Black Mastiff - Interview with Clay and Bob

Black Mastiff Seize Control
with Loser Delusions

by Christine Leonard

“All of the songs in my head are Black Mastiff!”

It’s a common condition among those who have been exposed to the Edmonton rock band’s wide-bottomed grooves and soulful vocals. Renowned for their thick curves and intuitive rhythms, the heavy blues-metal trio has eclipsed their local scene and grown in stature and repute on a diet of beefy riffs and Alberta rye.

Far from the desert canyons and rocky peaks pursued by their headbanging brethren, Black Mastiff is most at home prowling the urban landscape and exploring Edmonton’s dark underbelly. It’s where they found the inspiration for their latest album, Loser Delusions; its name a cheeky tip of the bandana to Axl Rose, reflecting Black Mastiff’s state of mind.

“It was first thrown out as a bit of a joke,” explains bassist Clay Shea. “We had a giggle and then we thought about it for a bit and it just kind of made sense to us, with the way the writing process had been going and our dedication to the process of getting together. Our drummer, Allan (Harding), had been living in Vancouver and we were just trying to stay motivated and were a bit delusional about the future.”

It was a trial and a test for the sludgy outfit, who’s self-titled debut appeared in 2011. Working on Loser Delusions, Shea and guitarist/vocalist Bob Yiannakoulias knew they had reached a crucial stage in the band’s development, a high watermark that would see the fuzzy entity sink or swim for its melodic life.

“We’re always going for it, but we had to work hard to make this one happen,” says Yiannakoulias of working long-distance. “It took a lot of motivation because that cathartic thing you get from going to practice, turning up the amps, cranking up, blowing through your songs and having those rewarding jams wasn’t there. Sometimes it was less fun, but we had to stay really focused, and keep our shit together, and put in that time. Everybody had to pretty much step up the level of dedication.”

And step up they did, creating their own record label Grand Hand, in cahoots with tourmates Chron Goblin, along the way. It was a decision that put them in charge of their destiny and once Black Mastiff had the leash in their jaws there was no restraining their artistic impulses.

“We never really lost control,” says Shea, “but I feel like this was all just about regaining control and knowing we can keep doing this. We’ve got the chops to keep doing what we’re doing.”

Black Mastiff perform Fri, Oct. 11 at The Palomino Smokehouse (Calgary), Fri, Oct. 18 at Hard Luck (Toronto) and Fri, Oct. 25 at Temple (Edmonton).

Tuesday 08th, October 2019 / 07:00 

in • Alberta, • Rockpile

BreakOut West Fest Heads Up North

BreakOut West Fest Takes Off To
The Great White North
For Annual Music Summit

By Christine Leonard

The call of the Great White North will be heard loud and clear as Western Canada’s annual music celebration, BreakOut West Fest, turns its eyes and ears to the wild frontier of Whitehorse, Yukon.

“It’s a showcase festival,” says BoW’s interim executive director Nat Kleinschmit. “We bring in 60 artists to play 120 shows over three days. And then we bring in delegates from all over Canada and even all over the world, to come and listen to those artists playing in front of an audience in a natural environment. It’s a real celebration of Canadian music.”

A movable feast of music, art, awards and information, BreakOut West takes place in a new location every year. According to Kleinschmit, the decision to hold the 2019 gathering in the Yukon will bring fresh and exciting energy to this year’s programming.

Acts including Astral Swans, Miesha & The Spanks, Crystal Eyes, HellnBack, The Won’ts, Ponteix, Rare Americans, The Sweeties and many more will filter through stages with fitting monikers like Dirty Northern, Miners Daughter, The Old Fire Hall and Gold Pan Saloon. As if that wasn’t enough, BoW will also play host to the Western Canadian Music Awards. This year’s Artists Awards Reception will pay special tribute to singer-songwriter Susan Aglukark who will be inducted into the WCMA Hall of Fame.

“Sometimes we forget that there is strong activity in our Northern Territories—whether it’s the Northwest Territories, Nunavut or the Yukon Territory,” Kleinschmit says. “Holding this year’s event in Whitehorse is an exciting choice. It demonstrates that there’s a lot going on away from our big cities. There’s a ‘Northern Rush!’ We’re going to have a record number of artists from the Northern Territories. Some of the artists bring a particular viewpoint of the world and what it means to be Canadian. They have very different approaches in their songwriting and songs.”

In a land where musicians sometimes drive for hours just to jam, BreakOut West Fest will be an event to remember, for both artists and attendees alike.

BreakOut West Fest takes place from October 2 to 6, 2019 in Whitehorse, Yukon. For more information visit https://breakoutwest.ca

Tuesday 01st, October 2019

Déjà View : Chron Goblin Interview

Chron Goblin Dismantles the Past
on New Album, Here Before

by Christine Leonard

Photo by Sebastian Buzzalino

Good fences make good neighbours, but if you’ve walked down the rambling alleys of Brentwood, Calgary in the past two decades, you might have caught drift of a hidden skateboard ramp and the band that dwells nearby like an ear-blasting company of trolls.

So the story goes, but no one knows the legend of this secret suburban shred-spot better than Devin “Darty” Purdy, aka lead guitarist to Calgary’s preeminent psych-metal outfit, Chron Goblin.

“The Brentwood Ramp, which has consumed the souls of many missed tricks, was built in 1997 by the City of Calgary and acquired by the Goblins in 2006,” says Purdy. “It was the main feature for many parties and band photoshoots and provided a great mental break from jamming. Unfortunately, termites got the best of it and we had to take it down this year, but its memory lives on!”

Purdy’s generosity in sharing his good fortune and square footage made the ramp a destination for members of Calgary’s skateboarding and indie music scene, just as his basement became the rehearsal room of choice for bandmates vocalist Josh Sandulak, drummer Brett Whittingham and bassist Richard Hepp. 

“It formed a hub for weekly backyard skate sessions, barbecues and basement jamming. So many memories of watching some of Calgary’s finest skating the hell out of the ramp well past dark, wheels clacking and trucks grinding, people hollering and dropping off the garage roof into the ramp,” Whittingham says reminiscing. “The band photo in our album Life for the Living is an awesome shot of us sprawled out on a couch in the middle of the ramp with a million beer cans strewn everywhere. Also, those nasty maggots growing in the recycling!”

It’s enough to bring tears to your eyes. Listening to the group’s brand new release, Here Before, it’s hard to believe that six years have passed since that sofa-king-cool snap was taken of the ambitious young punks with their desert-rock-meets-thrash dreams. Having furthered the arc of their ascent with 2015’s Backwater, Chron Goblin are accustomed to challenging themselves to master new techniques, but it’s their interpersonal skills that have truly elevated their game.

“I think the only way we’ve gotten to that 10-year mark is by evolving our relationship as friends and as bandmates in terms of our communication and being crazy honest with each other. Probably more honest than we are with anyone else in our lives. That in itself has caused us all to reflect more deeply on who we are as people and what’s led to a maturing of our band,” says Sandulak. 

Wild at heart, but growing wiser by the minute, Here Before delivers exhilarating maneuvers that come close to the thrill of pulling off rad stunts on the old Brentwood Ramp, but this round comes without the consequence of bruised up shins and beer can maggots.

Friday 20th, September 2019

FME-AT Quebec's Hidden Musical Gem

Festival de Musique Émergente Celebrates Quebec’s Divergent Sounds While Saying
Goodbye to Summer

by Christine Leonard

An otherworldly affair that will have you speaking in tongues, Festival de musique émergente (FME) in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Quebec entered its 17th year with a flurry of feathers, flying objects and intermittent rain showers. 

Running August 29 to September 3, the annual celebration of up-and-coming Canadian musicians literally chases summer as it heads deep into the woods of northern Quebec each Labour Day. 

Set against the smokestacks and evergreens of the unassuming village of Rouyn-Noranda, the festival takes full advantage of the many small and medium-scale venues that play host to the throngs of curious and dedicated sound-seekers who cross their thresholds over the long weekend.

Thursday, August 29

KID KOALA | Photo by Christian Leduc

Storm clouds and crowds gathered on FME’s opening night, packing the main thoroughfare that leads to the towering scène extérieure Desjardins in anticipation of the evening’s entrée – a trip through veteran disc hustler Kid Koala’s “Vinyl Vaudeville” experience. Hyping the huddled masses with an aerobic 80s-inspired work-out, opening act Adira Amram and the Experience electrified the crowd with a jazz-handful of neon dance numbers before swapping out their Hammer-Time look for burlesque costumes complete with ostrich plume fans. Titillating the audience with saucy breakbeats and scratchy loops, Kid Koala pulled out all the family-friendly material he could muster. 

The rain and wind proved no deterrent as hands reached for the hundreds of paper airplanes hurled from the stage and circle pits stampeded under the legs of a giant spider marionette that stalked through the crowd. Drying off at Cabaret de la Dernière Chance afterwards, the Pink Floyd-esque sounds of “Nunu metal” duo Ellemetue painted a strange and sweat-stained picture of wailing synths and fallen guitar gods. 

Up next, Red Mass took over the podium clad in red and black. Stomping out demons and strumming with a biblical fervor the punk provocateur cast out any doubt that this sepulcher alone was the final refuge of the damned. 

The Young Gods would challenge that statement. Stirring the old deities of Switzerland like a techno-fluent Dr. Frankenstein, the scientific trio illuminated the Petit Théâtre du Vieux-Noranda with laser precision before burying the congregation in an avalanche of angular gestures and dancefloor dominanting synths.  

Friday, August 30 

David Marin | Photo by Christine Leonard

Copper. That’s pretty much the big employer hereabouts, so if you’re interested in what makes this town tick you should take advantage of any opportunity to tour the massive Fonderie Horne to see where the magic happens. Speaking of magicians, blues chanteur David Marin made the transition from afternoon pool party to evening showcase disappear into thin air with his smooth keyboarding and Jimmy Buffett of the Canadian Riviera swing. 

Outside the walls of the Salle-des-Chevaliers-de-Colomb, the streets overflowed with rainbow lights and hip-hop vibes as locals and visitors alike swarmed towards the open-air spectacle featuring rappers Sarahmée, KT Gorique and an encore appearance by Drake-like crowd-pleaser Loud. 

Back at the Cabaret, 20-year-old booking agency Preste treated attendees to a BBQ complete with musical accompaniment by singer-songwriter Elliot Maginot, while around the corner at Diable Rond the vintage vibes of The Televisionaries and The 5,6,7,8s packed the room with ‘50s licks and surfy hooks. Bumped-up hairdos and fantastic fashion ruled as the two retro-fixated bands put on a hot and shaky show that was easier heard than seen. Vertical challenges aside, there’s no greater equalizer amongst festival-goers than the hunt for some soul-satisfying late night eats. And in Rouyn-Noranda that can only mean one thing: a trip to the legendary 24-hour poutinerie Chez Morasse. Maybe you’ll feel remorse the next day. But for now — nous allons manger! 

Saturday, August 31

The Flamingos Pink | Photo by McGraw

You’ve made it this far, so why not unwind with a detour into the deep dark woods to meet some of the (other) resident wildlife? Wolves and lynxes and bears, mon dieu! The Refuge Pageau rehabilitates over 150 creatures a year and gives visitors the opportunity to stroll through their sprawling forest facility while catching glimpses of some of the current patients. Pink flamingos are not to be found here, but The Flamingos Pink of Montreal were certainly on the menu back at Bar Le Groove later that day. 

Hot to trot drummer/vocalist Julien Corrado and singer/guitarist Sacha Gubany striped down to their denim in order to make better contact with the people. Pushing up the thermostat with thick rock ‘n’ roll riffs and door-booting percussion, the twosome squeezed every drop of juice from the afternoon’s atomic orange afterglow. 

LA Julia Smith | Photo by Christian Leduc

Banishing the inclement weather with a flick of their supple wrists, hard rock outfit LA Julia Smith demonstrated why three guys from Chile are allowed to call their band whatever the hell they want. Burning a hole through the ceiling of Bar Le Groove’s spartan cement basement, the position-swapping trio belted out a tightly wound set of heartburning tempo tantrums. 

What better way to cool your heels than with a dip in the bottomless sea of …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead? Swamping the Petit Théâtre in swirling string crescendos and romantically tortured vocals, they carved a trench through dark and emotive sonic waves as a thirsty audience surged and heaved at their feet.

Sunday, September 1 

Matt Vezio | Photo by Christine Leonard

And just like that, you wake up and it’s September. Disillusion aside it was a beautiful day to explore the lush Parc Botanique À Fleur d’eau. Strolling along pathways and boardwalks the sounds of pop-folk siren Salome Leclerc followed at every turn as she entertained residents and wristbanders who gathered around the central gazebo stage.

Next door at the public library Matt Vezio set up shop in an outdoor plaza as people spread out picnic blankets to soak up some sunny rays and funny lines from the guitar-strumming folk pop troubadour. Famous for their velvety stouts the diminutive watering hole Le Trèfle Noir Brasserie Artisanale is the perfect place to chill out, recharge and survey the influx of black T-shirts into Rouyn-Noranda as FME’s notorious metal night festivities approach. A sold-out attraction that could easily be extended in size and scope, the heaviest show on the docket brought Quebecois headbangers and intrigued onlookers from out of the woodwork. Local stand-outs Archons impressed with an evocative thrash stance that left plenty of room to jump on their momentum machine.

Necrotic Mutation | Photo by Christian Leduc

Oxygen levels dropped suddenly as Necrotic Mutation seized the stage. Lead singer Daniel Jalbert had his work cut out for him as he struggled against the confines of a straitjacket while snarling his visceral vocals into the microphone. Closing out the evening and the entire festival with a crack of lightning and roll of thunder, Despised Icon divided, conquered and then reunited the crowd at will. Dual deathcore vocalists Steve Marois and Alex Erian vacillated between furious howls and caustic commands as easily as they switched between speaking French, English and what I can only assume is some regional dialect of Tolkien’s Black Speech. Oh, man. A third language to brush up on before returning for FME 2020!

  16th, September 2019 

in • Live Reviews, FEATURED, MUSIC

Festival de Musique Emergente 2019 Preview

Festival de Musique Emergente 2019 Transforms Sleepy Quebec Town into a Partygoers Paradise

By Christine Leonard

Your last chance to soak up the sights, sounds and “je ne sais quoi” of summer, Festival de Musique Emergente (FME) is a music and arts festival that is as famous for its idyllic lakeside location as it is for the wide range of breakout and established artists it has been platforming over its 17-year history.

Mushrooming in scope and impact, the envelope-pushing event has grown from presenting a dozen artists in its first year to welcoming over 70 artists to the 2019 installment. While FME has evolved with the times, co-founder and programmer Pierre Thibault firmly believes that the vision and values behind the multilingual music showcase have remained unaltered.

“The original mission of the FME was to make room for marginal projects shunned by commercial radio in Quebec,” says Thibault. “We wanted to focus on this counterculture. We also wanted to invite alternative projects from all over the world to reach an audience that now knows that the independent music here is of the same calibre as the one found abroad.”

The 8-hour Cannonball Run North from Montreal to the festival’s verdant Abitibi Témiscamingue region will see some 20,000 festivalgoers head deep into the province’s heavily forested backyard. There they will take in four days of open-air and indoor performances by the likes of DJ Kid Koala, …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, Daniel Romano, Material Girls, Atsuko Chiba, The Sadies, Half Moon Run, The Young Gods (Switzerland), and The 5, 6, 7, 8s (Japan) to name a few.

“It’s good to go out on the road with friends in Quebec, and to discuss culture, politics, love, and many other relevant things while going on a weekend of crazy concerts,” says Thibault. “It is unifying to make the way from Montreal to Rouyn. We meet in convenience stores, gas stations, grocery stores, SAQ on the road and we take off, ready for another dimension — the FME!”

And if you find yourself torn between what shows to attend — that’s all part of the plan.

“We really like the small and medium format rooms that leave you with multiple decisions to make during your weekend,” says Thibault of the schedule. “I think that missing a good concert to see another one that was chosen at the same time is the true definition of a good music festival.” To make matters even trickier, Thibault shares that there’s some geographic sleight of hand at play: “We changed all the street names of Rouyn for the event so that the festivalgoers trust their ears to find the concert halls!”

Discovery is indeed the name of the game when it comes to navigating the unique musical experience that is FME.

FME takes place August 29 to September 1, 2019 in Ville de Rouyn-Noranda (Québec).

29th, August 2019in FEATURED, MUSIC

Yamantaka // Sonic Titan - Dirt - Interview

Yamantaka // Sonic Titan:
An Explosive Force Of Nature

by Christine Leonard

Photo by Richmond Lam

Like the sound of the sky rending open, Toronto-based progressive art-rock collective Yamantaka // Sonic Titan enters the summer festival season. They are a musical meteorite streaking towards the planet’s surface and an explosive force of nature. The genre-bending experimentalists will be staging their psychedelic space-metal operas at Canadian dates including Yellowknife’s Folk on the Rocks, the River & Sky camp-out in Field, ON and Victoria’s Phillips Backyard Weekender.

Holding a mirror up to the status quo, Yamantaka // Sonic Titan appropriates elements of pop, rock and heavy metal and blends them through influences gleaned from Buddhist, Haudenosaunee and First Nations traditions, along with their own mixed Asian-European heritages. Embedded in manga art, video games and science fiction themes, their enthralling tracks are ablaze with socio-political commentary.

DIRT, their latest album released in 2018, is no exception. The album revolves around the story of abandoned turtle starship, Anowara, and the heroine Aentsik’s quest to collect the final remnant of arable soil. It’s the same edict the ecologically-minded band has espoused since the beginning: “If the trees die, we die,” says founding member and percussionist, Alaska B.

“I think we are concerned about the same things any reasonable person should be concerned with: anthropogenic climate change, plastic pollution, overuse of antibiotics, animal extinction, unsustainable agriculture, pollution, corporate and government surveillance Indigenous rights, human rights, transphobia, sexism, racism, homophobia,” continues Alaska.

“Our music is often interpreted to focus entirely around the cultural identity politics, but the lyrical content and themes in our art all deal with the suffering of living beings, environmentalism and the inevitability of death.”

It’s a tall order for humanity, let alone a fringe-dwelling Canadian rock band, but if anyone’s up to the challenge, it’s the self-defining, fire-spitting, world-shaking, dirt-venerating music collective and theatre company who has earned the surname Sonic Titan.

Yamantaka // Sonic Titan perform Thursday, July 11  at 9910 (Edmonton), Saturday, July 13  at The Palomino (Calgary) and  Sunday, July 28 at the Phillips Backyard Weekender (Victoria)

08th, July 2019 

in • Alberta, FEATURED, MUSIC

Album Review: Abbath – Outstrider

Abbath
Outstrider
[Season of Mist]

Abbath Doom Occulta is the corpse-painted face and venomous voice of black metal in his Norweigan homeland. Born Olve Eikemo, the 45-year-old multi-instrumentalist has famously served as Immortal’s lead vocalist, lyricist, guitarist, bassist, guitarist, keyboardist and drummer.

An extreme and extremely versatile artist, his eponymous offshoot metal project, Abbath, recently reformed with a fresh lineup and a renewed sense of purpose.

The aggressive quartet’s current incarnation attacks Abbath’s sophomore effort with rapid-fire percussion, caustic vocals and power guitar onslaughts. Plunging headlong into the heat of an epic fantasy battle, the album fuses the new wave of heavy metal with rhapsodic melodies and Abbath’s own dark philosophies.

Delivered with face-flaying ferocity, white-knucklers like “Harvest Pyre,” the wily “Scythewinder” and wildly imaginative “The Artifex” prove as intricate as they are intense. Occulta growls like a lion, pacing between the bars of solid steel and shadowy malice on “Bridge of Spasms,” cheering on the band’s hellish machinations.

Ominous and oozing with goblinesque screams, “Pace Till Death” hails the flames and traps the audience between inferno and abyss. Wrapping up their harrowing eight-song saga with a pang of nostalgia, Outstrider makes a grand exit with an amped-up cover of Bathory’s “Hecate.”

By Christine Leonard

 03rd, July 2019 / 11:13 

in • Record Reviews, REVIEWS

Album Review: Tycho – Weather

Tycho
Weather
[Mom + Pop Music/Ninja Tune]

San Francisco’s dancefloor electrocutioner Tycho (aka Scott Hansen) returns with Weather, the radiant echo to the talented composer and graphic designer’s Grammy-nominated album, Epoch (2016). Introducing a new phase in Tycho’s industrial evolution, Weather drifts into previously unexplored territory for the Billboard-topping songwriter and producer and his synonymous music project with the introduction of vocals to his digital creations.

A marked departure from Hansen’s customary computerized soundscapes, the water-testing single “Pink & Blue” dips its delicate toes into the gender-fluid, bringing iridescent swirls of colour and light to the surface.

Chanteuse Hannah Cottrell’s (aka Saint Sinner) silky smooth crooning takes the chill off of synthetic spaces, infusing Weather’s cybernetic cinema with a warm breath of humanity and soul.

Expanding on the blueprint of Cottrell’s lyrical dreams, Tycho’s latest dispatch weaves its way through organic love notes like the conversational “Skate” and sleek futuristic moments such as “Japan” without differentiating between those two modes of transmission.

It’s a remarkable synthesis of flesh and fuses. An emotionally transformative formula Tycho is only just beginning to decode.

03rd, July 2019

 • Record Reviews, REVIEWS

by Christine Leonard

Album Review: The Black Keys – Let’s Rock

The Black Keys
Let’s Rock
(Easy Eye Sound / Nonesuch Records)

It’s been a hot minute since we last heard from The Black Keys, but their heavy blues rock refrain remains the same. Reunited with his better half and percussionist Patrick Carney, vocalist/guitarist Dan Auerbach demonstrates that getting back in their brotherly Rubber Belt groove was as easy as falling off a tandem bicycle.

Recorded from scratch at Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound studios in Nashville, Let’s Rock reportedly came together with very little preparation or premeditation. Edging away from the disco ball and asphalt sizzle of 2011’s El Camino and the polished tones of 2014’s Turn Blue, the stripped-down nostalgia of Let’s Rock offers a heartfelt tribute to the ultimate tool of the trade – the electric guitar. Irresistibly retro, yet tuned to a modern frequency, the album is already commanding the airwaves thanks to catchy-as-hell and radio-ready singles like “Lo/Hi,” “Eagle Birds” and “Go.” These three Cowtown-meets-Motown forerunners preface an album stacked with glossy, voluptuous ditties that bump ‘n’ grind like a preacher’s daughter.

Thumping bass notes and gliding vocals add sleek lines to “Shine a Light,” padded out by lux backups from guest vocalists Leisa Hans and Ashley Wilcoxson. Lonely forest mating ritual “Eagle Birds” gets down and dirty, while the stomping Austin gospel of “Lo/Hi” hits the album’s two sweetest spots – earnest storytelling and an unrelenting boogie beat that drives the drama towards satisfaction.

At peace with the past, the sugarcoated dirge “Walk on Water” echoes Auerbach’s time as “king of a one-horse town,” but you know you’re being lured in for the big come up when “Tell Me Lies” struts into Karmatown.
Yep, The Black Keys have returned to form nicely, which is most fortunate because we’ve been waiting.

03rd, July 2019

in • Record Reviews, REVIEWS

by Christine Leonard

Album Review: Jim Cuddy – Countrywide Soul

Jim Cuddy

Countrywide Soul
[Warner Music Canada]

Kicking rocks and turning over fertile ground, Blue Rodeo frontman Jim Cuddy returned to his family farmstead in Southern Ontario to get in touch with his roots and record his latest album.
The rustic rural setting provided a respite from his hectic touring schedule and the ideal environment for capturing the authentic wire-and-wood sound he sought. Joined in his makeshift studio by members of The Jim Cuddy Band, the multi-talented singer/guitarist/producer began reimaging songs from his back catalogue through a stripped-down, yet modern, country music filter.

Unearthing tracks he felt had been previously underdeveloped, Cuddy and company pour liberal doses of draft beer and wheat dust over Blue Rodeo numbers like “Clearer View” and “Draggin’ On.” Tributes to George Jones and Glen Campbell rip a page from the past and lend a high and lonesome mood with covers of “Almost Persuaded” and the star-spangled “Rhinestone Cowboy.” Pretty western ditties two-step and sway in time as Cuddy patches up his sonic scrapbook with a fresh pair of bootcut tunes, “Glorious Day” and “Back Here Again.”

It’s the perfect parting glance for a nostalgic hayride that sets fire to the barn before riding off into the sunset. “Shane, come back!”

04th, June 2019

in • Record Reviews, REVIEWS

By Christine Leonard

Album Review: Baroness – Gold & Grey

Baroness

Gold & Grey
[Abraxan Hymns]

From the opening rays of “Front Towards Enemy,” it’s obvious Baroness has risen from their own ashes and come to flourish in the aftermath of a tour bus crash that left the Savannah, Georgia-based heavy metal entity twisted and broken.

Leading the charge, guitar god John Baizley returns to the limelight with a fury. The subject of much interest and speculation, Gold & Grey presents a band that has been reinvigorated by the synergistic presence of incoming guitarist Gina Gleason.

Boasting 17 indefatigable tracks, the dual-toned album shifts smoothly between singles like the sinuous “Seasons” and the hyper-observant “Borderlines.” A naturally intense Baizley perpetuates his examination of the human condition with a long-absent sense of wonder and even enjoyment on “Broken Halo” and “Throw Me an Anchor.”

A gallery of layered vocals and intricate rhythmic patterns elevate “I Would Do Anything” and “Pale Sun” to a level of excellence commensurate with visual artist Baizley’s jaw-dropping album cover murals.

By Christine Leonard

04th, June 2019 

in • Record Reviews, REVIEWS

Dead Quiet - Silent Interview from Beyond the Grave

Dead Quiet Shut Up and Ship Out

By Christine Leonard

Photo: Asia Fairbanks

Explosive heavy rock quartet Dead Quiet is powering up for their Downtown Canada Tour, and charismatically chaotic lead vocalist/guitarist Kevin Keegan is bursting with anticipation.

“I love performing and as a performer you put on a little bit of a character. I’m an actor as well, so I kind of treat it the same way when I get on stage. It’s still me out there but it’s a version of me that’s a little cartooned and over the top,” he says. “It’s all part of what the music does to me and makes me want to do the things I do. It’s pretty organic and it always comes from a place of exorcising some demons.”

Keegan’s magnetic personality is fuelled by his willingness to go over the top on stage. His antics and dramatic range have become a mainstay of Dead Quiet’s riveting performances and are a big part of why they’ve amassed a Canadian cult following.

That’s not to say Dead Quiet is a one-man-band. Since their huge 2017 release, Grand Rites (Artoffact Records), they’ve been steadily experimenting with new elements to expand their heavy repertoire in anticipation of a new album this October.

“The new album is going to be more or less the tone of Grand Rites. It’ll be polished to an extent, but still raw and heavy and real sounding. I’ve always been a fan of 70s style Hammond organ in rock music and I’ve really wanted a keyboard player since day one. It adds texture and thickens up the melodies — it’s definitely crucial now.”

Self-directed Keegan has come to rely on his instincts as a songwriter and as well as his bandmates to bring each composition to its full potential. The more democratic style of songwriting has opened up new horizons for Dead Quiet’s traditionally heavy sound.

“I’ll bring the guys the blueprints or skeleton of a song and they always have ideas. We work really well as a team and that’s sort of blossomed for this line-up. It’s become symbiotic, which is really nice for me. I’ve learned to lean on my dudes more.”

Dead Quiet perform Wednesday, May 8 at The Palomino (Calgary), Saturday, May 11 at Gordon Yellowfly Memorial Arbour (Siksika Nation) and Saturday, May 18 at SBC Restaurant (Vancouver)

10th, May 2019 

in • Alberta, MUSIC

Album Review: Black Mountain – Destroyer

Black Mountain
Destroyer
[Dine Alone]

If you’ve been missing the clean refreshing taste of Canada’s psych-rock darlings Black Mountain, the time is now to rejoice. Destroyer has arrived just in time to quench your summertime blues and transport you to their silver mothership in the sky.

Far from an abandonment of their 70s space rock roots, Destroyer pulls its sinister title from the 1985 Dodge speed demon of the same name.

Peeling away from the post with the Sabbathy overture “Future Shade,” the expanded ensemble lays a fuzz-covered offering on the cybernetic altar of “Horns Arising.”

Video game monitors tumble down the hillside like granite boulders and levitate in a field of static electricity on “Closer to the Edge” and the lackadaisical Beatles meltdown, “Pretty Little Lazies.”

Hip-thrust hustle and string bending swagger rule the galaxy on the mercurial “High Rise” and “License to Drive,” while the leather-wrapped “Boogie Lover” oozes with nocturnal heaviness. Reboot and unwind with “FD 72” Black Mountain’s zero-G tribute to the man who fell to Earth and then returns to launch sequence and starts all over again.

By Christine Leonard

06th, May 2019

in • Record Reviews, REVIEWS

Album Review: L7 – Scatter the Rats

L7
Scatter the Rats
[Blackheart Records]

It’s been 20 years since L7, the cultish Los Angeles collective, released their last album, Slap-Happy, but vocalist/guitarist Donita Sparks and friends haven’t struck the revolution off their to-do lists.
Scatter the Rats is a street-smart 11-floor elevator ride complete with leather fringe, mirror balls and a giant bag of cocaine.

Ballsy Sunset Strip sizzlers like the surfy “Burn Baby” and “Fighting the Crave” showcase marquee grooves and flash bomb riffs, while roadhouse ramblers “Prototype” and “Murky Water Cafe” betray a brittle frailty.

Shades of a newly made-over identity emerge on the sweetly suburban “Holding Pattern,” but domesticity is short-lived as they dive back into the gutter with “Cool About Easy” and revel in the grimy catcall of a title track.

Revving into high gear for “Ouija Board Lies” and “Garbage Truck” the jaded foursome summons a western-tinged punk rock momentum that will ultimately leave you passed out on your front lawn come morning.

If this anarcho-femme punk band goes down in history for one thing it will undoubtedly be their 1992 smash hit “Shit List,” but coincidentally Scatter The Rats continues with the perfect anthem for the modern #MeToo era.

By Christine Leonard

06th, May 2019

 • Record Reviews, REVIEWS

Proto-metalheads The Well - An In-depth Interview

The Well Are Laughing
into the Darkness

by Christine Leonard

Photo: Andy Ray Lemon

A broken romance left Ian Graham staring into the void ahead of Austin-based proto-metal band The Well’s third album, Death and Consolation. Searching for some meaning while butting up against existential considerations, Graham took a couple of unexpected hits to the ego.

But the seasoned frontman’s approach to dealing with adversity is one that rolls with the punches while delivering some mortal blows of his own.

“Things have changed a lot over the past two years and that’s just how life is. Death and then some consolation, wherever you can find it,” he says. “We have no relationship with death as a living thing. We have paths, or maps, or shit like that, but we’re all just trying to fight off our fear of the complete unknown.”

Shouting into the abyss, The Well’s new album marks a powerful progression in the band’s primal metal style. Created with bassist Lisa Alley and drummer Jason Sullivan, Graham’s new material arrives cloaked in smoke and blood, and a little existential dread.

“We are ghosts riding around in skeletons. We are the scary things that we’re worried about,” he explains. “There weren’t a lot of preconceptions going into the studio this time. I do things in a metaphorical way. I never reveal what’s actually happening in life.”

Gothic literature and ancient history provided ample inspiration for Death and Consolation’s eerie chapters. Graham spent hours scouring his library for tales of terror and wonder to flesh out his metaphors, writing oozing, bluesy songs as a means to escape the emotional quicksand in which he found himself and working with the idea of death as a rebirth, the inward-turned out.

“It had to do with the death of a relationship, but also because of my own actions. Stuff like that. There’s some longing in it, I guess, and maybe regret in dealing with things. And anger! There are some kind of murdery things going on there and that’s always fun to play with when you’re in a bad mood.”

Deceptively humourous, irreverent, melodic and groovy, the album’s doomy disposition shouldn’t be mistaken for pessimism or misanthropy. On the contrary, The Well’s stony exterior and larger-than-life stage presence is intended to be just that, a work of poetic fiction.

“I love dark music, I always have. Whether it’s Joy Division or Slayer, it always made me happy and it makes me happy to make these things too,” Graham humbly relates. “Everything’s posturing, everything’s persona. I see through all that bullshit. That’s what human beings do. I don’t buy it. It’s usually the most sensitive people who are hiding that.”

The Well perform Saturday, May 11 at Static Juniper (Vancouver), Sunday, May 12 at The Palomino (Calgary), Monday, May 13 at Temple (Edmonton) and Tuesday, May 14 The Windsor (Winnipeg).

01st, May 2019

in • Alberta, MUSIC

Single Premiere: The Baseborn Band – “Pray It Away”

Single Premiere:
The Baseborn Band
“Pray It Away”

by Christine Leonard

Tanked-up on an unfaltering lust for belting out high-wattage blues, the moonlight howlers who call themselves The Baseborn Band have been treading that fine line between boot-stomping Saturday night dance parties and Sunday morning comedowns since 2017.

Habitually feasting on the hair of the dog that bit them, boisterous lead singer/guitarist Lowell Van Carroll (Wolf Teeth, Insufficient Funds), metrognome/bassist Kuba Van der Pol (D.O.A., The Sweaters) and infernal combustion engine/drummer Dallas Lobb (The Electric Revival, Pervcore) dig deep to generate an impassioned autobiography of hard-rockin’ tunes.

“Some you’d listen to while your drunk and passed out in a ditch and others are ones that will get you movin’ and jumping around,” explains Van Carroll.

The Baseborn Band’s self-titled debut packs a whiskey and diesel wallop. It’s an impressive measure of the trio’s heavy-blues horsepower and burning appetite for staging roof-raising live performances. The album’s standout single, “Pray It Away,” expertly captures the essence of good intentions gone bad. Something the rough-and-tumble outfit not only identifies with but also readily confesses to in song whenever the opportunity presents itself! Channelling spiritual influencers ranging from Tom Waits to Motörhead, The Baseborn Band will school you on how to shake hands with your personal demons and tap into the potential of your inner Lemmy.

The Baseborn Band performs live on The Baseborn Band performs with Mammoth Grove, Denimachine, Bloated Pig and others at 420Fest on April 18 at County Line Saloon (Calgary)

16th, April 2019 

in • Alberta, • Rockpile, MUSIC