Wo Fat: “Texas Sized” Grooves

Wo Fat: Delivers
the Swampadelic Sounds

by Christine Leonard

15 April 2017

There are few things more enjoyable than digging into some salty, smoky barbeque and that’s exactly the kind of pure chewing satisfaction that meaty Dallas-based swamp rockers Wo Fat have on their proverbial grill. Turning raw blues rhythms and uncluttered doom grooves into sweet psych-rock sustenance for over a decade, this well-seasoned trio has hung in together through thick and thin. 

From the formative rumblings of their 2006 debut The Gathering Dark, to the fulsome darkness of last year’s full-length release Midnight Cometh, Wo Fat’s lead guitarist/vocalist Kurt Stump, bassist Tim Wilson and drummer Michael Walter have consistently brought home the bacon.

“The good thing about Texas is that it’s got a strong scene for our kind of music,” says jam-master Stump.

“There’s a bunch of good bands here and a number of excellent venues to play close by, so you can do a short weekend jaunt and hit a few places.”

Of course, the group who brought forth molten LPs Psychedelonaut (2009) and Noche del Chupacabra (2011) had little choice but to catch fire around the globe.

As welcome as the sound of fat sizzling on mesquite embers, Wo Fat’s heavy fuzz-laden emanations attracted riff worshiping legions to any stage that was willing to “Book ‘em, Danno!”

“We’ve built a fairly good following worldwide within that genre with fans of that type of music. We’ve played Desertfest in Berlin and London, and we’ve done Hellfest in France. Those are really amazing genre-specific festivals that feature a bunch of bands we know, so there’s always a reunion kind of vibe. It’s always fun to hang-out and we find a lot of comradery playing with bands that are similar to us stylistically.”

The perfect opportunity to do just that, while enjoying some Albertan hospitality, April’s 420 Music & Arts Festival will surprisingly mark the well-traveled Wo Fat’s first trip to up to The Great White North.

“It’s our first time to play in Canada, so I’m excited about that! We try to be strategic about the out-of-town gigs we play – like coming to Calgary. We’re just flying up there and coming back home, but that’s what we want to be able to do. To pick and choose cool gigs and do those. Cuz were not making our living off the band – we’re making our living off the recording studio.”

A Wo Fat run studio you say? We should have known that the proverbial enemy of the Hawaii Five-O task force was the one pushing the buttons all along.

“The drummer, Michael, and I run a recording studio together,” he elaborates.

“It’s called Crystal Clear Sound and it’s actually one of the oldest studios in Dallas. I’ve been working there for about 20 years. About four years ago, we bought the place from the previous owners. Yup, we bought the company. Now we run it ourselves!”

He continues, “That’s where all of the Wo Fat albums have been recorded. I’ve been recording professionally for a long time, so experience has taught me the dangers of becoming myopic and going down the rabbit hole too far.”

It’s not only anchored the band, but given them confidence in their jams: after all, when you’re making all the decisions, you’ve got to know when to pull the proverbial plug on a song, album, or jam session. It’s made Wo Fat the groovy juggernaut they are today.

“Having spent a lot of time in the studio, I know that you just have to make decisions and stick to them at some point. I would rather do that commit and go on than leave something open-ended and never finish it. I think we’re different from some people in having that attitude.”

Wo Fat are headlining the 420 Music and Arts Festival, which goes down on April 20th until April 22nd at Distortion. They are headlining day three of the festival on April 22nd alongside Wo Fat, Chron Goblin, Cowpuncher, Mammoth Grove, and more. Line-up and ticket information are available at www.420musicandartsfestival.com

FacebookTwitterSlackEmail

D.R.I. But Wait - There's More

D.R.I. Beneath the Wheel
and Under the Sun

by Christine Leonard

15 April 2017

“I’m at the airport getting ready to get on a plane to Puerto Rico to do a show. I had to get up at 3:30 a.m. and I’m a little sleepy,” confesses D.R.I. (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles) vocalist Kurt Brecht.

“I’m excited because we only have one show, but we’re there for four days. I’ve been there once before in 2012, but didn’t get to go to the beach, we just got abandoned in some suburb. This time I want to go snorkeling or something; I’m all over that.”

And, yes, to answer your question, D.R.I. are those guys dressed in black T-shirts on the beach.

“All pasty and sickly looking. That’s us.”

Soaking up a little R ‘n’ R has taken on new significance for the legendary hardcore thrash punk outfit, who emerged from Houston, TX in 1982. First introduced to the world via the Dirty Rotten LP a year later, D.R.I.’s fanbase swelled thanks to a string of blistering releases including Dealing with It! (1985), Crossover (1987), 4 of a Kind (1988) and Thrash Zone (1989), with Definition and Full Speed Ahead following in the ’90s. A D.I.Y. punk pioneer, Brecht and founding guitarist Spike Cassidy scraped together a following of likeminded hardcore and metal lovers and, in the process, went on to become a genre-defining band.

“As kids growing up we didn’t know if there was an underground music scene. There wasn’t that type of music then. Only hard rock. We just went to rock concerts and stadium shows and stuff. And, I was into the harder, heavier bands. Then, once we discovered punk rock, it was all over. We were like ‘Yeah, this is way better. Way more aggressive!’ and we just kind of mixed the two together. Hardcore. Hardcore punk rock. That’s what we wanted.”

Akin to speed metal crossover acts such as Corrosion of Conformity and Suicidal Tendencies, D.R.I. is accustomed to being at the eye of a human hurricane that feeds off acerbic wails, high-velocity guitar work and breakneck percussion. The self-made quartet, including bassist Harald Oimoen and recent addition Walter “Monsta” Ryan on drums, harnesses the energy of the crowd to generate an frenetic energy that must been witness to be believed.

“I think it’s the music that’s full-throttle,” says Brecht. “Our performance is just us playing the songs, we don’t have a big stage show or anything. The audience is usually the show. I’ve seen some brutal stuff. I think if you’re at a thrash show you’d just better expect that you might get walked on or dove on to.  You can always try and stand in the back, or whatever, but good luck there too. Sometimes I just see it go wall to wall. No safe places to stand. Ah, well. Nothing you can do about something like that; can’t start writing rules. Then it’s just going to be lame.”

Still packing those venues and generating new material like 2016’s surprise EP But Wait…There’s More!, D.R.I. is enthusiastic about their Western and Eastern Canadian tours. According to Brecht, dividing the nation into two runs of performance dates in 2017 is the ideal scenario, as it allows him the flexibility to pursue his non-musical passions.

“It does give you more time for sure. I’m heavily into gardening. And, I travel a lot, too,” he says. “We’re super excited about Canada, because we never get to play there, and a now we get to do two tours of Canada! We’re getting special shirts made up! I’m usually out there selling the merchandise all the time, so I’m talking to everybody.”

D.R.I. are performing April 21 at the Park Theatre (Winnipeg), April 22 at the University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon), April 23 at Union Hall (Edmonton), April 24 at the Marquee Beer Market & Stage (Calgary), and April 26 at the Rickshaw Theatre (Vancouver).

Woodhawk: Soaring beyond the sun

Woodhawk launch their full length 

Beyond the Sun

by Christine Leonard

27 March 2017

 If Woodhawk was the boy next door, they’d be that denim-clad rogue who revved his motorbike in the driveway on Sunday mornings and dumped you on the eve of your Junior Prom. Or, at least that’s how you’d imagine the events leading up to bassist Mike Badmington and guitarist Turner Midzain’s first time on stage together in Grade 9. Fast-forward to Halloween of 2014 and they’re showing off a tight-but-curvy six-track debut album with a title to match their band’s smokin’ new moniker, Woodhawk.  Breaking hearts and throwing sparks, the freewheeling trio may have experimented with different percussionists, but it was the heavy ‘n’ steady Kevin Nelson (Nosis, Doberman) who rose above the throng.

“We kind of pretended that the part before Kevin never happened,” says Midzain. “There’s no bad blood, or anything. I just think we didn’t figure out which direction we were going until Kevin joined the band. Honestly, since he started with us in September of 2015 we’ve got more momentum and found what we wanted to do.”

So… it was you and not them after all. Not surprising really, given Midzain and Badmington’s playful approach to laying down stony causeways and volleying big, bold riffs back and forth between them, it was only a matter of time before someone snapped them up.

“Kevin had been to a bunch of our shows and knocked at our door asking to join the band after hearing about us through the grapevine at our mutual barbershop,” recalls a well-coiffed Badmington.

“He came in, and had a bit of catching up to learn some of the previous stuff, but we pretty much started writing right away. And the rest is… Woodhawk!”

Anchored by Nelson’s technical prowess and capacity for effortlessly shifting from ‘70s grooves to punked-up blues, the collaborative three-piece has already been trying out material from their upcoming full-length album, Beyond the Sun, in live performance. Staying close to the realms of fantasy and science fiction, the much-anticipated album appropriately features the cosmic designs of artist Mark Kowalchuk.

“This album represents a year’s worth of our writing and pushes into a more evolved sound,” articulates Badmington. “I think it was more about trying to avoid restricting ourselves and seeing what we could do.”

Trusting their instincts, Woodhawk traveled to Vancouver to recording their forthcoming LP with producer Jesse Gander, who graciously received the band at his Rain City Recorders facility.

“The quality that he can produce instantly was amazing! I’ve never seen someone work a studio so quickly,” Midzain recalls. “So, it was exciting from day one, because we knew it was going to be a big sounding album. Every day we woke up ready to record and we actually ended up finishing a couple of days ahead of time.”

By his account, one good thing about having time to burn was that it gave Woodhawk the opportunity to explore the hospitality of the abundant breweries that surrounded Gander’s studio. The other benefit was that it freed the energetic threesome up to accept the gig of a lifetime. So far.

“Jesse stopped me mid-take while we were recording and said ‘Hold on, you’ve got to check your phone. They’re calling you to open for Airbourne at The Commodore Ballroom tomorrow!’”
The memory is clearly sweet.
“Trying to focus after that was kind of hard; we tried not to shit our pants and managed to finished the recording.”

Woodhawk release Beyond the Sun in Edmonton on Friday, April 7th at the Sewing Machine Factory in Edmonton with Mothercraft and Iron Eyes. They perform at the Palomino Smokehouse and Social Club on Saturday, April 8th in Calgary album release with Chron Goblin and Mothercraft. 

Hammerdrone Reaps a Dark Harvest

Hammerdrone: Releasing the Seeds of Destruction

by Christine Leonard
20 March 2017

 It’s the kind of thing you’d read about in a spy novel, or at least that’s how Hammerdrone’s lead vocalist Graham Harris (Reverend Kill, Genepool, Rotschreck) first stumbled upon the clandestine tendrils of Operation Dark Harvest. Spurred on by the enigmatic trail, Harris would uncover a grassroots rebellion that had some serious dirt under its fingernails.
“I read a fair amount of crime fiction and Scottish author Ian Rankin makes a passing reference to the Dark Harvest Commandos (a proto-SNLA faction) in one of his novels. And I thought, ’Who the hell are they?’ I looked them up and came across an obscure and interesting piece of history that I’d never heard of,” says Harris of inspiration behind the title track of the melodic death metal group’s forthcoming LP.

Sources reveal that in 1981, a group of microbiologists from Scottish universities visited the condemned isle and removed 300 pounds of soil contaminated with anthrax spores. Infected by the British Government during World War II, the deadly toxification wrought upon Gruinard proved that Churchill could decimate a German city in the same fashion. The radical scientists threatened to distribute their dark harvest “at appropriate points that will ensure the rapid loss of indifference of the government and the equally rapid education of the general public,” according to letters the group sent to local newspapers.

Drawing its defiant name from that little-known act of civil disobedience, Dark Harvest is but the latest in a litany of hackle-raising releases from the Calgary-based Hammerdrone.
“When the guys wrote the music for Dark Harvest, it just came together really nicely and tied together a lot of the political themes on the album. ‘Join the Resistance!’ That’s our tag line for playing-up on the idea of ecologically minded terrorists. We wanted to make a political statement. I’m quite in favour of holding the government to account for its promises and actions, so I think there’s something to be said for that!”

Originally forged back in 2010, the intimidatingly intense outfit’s exploratory EPs A Demon Rising (2012) and Wraiths On the Horizon (2013) laid the groundwork for the Promethean ambition of their first full-length release, Clone of Europa, which materialized in 2014. Unfortunately, that victory was clouded by hardship, as the disruptive forces of the mass Calgary flood of 2013 besieged the band. Stepping away from the musical canvas, Harris was left to wonder if Hammerdrone would survive the turbulence that had heaved their world upside-down.

“My wife got transferred to Brisbane, Australia with her work in 2014 and I went too,” explains Harris, who welcomed a baby daughter while living abroad.
“It was kind of a two-year period of globetrotting for me and so from a band perspective, we didn’t know if we were going to continue to be. But we pretty much had the second album all written and we were determined that we were going to record it.”

Proving that long-distance relationships can yield tangible results, Harris found new ways to collaborate on the calamitous Dark Harvest with Hammerdrone bandmates, lead guitarist/songwriter Rick Cardellini, drummer Vinnie Cardellini (Reverend Kill) and guitarist/vocalist Curtis Beardy (Krepitus), while living overseas. Although frequently compared to the likes of Amon Amarth and Behemoth, Harris and company believe in clearing their own footpath when it comes to defining Hammerdrone’s apocalyptic tone and temperament.

“That’s the beautiful side of introducing technology into your music; you’re able to cross 12,500 miles and continue to record together,” Harris confirms.
The most recent addition to Hammerdrone’s arsenal, bassist Teran Wyer (Krepitus, Numenorean) was recruited to the fold for his winning persona and aptitude for anchoring the most aggressive of combos. According to Harris, Wyer’s weighty presence on Dark Harvest heaps another layer of anthemic heaviness upon Hammerdrone’s soylent machinations.

“After we recorded Clones of Europa we really need to find someone solid. Vinnie and I used to play with Teran in Reverend Kill, we knew his style, and what a great guy he is. Once we realized how much he was enjoying playing bass it was an easy choice to slot our good friend in.”

He confirms, “We have a very permanent line-up now.”

Hammerdrone release Dark Harvest on March 24th at Vern’s in Calgary with Votov, Concrete Funeral, and Widow’s Peak.

Plumtree re-issue all three albums!!! : preview

Plumtree ‘90s Halifax pop trio re-issue all three albums on vinyl

by Christine Leonard
9 March 2017

Hindsight may be 20/20, but you can bet your boyfriend jeans that ‘90s Halifax popsters Plumtree didn’t anticipate a full-blown vinyl resurgence when they released their bomp-and-strum-filled sophomore album, Plumtree Predicts the Future, way back in 1997. Cinnamon Toast Records was a good fit for the sweetly introspective group, at the time. The existential ensemble quickly blossomed thanks to tours with the likes of Duotang, the Inbreds and Thrush Hermit, along with appearances at Halifax Pop Explosion! and Edgefest that pushed them further into the national spotlight. An original sister-act, Plumtree’s willowy emanations stem from Carla and Lynette Gillis’ (Absolutely Nothing) love of pop-punk melodies and playful rhythms. With Carla on guitars and vocals and Lynette picking up the drumsticks, Amanda Braden stepped up to provide supporting guitar and vocals while BFFs Nina Martin and Catriona Sturton would fill out the East Coast quartet, by respectively taking up the position of bassist.

It was a whirlwind decade for the band who wrote the song “Scott Pilgrim,” which inspired fan Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novel and the subsequent film of the same name. Innocent despite their infamy, their kitchen haircuts and Noxzema-fresh faces declared Plumtree’s notable potential and hunger for personal liberty defined the edge of that fading millennium.

An unexpected, but well-deserved, flashback to those carefree days is set to arrive threefold. Thanks to a lavish remastering at Toronto’s Lacquer Channel, all three of Plumtree’s full-length albums are ready to roll off the line in vinyl format for the first time. Mass Teen Fainting (1995), Plumtree Predicts the Future (1997), and This Day Won’t Last At All (2000) have all be immortalized in acrylic and reissued under the auspices of Label Obscura and featuring new artwork by Yorodeo.

You can almost feel the wind in your hair as you travel down memory lane with the Gillis girls’ effortless harmonies, twisted humour and ridiculously catchy love notes echoing in your ears. Though cut short in 2000, Plumtree’s long lost oeuvre will ensure that future generations can cozy up to a career characterized by a cheeky band next-door appeal. As Ferris cautioned, “life moves pretty fast.” More so these days, but once you stop and look around you’ll discover that the biggest challenge ahead will be bringing that record player on your next road trip.

Riff riders Witchstone weather the winter storms

Ballad of the Sludgelands: Riff riders Witchstone weather the winter storms

by Christine Leonard
20 February 2017

Defrosting the frozen heart of winter with a searing spike of psychedelic doom metal, Calgary’s Witchstone has been delivering their febrile mutations since first appearing on the prairie moors in 2011. Stubborn enough to weather the upheaval of ongoing personnel changes, founding members guitarist/vocalist Sean Edwards and bassist/vocalist Andrew Sanderson fleshed out the banshee band’s thinning ranks with the complimentary talents of inventive drummer Marcello Castronuovo and emotive guitar ace Ian Lemke (Blackrat).

“We used to be sort of droney and stonery, where we’d all be playing the same riff. And now it’s a lot more inspired by ‘70s proto-metal like Iron claw, Coven, Black Widow and newer bands who are doing stuff like that, such as Blood Ceremony,” says lead guitarist Lemke of Witchstone’s unfolding aesthetic.

The intense quartet self-released a brooding bedroom demo EP recorded in February of 2012, and two years later surpassed that introduction with a Sabbathy four-song cassette, Tales of the Riff Riders. In May of 2016, the band tag-teamed it with Quebec despots The Death Wheelers to release a split album titled Summon The End (Sunmask Records). Witchstone’s contributions, the turbid “The Sludgelands” and the ten-minute mark toppling “Altar Riot,” propelled the quartet towards the realization of Witchstone’s highly-anticipated forthcoming LP, Mortal Fear of Infinity.

“Around [the] same time we were recording our split, we recorded our new material with Pat Palardy of Public Lunch Studios, so the two sessions overlapped a little bit,” reports Lemke.

“It was the most professional studio environment I’ve ever recorded in. We had a lot of different ideas and experimented a lot, it was nice having someone who was really open minded and honest when he thought something wasn’t working out.”

According to the dual guitarists, the material that comprises Mortal Fear of Infinity sees the band seeking out untrodden pathways and rising to new heights of self-actualization.

“On this album, we intentionally went for a different kind of heavy. We didn’t go with amps to 11 and high distortion. We actually went a lot cleaner than we ever have before,” Lemke observes.

“I think this is the first album where we’ve gotten through our voice as a band and it feels like this is what we’re supposed to sound like. Sean and I have really gelled together; I think we’ve finally figured out our sound.”

Thrusting their point across with a subtle blade, Edward and Lemke divided songwriting duties down the middle.

“It’s been great writing with Ian in this new way, because he’s such a talented lead player. The subject matter is pretty dark and reflects both death and love. It’s a serious album and not so fantasy or fiction based,” says Edwards, who also explored and refined his vocal techniques.

“We’re trying to establish a vocal sound, so that we’re closer to singing than just brutal screaming.”

“This album especially is way more full of occult metaphors for real-life hardship, so we thought we’d go with a witchy vibe,” agrees Lemke.

“I started to do backing harmonies, which is the first time I’ve ever sung on an album.”

A breakthrough album in many respects, the production experiments Witchstone conducts on Mortal Fear of Infinity necessitated the addition of a fifth dimension to an already hypnotic live set; a quest that ended at the hands of keyboard enchantress Jolene Toner.

“On the split, and this album, we are just a four-piece, but we all agreed that there should be some keyboards, treats, layers and little tidbits on the new album for extra effect,” clarifies Lemke.

“We approached Jolene [because] she’s an old friend of ours. She’s a Jack-of-all-trades-type character, a versatile musician, and very easy to get along with… We’re excited to have a future recording with her on it.”

See Witchstone at their album release party on Saturday, March 4th at the Palomino Smokehouse and Bar with Numenorean and Monolith A.B.

Woodhawk tease ‘The High Priest’ + ‘Beyond the Sun’

 03rd, February 2017  

By Christine Leonard

Alighting for the first time on BeatRoute’s windowsill, the freshest cut from Woodhawk’s forthcoming album – the exultantly named Beyond the Sun – delivers an adrenaline rush and a foreboding prognostication in one fell swoop. A toothsome package, the lead single “The High Priest” executes Woodhawk’s hard rock rituals with a precision that belies the band’s unjaded enthusiasm.

“’The High Priest’ was one of the first songs we wrote for the record and it was also the first one we laid down when we got to the studio,” says lead singer/guitarist Turner Midzain. “It’s a straight-ahead riff ripper and just an all-around high energy tune.”

Woodhawk release Beyond the Sun on April 7th. They play Edmonton that night at the Sewing Machine Factory with The Mothercraft and Iron Eyes. The Calgary release party is on April 8 at the Palomino Smokehouse & Bar with Chron Goblin and The Mothercraft.

Accompanied by a beer-cooled video, that collages together shots of Woodhawk’s live performances into one epic landslide of concert footage, the teaser track provides a glimpse of what the spellbinding trio’s forthcoming LP has in store. Scheduled for release on April 7th, the eight-song package was captured at Rain City Records in Vancouver by Midzain, alongside stone cutting bassist/vocalist Mike Badmington and intrepid drummer Kevin Nelson. You’ll even hear organ and synth segments by engineer, producer, and mixer extraordinaire Jesse Gander.

“The song’s lyrics take from the idea of putting someone in power, who really shouldn’t be there, and they take advantage of their situation. It was written on the tail end of our EP in early 2015. So, it captures the essence of what Woodhawk was, and now is.”

Woodhawk’s Beyond the Sun will be released on April 7th.