HOT PANDA: Feeling hot, hot, hot

Hot Panda branches out into new directions

by Christine Leonard

Published December 9, 2010  

Hot Panda's dynamics include lo-fi indie rock, Brit-pop, garage, country and even sprinkles of electronica.

It’s hard to imagine what was going through the mind of Vancouver’s chief coroner, Glen McDonald, when he heard the news that the Second Narrows Bridge had collapsed, taking 19 steelworkers to their watery grave. From the window of a restaurant — where he happened to be eating lunch at the time — he witnessed the destruction firsthand, a ghastly and lethal scene he would later describe in his 1985 memoirs How Come I’m Dead? And, who would have guessed that, 50 years after the disaster, Edmonton’s Hot Panda would stumble across McDonald’s autobiography in a secondhand bookstore, and be inspired to weave a new musical workaround its lugubrious sentiment?

“I think the name really fits with the mood of the songs on the album,” says lead guitarist-vocalist Chris Connelly. “A lot of those lines were written while we were on the road touring Europe and North America. (It’s) the result of not being in one place for any reasonable length of time. The central theme is very much about being forcibly disconnected from places and relationships. That experience of immediate homelessness and just floating between quick encounters is kind of like being a living ghost.”

Recorded, produced and sent to press at breakneck speed, Hot Panda’s spirited offering, How Come I'm Dead?, released in October via Mint Records, came together at JC/DC Studios amidst the jubilant chaos of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. An evolutionary leap forward from its 2007 debut EP, Whale Headed Girl, and the subsequent full-length Volcano... Bloody Volcano (Mint), its latest offering abandons the group’s geographically imprinted garage rock lineage for more expressive lo-fi indie and Brit-pop branches.

Conferring with fellow members — keyboardist-accordionist Heath Parsons, bassist Catherine Hiltz and glockenspiel player-drummer Maghan Campbell — Connelly and co. spice its Big Top major-key romps, rocking solos and country jaunts with a dash of profanity-studded urban electronica, thrown in to enhance and heighten the other elements. Call it the audio equivalent of MSG.

“I’m a sucker for the cohesive, storytelling, full-length albums I grew up with as a child. But it’s tough to gauge how an audience is going to respond to that in this age of shortened attention spans. Bands who go two years without putting something out might as well have fallen off the face of the Earth,” surmises Connelly. “We were a bit hurried in putting the flesh on the skeletons of these songs, and we decided to intentionally leave in the mistakes we made along the way. Not too rehearsed, not too polished, because we wanted it to sound like we were all in the same room at the same time during recording.”

With the majority of its cuts coming live off the floor, complete with all the zits and whiskers, the band’s sophomore effort celebrates Hot Panda’s reclamation of the simple joys of creativity. Emerging from a period of melancholic inertia, Connelly and company agree that Hot Panda’s positive new outlook came along just in time, thanks to the addition of bassist Hiltz.

“The idea was to capture the good energy we have going on these days,” says Connelly. “Since Catherine’s joined the band, things have become a lot more interesting. She’s such a versatile multi-instrumentalist — she’s like a Swiss Army knife! If I say ‘We need a cello here,’ she plays the cello, and so on. It’s great! She keeps it fresh. There’s a real spark to our collaborations now that she’s on board, and I make sure to thank her every day for bringing the fun back into our work.”

Indeed, the foursome enjoys incorporating unexpected turns to its musical voyage, making forays into the country-western landscape to pogo-punk, with plenty of swelling tides of keyboard melody to keep things flowing. Able to boast an unusual skill-set that allows it to pulverise contemporary styles in restless smash-ups, this drone-pop outfit (with a Chinese takeout joint’s name) aims to amuse and provoke in competing increments.

Add to this a zany cover-art photo of a woman riding a camel in stunning Kodachrome-pink and aqua hues, and you have the making of a sleeper hit capable of building suspension bridges between eras and ears.

“That picture was taken of my mom during a trip to Greece in the ’70s,” he says. “She has a copy of the album on vinyl and, my brother tells me that she brings it out to brag to her friends all the time! I don’t know if she’s read much into the meaning behind the title, but she’s thrilled to have that photograph of herself on the cover of an album, because, as she puts it, ‘I look good!’”

Bad Religion: The Book of Caffeine and Naivety

Bad Religion emerging
from the valley of shadows

by Christine Leonard

BeatRoute Magazine, no. 70, October 2010


Having added terms such as “rectilinear,” “Diogenes” and “entropy” to the punk rock lexicon, the band that wrote the book on anti-establishmentarian hardcore has come to a personal crossroads. With some fourteen studio albums ensconced in the hallowed halls of music history, So-Cal rock legends Bad Religion must face their own music and address the burning question they posed to the world so many years ago: quality or quantity?

“It’s always a good thing to venture into new territory. We like to hit the reset button once and while,” affirms founding member and bassist Jay Bentley. “We’re always looking to the next project because we view every album as a plateau: making this record took us into the unknown and that was a huge learning experience. Whenever we put our heads together over a record, things inevitably come down to the question, 'How do you define power?' There’s always going to be another punk band out there who’s louder and faster and is bound and determined to try and prove it. We’re more concerned with sharing ideas. That conveyance can be achieved in many ways and in the end, those interactions are the longest standing. Even things that seem diametrically opposed to one another can be quite powerful."

Fuelled by a lethal combination of “caffeine and naivety,” Bad Religion set off album number fifteen with a bang. Bassist Jay Bentley, along with bandmates singer-songwriter Greg Graffin, guitarist Brian Baker, guitarist Greg Hetson and drummer Bruce Wackerman, celebrated guitarist Brett Gurewitz’s 48th birthday in true punk rock fashion by heading into long-time friend and collaborator Joe Barresi’s studio to lay down some tracks. The ultimate result of their labour of lush, The Dissent of Man, resonates with three decades worth of political unrest and social turmoil with a peppering of midlife pith thrown in for good measure.

“The days of the late nineties were about the deepest valley we ever entered as a band,” Bentley admits. “There were moments when we thought quitting might be justifiable, but going through that experience of being humiliated made us appreciate all the things that we’ve been given in life. That was the point where we knew that we either had to dedicate ourselves completely to the craft or just stop doing it all together. In times of doubt, it’s often best to move along from your comfort zone. If you settle in, you’ll never know what’s out there waiting for you to find it.”

A fitting follow-up to The Empire Strikes First (2004) and New Maps of Hell (2007), both also produced by Barresi, The Dissent of Man is an album that can stand on its own merit despite being dubbed a thirtieth-anniversary release by some punk rock pundits. As far as the band is concerned, this new effort is a fresh attempt at getting closer to the truth behind the fleeting human interactions that motivate them to create their indelible audio art. From the bleak urban unrest of “The Day That the Earth Stalled” to the cathartic mockery of “The Devil in Stitches,” it is abundantly evident that Bad Religion has spent the past three years thumbing the scales in their own favour without short-changing the little guy.

“I believe that we’ve struck that awkward balance between ego and taking pride in our work,” postulates Bentley. “Truly, we are humbled that anyone even pays attention to what we have to say. Finally, we’ve just settled into this area of gratitude and as we move into the future our focus is placed on pure enjoyment.”

MELVINS - Interview with Roger " King Buzzo " Osborne by Christine Leonard

Sledding with the Melvins

Grunge's Godfathers finally crack the Billboard Top 200

"Grunge is the ring around my bathtub." ~King Buzzo

The problem with achieving fame and fortune overnight is that it comes with a certain set of expectations that often leaves the artists in question scrambling to top their earlier success. Luckily, this has never been a problem for the much-overlooked hardcore musical act known as The Melvins — until now. Launched last month, the band’s latest album, The Bride Screamed Murder, defied the odds and startled the band by claiming the inglorious last spot on the Billboard 200 pop chart.

“It charted on the Billboard charts at 200, but the amount of records sold wasn’t that many — like 3,000, which we joke is about the number we used to give away and send out for reviews,” says Melvins frontman Roger “King Buzzo” Osborne with a chuckle. “It just means that bad things are on the way and you’d better watch out for other plagues, too, because the end of the world must be nigh. But we’ll be OK — we’re like cockroaches and Tupperware.”

The Melvins have certainly absorbed and digested the slings and arrows of an outrageous 25-plus-year career in the music industry, but King Buzzo is anything but jaded, especially when it comes to finding new and interesting material to conquer. Mining its collective experience for new ways to express its groundbreaking metal-meets-punk-meets-hard-rock sound, the band dug deep to carve this 20th studio outing into something out of the ordinary.

“If you watch The Who documentary The Kids Are Alright, there’s a version of ‘My Generation’ that’s not too much different than ours — and that was our inspiration to do it,” Buzzo says of the new album’s standout tribute. “We thought it was odd that they’d do a cover of their own song and do such a different version of it, you know? We were playing that live a couple of years ago on tour and we’d get our two drummers Dale and Coady to sing the song; we thought that’d be something interesting that we hadn’t done before. It came out good, so we decided to use it as the centrepiece of the new album and pretty much came up with the other songs around that.”

Geared up and ready to face another sweltering summer festival season, the Brillo-tressed Buzzo and company are eager to bring their slothcore goodness to Calgary audiences at Sled Island. Slated to take to the Olympic Plaza stage with a roster of sonic giants including Dinosaur Jr., The Bronx, NoMeansNo and Hot Water Music, The Melvins relish the opportunity to kick out the jams and upend the honey bucket.

“That’s it! That’s the cowboy’s outfit!” says King Buzzo; instantly drawing the parallel between The Melvins’ album Nude with Boots and Sled Island’s unofficial Cowtown-on-the-lowdown dress code.

“We haven’t been up to Calgary for a while, so we’re looking forward to it. It’s at the Saddledome right? Our booking agent said we were playing the Saddledome and that it was some kind of rodeo. I hope so, ’cuz we’ve worked out a special set just for the occasion; including ‘Okie From Muskogee’ and ‘Bob Durkee’s a Dick.’”

~Christine Leonard
Originally published in FFWD Magazine July 1, 2010

Chron Goblin interviewed by Christine Leonard

Staying in tune and on top of the chaos

Calgary’s Chron Goblin keeps control of its punk-metal stoner-rock

Chron Goblin is set to perform with Chakobsa & Illuminated Minerva

It’s a classic springtime scenario: You meet up with someone you know through friends of friends, you hit it off and before you know it, you’re off making beautiful music together. Well, that’s pretty much how it happened last April for Chron Goblin vocalist Josh Sandulak and drummer Brett Whittingham, who soon met their match in guitarist Devin “Darty” Purdy and bassist Richard Hepp, both formerly of the Calgary metal act Teitan. United by mutual enrollment at the University of Calgary, as well as a shared love of hardcore music, the quartet worked around its studies in order to put out an EP within a year of forming Chron Goblin. Buoyed by the positive reaction to its self-titled five-songer, the band is more energized and motivated than ever to deliver its homegrown strain of punk-metal merriment to the public.

“We’ve always taken the DIY approach, so we’re really happy with what we’ve achieved,” confirms Sandulak. “Now that our first album is out, our focus is renewed and our approach to the songwriting process is more cool and collaborative than ever. We may have come together during our university days, but it’s friendship that has carried us on to this point. Looking back, it’s hard to believe that we actually wrote the song ‘Walk With Me’ the very first time we jammed; it just turned into this other thing. I don’t think any of us expected the band to take off like it did. Now, we jam two or three times a week. We’re like family.”

United by the ties that bind, Chron Goblin also looks to its bindings for musical inspiration. From the sheer reflective glory of “Mirror” to the heart-pounding intensity of “Flat-Footed Hypocrite,” Chron Goblin loves to lay down a heavy foundation while scoring big points for its crowd-pleasing technical style. The band was both surprised and thrilled when snowboarding company Somewon Snow out of Revelstoke, B.C. used its thrash-worthy tune “Awkward Endeavour” on the soundtrack of a recent video production.

“We had no idea that our song was being picked up by them until someone told us,” says Sandulak. “Of course, we were totally into it as we’re all skateboarders, and Brett, being from Invermere, and I have been into snowboarding for years. We even have a little half-pipe ramp set up outside of the garage where we jam. Anytime you want a break, to clear your head, you can grab a board and skate ramp. It’s ideal.”

Having recently returned from an eye-opening trek to India, purportedly an acronym for “I’ll never do it again,” Sandulak looks forward to filling Chron Goblin’s summer with blue skies, cold brews and as many gigs as he can book. Weddings, bat mitzvahs, anything — this band is down for a good time. Musical adrenaline incarnate, Chron Goblin naturally jumped at the chance when Somewon Snow called for the lads to entertain its party guests at a local shindig last month.

“As you would expect of a stoner-rock outfit with a lot of punk and metal influences, we have quite a reputation for going crazy and taking the crowd with us,” Sandulak explains with a knowing chuckle. “We just played a Somewon Snow BBQ at a private home known as the Mouse House, and it got a little out of control. People were falling in the fireplace and trying to mosh all over the place, and we wound up standing on the couches while performing. When you’re playing a show like that, you’ve just gotta do what you’ve gotta do to keep it together: Stay in tune and stay on top of the chaos.”


by Christine Leonard

Originally published in FastForward Magazine

June 17, 2010

DRINKING GAMES: IRON CHEF / DEADWOOD / SOA

IRON CHEF AMERICA

(to be played with warm sake or scalding hot green tea)

1. Be sure to yell "Kanpai" – a Japanese toast meaning "Drain the cup!"
2. Chairman Kaga’s nephew and host of Iron Chef America Mark (The Crow) Dacasos announces the theme ingredient by bringing his hand down in a mighty karate chop motion. Take a shot.
3. When the theme ingredient is either endangered, extinct or genetically modified. Take two shots.
4. Alton Brown shares one of his coveted unusual food facts (i.e. "Annatto is the poor man’s saffron"). Take a shot.
5. Iron Chef Mario "Testarossa" Batali’s signature shorts, sneakers or Crocs are shown on-screen. Take a shot (grappa may be substituted for sake in this instance).
6. Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto’s high pitched Mickey Mouse voice is audible. Take a shot.
   Iron Chef Bobby Flay drops, burns, electrocutes or stands on something. Take two shots.
   A knife or burn wound is sustained by a kitchen assistant or challenger. Take a shot.
   A knife or burn wound is sustained by an Iron Chef. Take two shots.
7. Tasting Round: When tasters use one of the following terms in describing the dishes: subtle, profound, texture, emphasizes, compliments, good or home cooking. Take a shot.
   Final judgment a.k.a. "Whose cuisine reigns supreme?": Take one shot for every point separating the victor and the defeated.

~~~

DEADWOOD

(to be played with whiskey, or sarsaparilla)

1. Saloon owner Al Swearengen says the F word, take a shot. (That should pretty much take care of business!)
2. Doc Cochran says something along the lines of "Don’t tell me how to do ma job!". Take a shot.
3. On-screen opiate use. Take a shot.
4. Implied sex act? Take a shot.
5. On-screen sex with a saloon whore? Take two shots.
6. Someone takes a shot, take a shot.
7. Someone gets shot, take a shot.
8. Bodies are dropped off at Mr. Wu’s pigsty. Take a shot. Bacon vodka is recommended. But eating bacon is okay, too.
9. Cemetery burial with weird funeral proceedings by Rev. H.W. Smith, take two shots.

~~~

 
SONS OF ANARCHY

 (with whiskey, beer, or tequila. Cigars/420 optional)

1. Someone says "SAMCRO" take a drink/shot.
2. Burning out of TM as a posse on wheels (4 or more riders) take a shot.
3. Piney takes a shot. Take a shot.
4. Club House meeting at the original Redwood table? Everyone drinks in unison upon gavel banging.
5. Someone says "Blowback." Snort splash from the upturned bottom of a shot glass.
6. Visiting Cara Cara Studios?  Body shots for all!
7. Tig/Trager admires something in a sexually-creepy fashion. Take a stiff drink.
8. The first one to spot a new tattoo on any cast member can command everyone else to take a drink.
9. Every time someone lights one up. Light one up.
10. Official removal of SAMCRO patch or tattoo! Peel the label from your bottle in one piece, or you'll have to drain the whole thing in one mighty swig.
11. Big Otto appears on screen? Open a screw-top beer with your eye socket and drink it before the scene ends.
12. On-screen death of a club member? Everyone drinks, and then pour one out for the fallen.

 
by Christine Leonard