’re All Desi’ (2015), and bringing electro-clash dance parties to festivals around the globe.  

“The whole ‘Where do we fit in?’ thing has been really hard for us,” says vocalist and lyricist Sanjay Seran.

“It’s a blessing and a curse. We fit everywhere, so we’re able to take a lot of gigs and we’re always booked. And, we’re grateful for that, but the curse is not fitting here, there, nor anywhere. It’s a constant battle. We’re coming up on 12 years as a band in March and the core of the band is still together and getting along.” 

The same identity crisis that makes their offerings so unique as feeds back into the band’s own internal culture.

“We’ve done a lot of self-reflection and soul-searching about the confusion of being born in Richmond,” Seran continues.

“It’s a pretty affluent suburb of Vancouver, which means I grew up pretty sheltered, yet I grew up as a Brown kid born there. I didn’t experience a lot of racism, but most of it had to do with the embarrassment of hiding my culture – from the smell of the cooking to the clothing. So, you’re walking through life, trying to figure out who you are.” 

The journey of unraveling that age-old mystery has revealed some important truths to Delhi 2 Dublin. And while their mid-career identity crisis is not entirely resolved, the turntable-and-tabla outfit has emerged from the conversation with a renewed sense of purpose.  

“We do have a lot brewing under the hood. We’re hard at work on writing a new album right now and we’re stoked. We’re scrambling like mad to get a single ready to drop in February, but otherwise, we’re working on trying to get the best songs we can,” says Seran, who welcomed violinist Serena Eades into the trio’s touring compliment.

“Lately, we’ve been honing in on the idea of ‘Sub-continental Pop.’ Delhi 2 Dublin really resonates with this. We spent a bunch of time talking about and I feel like we’re more focused than ever.

Finally, we feel like we fit into this weird world we’ve been juggling. Everything’s getting better and better. Maybe we were ahead of our time. I will reflect on that.”

Delhi 2 Dublin perform at Block Heater on February 16 (Calgary).

Enter Shikari: sparking England's electro-rock future

Enter Shikari

06 February 2018By Christine Leonard 

Straight outta St Albans, Hertfordshire, England the upstart outfit known as Enter Shikari has been purveying its unique take on British electronic rock since coming together as a quartet in 2003. Over the past decade-and-a-half, Enter Shikari’s guitarist Liam “Rory” Clewlow, bassist Chris Batten, drummer Rob Rolfe and lead vocalist/keyboardist Rou Reynolds have been attacking the scene from the bastion of their own record label, the appropriately named Ambush Reality. Fans from many musical folds were quick to pick up on the group’s genre-melding style, which borrows heavily from the realms of electronica and experimental rock while mining everything from dubstep to hardcore punk and heavy metal for instrumentation and inspiration. The resultant ‘electronicore’ sound is a sleek but complex hybrid that has set charts and dance floors ablaze across the UK. It’s something audio-pioneer Reynolds describes as the inevitable outcome of tapping into their collective creative impulses. 

“Music flows out of me like vomit from a projectile vomiting drunk. I’m just the guy with a bucket mopping it up. And it’s relentless,” jokes Reynolds.

“All I try and do with Shikari is specifically write when I feel inspired – not provoked – into writing. Though I have no qualms with music for music’s sake, it is definitely not music for music’s sake. It has soul and it has purpose.” 

The inescapable gravity of modern life is a topic that Enter Shikari feels exceptionally well equipped to address. Appreciated for pushing political dialogue into the musical spotlight, the foursome rarely shies from the dark side of human existence. Opting instead to project vitriol outwards, Reynolds and his company of multi-instrumentalists excel at transforming simmering resentment and personal outrage into bust-a-move worthy art. 

“Music has been a tool that has brought communities together for millennia. We are united by the fact that we are all vulnerable to music’s emotional power. So, in effect, we are just continuing to use music for the same means, to bring people together, indiscriminately. If that means being political then that’s what it means. It doesn’t bother me,” he acknowledges.

“First and foremost, I like to be realistic. And, that means sometimes everything does seem to be going to shit and sometimes things do seem truly hopeless. A negative outlook every now and then is honest. The main thing I try to do is constantly make sure I’m putting things into perspective. Things are sometimes disheartening, but often exciting. I’m lucky to be able to have potential and willpower to do small things to make the world a little better.” 

One positive stride towards that noble goal comes in the form of Enter Shikari’s fifth and most recent full-length release, ‘The Spark’ (2017). Representing a steady progression that began with their certified-gold debut, ‘Take to the Skies’ (2007), ‘The Spark’ conjures a heavy-synth whirlwind that resonates with grimy layered vocals, brassy orchestral arrangements and rabble-rousing rhythms. 

“There was a lot more opening up about my life and experiences and a real determined effort to let melody take the forefront with this album,” confirms Reynolds, who composed ‘The Spark’ over the course of a year. 

“I wanted to concentrate on a more lucid style of music with a more personal, honest and open lyrical theme. The thing that we’ve found is, really it’s simply about the humans involved. If you’re working with people who truly understand and support your music that’s what matters most. Through experience, we learned that major labels probably aren’t right for us, as our music is too left-field and our nature too erratic and unpredictable.” 

So, how do that nonconformism and spontaneity translate from studio to stage? Strap on your jammy packs, kids! 

“We’ve been lucky enough to play some really big shows in Europe and have been able to really transform each venue we play into our own environment by using surround-sound and synchronized visuals. It’s takes months of preparation and work, but is so incredible when it all comes together. Having the sounds swirl around your ahead is almost disorientating and creates such an exciting atmosphere.”

Enter Shikari performs Monday, Feb. 13 at Commonwealth Bar (Calgary), and Tuesday, Feb. 14 at The Starlite Room (Edmonton), and Friday, Feb. 16 at Imperial (Vancouver).

Corrosion of Conformity: Rockin' Out with Reed Mullin

Corrosion of Conformity
through hardship to the stars

05 February 2018By Christine Leonard  

No Gods, No Idols, No Stage Diving.

North Carolina’s Corrosion of Conformity has seen a lot of changes sweep the music industry since its inception in 1982, and so it’s only fitting that the punk, thrash, heavy metal act has reinvented itself on more than one occasion. Most notably, the comings and goings of guitarist Pepper Keenan and drummer Reed Mullin have had a significant impact on the tone and personality of the band. 

Tracking their commanding presence, subsequent absences and gradual reappearances is enough to give a music archivist hives! Still, the steadfast act has managed to survive and thrive, from the early success of formative albums like Technocracy (1985) to the definitive movements of In the Arms of God (2005), the tenacious Southern-blues-rock phenomenon has made a career of traversing genre-lines and outlasting trends. 

Today Corrosion of Conformity continues to draw on the same elements that have always been their calling card; solid songwriting, intense collaboration and pure unabated lust for working their audiences into a lather. And, judging by their work ethic, it’s evident that elder statesmen Keenan, guitarist Woody Weatherman, bassist Mike Dean and Mullin aren’t quite ready to rust in peace. 

“Don’t get me started on the nightmare situation here in the States. My God!” says percussionist Reed Mullin of the band’s current political outlook, noting that COC hasn’t abandoned its post, but is perhaps a bit more subtle in expressing their views than in the past.

“We still touch on issues, but I don’t think we’re quite as demonstrative, or finger-pointing, as we’ve been in the past. Not to say we’ve abandoned things that we feel strongly about.” 

Judging by the strength of COC’s first new album full-length album in four years, No Cross No Crown (2018), the band isn’t running short on ideas.  

“It’s a long one, isn’t it? She’s long!” Mullin exclaims with an air of pride.

“The new album definitely represents us and this chapter in our history very well. We kind of feel like we can and have done whatever kind of music we want. And haven’t been bound by our past or anything like that. Our name is Corrosion of Conformity (I came up with the name in chemistry class) and I think we remain true to the name. We’ve always been into blending different things because we like a lot of different types of music. Luckily a lot of people grew with us. Our sound is complex, it has a lot of influences, and a lot of ear-candy.” Mullin elaborates.  

“The vast majority of, No Cross No Crown, was written in the studio. Originally, we were going to demo the material at our rehearsal space/studio and then we were going to take the tracks somewhere else, like Dave Grohl’s studio, to do what was supposed to be the real tracks. But, as we went along, the demo tracks just sounded so fucking good that we finally asked ourselves ‘How are we going to make this better? It already sounds slammin!’ Everything was really loose and not over thought and I think that’s one of the main aspects of this new record. Captures the live essence of COC.” 

Bottling the lighting that is COC in-performance is one thing, but bringing those recorded tracks to life on stage is another ball of wax. Fortunately, by (the soon to be 52) Mullin’s estimation, getting back into tour-ready condition was as simple as falling off a bike. 

“We’ve been touring together again as this particular line-up since 2014. This is a classic line-up and certainly the most popular one, but if you ask an old crusty punk rocker they’ll probably disagree with you. We’ve had three big incarnations as a band; the original ‘80s hardcore punk version (so it was a little different), and then we did one album with a guy named Karl Agell singing and Pepper (Keenan) sang one song called “Vote With A Bullet,” and that was much more metal and super political, and then the Pepper one.  For me, it’s been 18 years since I recorded with the band. I split for a little while and they did an album with a badass drummer named Stanton Moore. So, America’s Volume Dealer is the last one I was did, in 2000. I think we probably always thought that we could keep going on. I don’t think we ever thought it was over with.” 

Knowing when to say “When!” has never been the hardcore outfit’s prerogative, but they have established a crew of talented (and more restrained) individuals who dutifully curb those tendencies from the other side of the soundproof glass. 

“We’ve used our Producer, John Custer, since 1991,” reports Mullin. “He’s a Raleigh-boy like me, Mike Dean and Woody. He’s fantastic and was able to extract these killer takes from me and everybody else. We ended up getting it mixed by Mike Fraser, he’s a well-known engineer, mixer, producer-guy who did our Wiseblood album. Something Henry Rollins of Black Flag used to say was ‘Playing live. That’s the get off. And when you go to the studio that’s just the documentation of the get-off.’ I think we documented the get-off pretty good.”
 

Corrosion of Conformity perform with Black Label Society and Eyehategod on Monday, Feb. 12 at The Ranch Roadhouse (Edmonton), Friday, Feb. 16 at Bowes Event Centre (Grande Prairie) and Saturday, Feb. 17 at MacEwan Hall (Calgary)