If you need a quick orientation to the work of SoCal punk legends Down by Law, look no further than their definitive 1991 song “Right or Wrong.” An unpolished skate punk spat that beats its fists against the entropy of existence, that raw and ready anthem came to represent the detritus that was swirling about in the minds of an era’s wasted youth.
Cue a montage of world tours, drained swimming pools, patched up denim vests and endless moshpits, suddenly it’s three decades and eleven albums later and vocalist Dave Smalley (ALL, Dag Nasty, Dave Smalley & The Bandoleros) is still putting out melodic albums that simply rock.
Pulling from the band’s surf-soaked roots, their new 10-inch vinyl EP is a slick guitar-driven soundtrack for sailing away from your post-modern problems. No regerts, as the misspelled saying goes. Redoubt displays its road rash scars and stick-and-poke tattoos with an air of pride. From the open waves of “At the Redoubt” to blue barrel-riding fish taco “For Your Eyes Only” and the lazily ambitious “Boring Things” (sung by guitarist Sam Williams), Down by Law’s latest will have you reaching for your board shorts and wallet-chain.
A bargain at any price, Teenage Bottlerocket’s newest LP is a pop-punk gift to the people from a group that has already contributed plenty in their twenty years of performing and producing feisty party anthems. Jammed with 14 listener-appreciative punk rock tracks that each clock in around the two-minute mark almost without fail, Stay Rad is a testament to the blue-collar idea factory operating at the band’s core.
Rally racing in a checkered cape, “Death Kart” comes off happier than it has any right to; while another celebration of friendship, “Everything to Me,” expresses an absurd degree of joy and affection. Cherishing moments and mutts, leg-humper “I Wanna Be a Dog” shakes off any serious intentions in favour of another silly yet life-preserving “Stupid Song.”
Note to self: “Night of the Knuckleheads” is probably going to be the perfect background theme for all of your impending summer misadventures. It’s only a matter of time until Teenage Bottlerocket invites a hitchhiker on their fun bus, this time its “Creature from the Black Metal Lagoon,” a humorous homage to the dark side that churns up some of the album’s biggest riffs while managing to scoff at all those “shitty Warped Tour bands.”
A shimmering beacon amidst the dark matter of outer space, the latest track to be leaked from Gone Cosmic’s much-anticipated debut album, Sideways in Time, lands like a feather fallen from the headdress of Osiris. Rising from the frost-traced canyons of Mars, the sleeper hit gathers disparate elements from the realms of metal, jazz, psych-rock, R&B (and more) to form a blazing phoenix that streaks across the galaxy.
Flaming meteor and commanding vocalist, Abbie Thurgood describes the song’s whiplash-inducing orbit as “a throat-punching, face-melting, melodically-driven trip.” A soul-strafing tirade that “touches on the ultimate sacrifice and give-all nature that takes place for a loved one,” Gone Cosmic’s “Faded Release” is an offering fit for any stargate altar or playlist.
Gone Cosmic’s new album Sideways in Time will be released through the Kozmik Artifactz record label on April 12.
CALGARY – French, English, Russian, Spanish — There’s no language barrier that can’t be bridged by the fragrant vibes of Quebec’s legendary ska-rock orchestra GrimSkunk. The veteran politipunksare celebrating 30 years of making music and mayhem under the flag of hemp and justice for all.
“When we started our career punk and metal had already gone around the block a couple of times,” says lead singer/organist Joe Evil. “It was sort of getting repetitive. We wanted to mix in a new style. How we became creative was to do punk and metal but mix it completely with any sort of style or language.”
GrimSkunk has always maintained an amazing sense of humour and grace when it comes to exploring inroads to spiritual harmony and mutual enrichment.
“We sort of did it when it was okay to do it and now it’s like, the news is pretty harsh, and can I understand cultural appropriation. We’ve taken elements from everywhere. We’ve had Greek songs, we’ve had Spanish words over flamenco-style music, and we’ve had North African songs with Persian words. We’ve done them just for the fun of doing it and the influences that they’ve had on us. Because as a ‘global band’ right at the verge of the Internet, or before the Internet, there was world music and that was a big influence on us. We were turned on by those styles and wanted to integrate it into our punk rock and psychedelic rock.”
A multilingual montage of genres that keeps the punk rock party thumping, GrimSkunk’s latest release, Unreason in the Age of Madness, was dropped on the band’s own Indica Records label in 2018. Also ringing in their 20th anniversary as a company this year, Indica has long been home to an exotic blend of artists who might not have been heard were it not for GrimSkunk’s musical green thumb.
“Obviously, as times goes by, different styles become popular,” Evil acknowledges. “We are getting influenced by ourselves earlier in our career finally. Now, I can finally start to relate to bands that have been around for decades! I can finally relate to Rush!”
GrimSkunk perform March 27 at Wild Bill’s (Banff), March 28 at The Drake Public House (Canmore), March 29 at Broken City (Calgary), March 31 at Doc Willoughby’s (Kelowna) and April 4 at Venue (Vancouver)
Melted Mirror Wrestle With The Strange Passage Of Time
by Christine Leonard
You know that recurring dream you have about playing full-contact laser tag with Joy Division? It’s about to come true! Sliding out of the shadows of the recording studio and back on to the neon dancefloor, where they belong, Calgary-based synth lovers, Melted Mirror are pleased to present a glimpse into the future with the release of their second full-length album, Past Life.
A glossy high-resolution follow-up to 2016’s Borderzone with its wandering stars and flying fortresses, Past Life crystalizes Melted Mirror’s dark charisma and cunning intellect into a collection of shimmering electro-pop tracks. Two years in the making, Past Life reportedly took Melted Mirror only two short days to record, thanks in part to the prowess of producer/engineer Nik Kozub (Shout Out Out Out Out).
“After our first album, a friend suggested we look into recording with Nik at The Audio Department up in Edmonton,” says vocalist Chris Zajko. “Between 2017 and 2018 we recorded a total of ten songs over three sessions and then narrowed it down to eight tracks for the album. The biggest challenge was simply trying to get everything done in the time that we had booked for the studio.”
Pressure makes diamonds and that’s exactly what the refractive trio, rounded out by synth player/programmer Cian Cocteau and guitarist Jeebs Nabil, has composed and delivered with the icy lustings of Past Life. One thing that technology cannot fabricate is human emotion, that essential element relies entirely on the organic beings at the center of Melted Mirror’s retrofitted motherboard.
“It sounds silly, but when you’re recording by yourself, you may not have that many resources or fancy equipment, but you generally have the luxury of time. You have time to try things that may or may not work, or play around with parts, or leave and come back to a song the next day,” Zajko intimates.
“Past Life refers to the idea that we are all part of a vast continuum that is largely beyond our choosing and control. Since we can’t choose where and when we are born, our world is an inheritance of history from the multitude of ‘past lives’ of the people who lived before us. We try to claim an ownership to something that is our own and permanent, but really, we’re all just passing through.”
Hawksley Workman Median Age Wasteland (Isadora Records)
The business of making music has long been child’s play for singer-songwriter Hawksley Workman. From polishing the glam-pop pole with “Stripteaze” to warming the hearth of humanity with “Almost a Full Moon” the multi-talented instrumentalist and author has successfully encapsulated the modern Canadian experience while panhandling his way into the hearts and record collections of rock and folk music fans around the globe.
Sizing up personal demons on his self-exploratory 16th studio album, Median Age Wasteland, Workman (who turns 44 this month) applies his careful yet ebullient craft to tracks like the equally luminous and humourous “Lazy” and the small town summer ditty “Battlefords.” As ever, soaring vocals and cafe corner guitar rambles ease any sense of awkwardness as the true north troubadour dives headlong into another library of unabashedly innocent and sentimentalized moments. “Birds in Train Stations”, cigarettes, lucid dreams, bingo cards and cars perched on blocks are all fair game as the obtuse and observant “Skinny Wolf” catalogues his impressionistic adventures. Elevating the mundane, he readily points out “Nobody really asked for this,” but by the time you’ve reached your 40s it’s not so much about getting what you want, but rather claiming what you need.
The Vandits Vanuary Fundraiser is Generating desert heat in the heart of winter
20 January 2018
By Christine Leonard
Show a little class and stand by your van.
Once a year Calgary’s legendary Vandits Van Club throws an epic camp-out under the wide prairie skies. Raising a stage and riding the lightning to a remote rural location in central Alberta, the cadre of van-enthusiasts pack their coolers with ice and their impromptu grandstand with a procession of daring musicians drawn from miles around. Vantopia sets the tone for the summer to come and leaves attendees with ringing ears and visions of tornadoes dancing in the rearview. We asked Cory Martens, vice president and founding member of Vandits VC, and owner/operator of Twinbat Sticker Company, for the low down on the motor club's upcoming Vanuary fundraiser in support of Alberta’s own desert rock showdown.
BeatRoute: Who are Vandits VC? Vandit Cory Martens: Vandits VC are a van club from Calgary. We only like vintage vans, beer, and rock ‘n’ roll.
BR: How did The Palomino Smokehouse become the de facto hangout for Vandits VC? CM: The owner, Arlen (Smith) and I go way back. We got to talking a bunch of years ago about how we both had just acquired boogie vans. We decided we should drive them together. The rest is kind of history. I don’t exactly know how we got to 16 members! Just rad people buying rad vans, I guess. Aside from basically being our clubhouse, The Pal is just a bitchin’ venue.
BR: What’s the deal with the Vanuary Fundraiser show? CM: Vanuary is our Winter Van Jam…sans vans. We like to keep the vanning spirit going even in the winter by getting club members and other buddies to learn a bunch of vannin’ tunes. It’s always a riot. It also acts as a fundraiser for Vantopia. This year we have Electric Owl, Riff Pigeon (a Woodhawk redux), RAW, Buffalo Bud Buster, 2/3rds of Nothing, Stab Twist Pull and a special Vandits VC Supergroup (think Denim Machine meets Chron Goblin)!
BR: Tell us about the Vantopia event that the Club puts on at the start of summer.CM: Vantopia is our gigantic annual blowout. Three days of partying in the country with a tonne of vans, bands and beer. We usually have around 20 bands from all over to provide the soundtrack to partying in your van. We’ve noticed that over the years the number of tents has greatly diminished, while the number of vans has increased significantly. Last year we had around 80 boogie vans. It seems our message is being heard!
BR: What do you have in store for Vantopia in 2018? CM: This year will be number six. This year we’ve already confirmed a bunch of bands that are gonna blow some people’s minds. Also, Matchstick from Custom Vanner Magazine will be coming all the way from Los Angeles again this year to MC. That's always a riot. Our goal is for everyone to have a safe time partying their brains out.
BR: So, how does one become a “Vandit”? How do I know if my van is worthy?CM: Our members are mostly just a bunch of best friends that happen to own vans. As for what a sweet ride looks like, I’ll tell you what we don’t hate: side pipes, a jacked-up booty, and mag wheels. No VW, no FWD.
BR: My Grandparents are touring the Baja in their RV. How does joining a Van-Club stack up in terms of the ultimate retirement plan? CM: Are you asking if there’s money in vanning? Hahahahaha. Well, there isn’t. But who’s to say you can’t quit your job, sell your house and live in your van? No one.
BR: Other than attending the Vanuary show, how can people support Vandits VC and Vantopia? CM: Buy our stuff, our merch game is strong: http://vanditsvc.bigcartel.com/
Vandits VC Vanuary Fundraiser in support of Vantopia 2018 featuring:
Electric Owl, Riff Pigeon (a Woodhawk redux), RAW, Buffalo Bud Buster, 2/3rds of Nothing, Stab Twist Pull and a special Vandits VC Supergroup happens January 27 at The Palomino Smokehouse (Calgary)
“Stand by your Van” a short documentary video from Vantopia 3.
CM: “It’s a pretty decent representation of what goes on there.”
