Scratching Post
Destruction Of The Universe
(Squirtgun)
Saturday, 23 June 2001
Tuesday, 1 May 2001
The Buttless Chaps: Death Scenes I, II, III - Album Review
The Buttless Chaps
Death Scenes I, II, III
(Lonesome Cowboy Music)
Tobacco-chewin' tunes for the lonely rambler in all of us. Showdown at the Circle K corral these nouvelle country dusters deliver the goods, with a bit of electric twang thrown in for good measure. The latest and greatest from Canada's favourite bare-assed barstool busters stampedes to a store near you in the unassuming form of an 11-track tribute to roadkill, the adorable fuzzy critters who never made it to the other side of that broken yellow line. A tender subject, but no cut is too rare for these calamitous cattlemen. Death Scenes I, II, III's alternate title might have been Let It Bleed.
Heartbreakingly simple songs, with plenty of banjo accompaniment, are the catalysts for many a romantic prairie reverie. The sweet smell of fresh-cut hay and the scarlet hues of a harvest sunset have been digitized here for your aural pleasure. One listen and you will find yourself transported to flavour country. The presence of Spanish trumpets evokes a Tex-Mex aesthetic, reminding us of bullfights, refried beans (aka. Mexican strawberries = always in season), and lazy, sunburnt siestas. Siesta time indeed, for despite their unsettling appellation, the exposed ones constitute a surprisingly mellow smoke, with 25% less tar than your new country music groups. Rather, they adhere to the Hank Snow, golden-oldie days of country predating Shania and the rest on her inbred, pop-fed kin.
Soft and slow, Dave Gowan's dreamy vocals will lull you into a state of repose faster than you can say "Rhinestone Cowboy." The gentle and contemplative songs on this album blend together until there is almost nothing left to distinguish them from one another. The biggest standout from the mass is "Six Strong Men," the title that answers the burning question: What will it take to get me into church?
Making excellent use of pianos, violins, clarinets, and, of course, euphonium, The Chaps create a wonderfully, warm ambiance that's guaranteed to put their audience at ease. Each tune seems so casual and off the cuff that it would be tempting to assume they were written in an absent-minded flow of consciousness à la Wesley Willis. Yup, just hit the Country Demo button on the old Casio organ, sit back, sip some Southern Comfort and write some poop-kickin ditties about what you did or maybe just thought about doing that very day.
If you're a fan of vintage country music, or you just really enjoyed David Byrne's movie True Stories, be sure to check these dudes out. The Buttless Chaps may not be the fastest guns in the West, but they sure do sit tall in the saddle.
( http://www.thebuttlesschaps.com )
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: Six Strong Men, Disco Dancer
By Christine Leonard
May 1, 2001
Thursday, 1 February 2001
JELLO BIAFRA
Serving up a heaping pile of patriotism?
There’s always room for Jello!
Bovine intervention: Biafra picks the lock on Stock’s stockade
SPOKEN WORD PREVIEW
JELLO BIAFRA
Saturday, February 3, 2001
MacEwan Hall Ballroom (U of C)
Part punk rock legend, part political zealot, Jello Biafra (the man who’s brought us the Dead Kennedys, LARD, Tumour Circus and Grow More Pot!) never fails to provoke a response. On his current spoken word tour, in support of his newly released CD, Become the Media, he promises to expound on "a lot of subversive ideas." Topics, according to Biafra, such as "the events of the past fiscal year of protest starting with Seattle" and "the comedy of errors that was the U.S. national election." If that’s not enough to whet your appetite, he has plenty to say about the eerie familiarity of the rising political currents in our own country.
"I was in Vancouver when the national election took place. Some of the fresh buzz words and sound bites that the Canadian Alliance in particular are using are, of course, mined from far right-wing religious extremist groups in the United States. And it’s not always obvious from the way they present it what their agenda really is. As much as people rightly complain that Ontario controls the national elections because it’s more populous, I hope they stop and think that at least Ontario did Canada a favour this time by not putting the whole country in Stockwell’s stockade!"
Reflecting on our fair city here in the heart of the stockade, and our anticlimactic hosting of the World Petroleum Congress in July, Jello muses:
"Would ‘Normal Joe’ walk anywhere in Calgary these days? The shock for me the last time I was there was the unplanned suburbs outside just go on mile after mile, strip mall after strip mall. The best way for authorities to shut down protests at that conference would have been to change a few street signs, so everybody trying to get into downtown would get lost. Wouldn’t be that hard."
Misinformation of the masses by the authorities has always been a tool for maintaining power and controlling public opinion. It has therefore become Biafra’s passion to turn the tables, pull off the blindfolds and let these spin doctors reap what they have sown. Become the Media does just that.
"I think it’s so important to pay attention to independent and alternative media. The corporate media will go on and on about something like Survivor, when a lot of us are more concerned about surviving! Deliberate omission of important news stories in the corporate media is the worst form of censorship going on in either of our countries today."
Despite being embroiled in legal battles over the past year, Jello was not content to sit on the sidelines for the U.S. elections. The Green Party in New York State drafted him, and indications are that having his name on the ballot attracted some voters who had never considered, or heard of, Ralph Nader and the Green Party before.
"I joined the Green Party and voted for Nader for a reason. A lot of the middle-of-the-road liberals are bitching and moaning that ‘Nader cost Gore the election.’ Sorry, that’s crap! Gore cost Gore the election.
"There’s a growing number of us who absolutely will not vote for anyone who’s pro-drug war, pro-death penalty, pro-WTO or NAFTA, pro-destruction of the welfare system, doesn’t give a shit about the environment, etc. There are non-negotiable issues that Gore was on the wrong side of. As is the upper echelon corporate-controlled structure of the not-so-Democratic Party. So to hell with them!"
Well enough said, but can the average citizen really make a difference, and have their opinion heard by the powers that be? Can we truly "monkey wrench the New World Order?" Do we even stand a chance against big government and even bigger business? Jello seems to think so.
"The independent media centre and the whole burst of that movement may be one of the best things that happened in Seattle. Even a small Green wedge present in a legislature or on the national scene, especially in a parliamentary system like Canada, can work wonders."
Christine Leonard
Friday, 15 December 2000
NoMeansNo interviewed by Christine Leonard
NOMEANSNO and that's that!
"We’ve always done stuff that takes a few chances and requires a bit of listening...."
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He’s coming to town this December and he’s bringing the Wright brothers with him! I don’t mean Orville and Wilbur, but rather John and Rob Wright of Victoria’s NomeansNo. Currently touring the East in support of their latest release, No One, the brothers Wright find themselves in the part of the continent where they do not tend to do so well.
"Pillar to post. You go from 400 people in Chicago, 100 in Phillie, to a bowling alley, to someone’s warehouse."
Fortunately, their egos are well in check, and they are not injured by the thought of playing a smaller gig. Even if the turnouts could be more impressive, the band still manages to draw something positive from each experience.
"We’ll do these shows and think, ‘There aren’t too many people here – too bad.’ And somebody will come up to you and say, ‘Hey! We drove eight hours from Missouri, or Kentucky, to see you!’ And you realize it’s not the amount of people, it’s the quality."
With quality high on their list of priorities, it’s not surprising that their new album is such a fine example of NomeansNo’s time-practiced artistry and musical craftsmanship. A monstrous and confrontational body of work, No One lumbers through eight-minute power poems, and jazz-inspired tangents that threaten to alienate those looking for that quick punk rock fix.
"We gave our audience a bit of a job with this record. Sometimes that’s the way they turn out. You just follow your inspiration, and if it takes you down 20 minutes of whatever, then all you can do is follow."
Following that path of inspiration has led NomeansNo down many twisted avenues and dark alleyways. As a Canadian rock entity, they have continually reinvented themselves, keeping the spirit of their music vital and alive. But with all these startling transformations over the years, some of their old-school fans may have been left in the dust.
Even now, some are still sitting in the basement listening to Sex Mad on vinyl. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! Rob acknowledges the philosophical gap.
"I think our audience expects that of us. We’ve always done stuff that takes a few chances and requires a bit of listening.... You risk failing and you risk humiliating people who think they want a song to reach out and grab them, but it happened to work out the other way around."
Market appeal definitely isn’t an issue here – these guys have been at it long enough that they just do what comes naturally. This time the result is a lengthy, clean and thoughtful collection of songs that takes us down an emotional chain and stirs the juices. One of the two standout tracks on the album is "’Bitches Brew", a 15-minute transgression inspired by Miles Davis’s improvisational jazz album. In NomeansNo’s version, the super-structure riff from the intro becomes the basis of a huge, long, improvised interpretative piece. Wright gives Davis full credit, touting "Bitches Brew" as one of the best recordings of the 20th century.
"It’s a classic. To hear the original compared to what I did – it’s a bit different," Rob laughs.
The other big surprise comes at the very end of the album, in the form of a heavily monotone and dried out version of the off-colour Ramones hit "Beat on the Brat."
"We started doing that as a joke. Sort of stumbled on playing it reeeally slow. When all is said and done, there were a lot of extra songs in the sessions for this record, but we chose that one over some of our originals. And it ended up being quite in with the tone of the record – the contrast between it and "Bitches Brew."
Perpetually, swinging from one end of the pendulum to the other, NomeansNo encourages us to let go of the human symbols for the mystery of the existence that we’re bound up in. No more clinging senselessly to oversimplified cartoons (i.e., the yin-yang). What then is the alternative? Uncertainty. A frightening thought. But then, one must be strong to be wrong.
"At least let yourself fall into the soup, where you’re not quite sure what It is. That takes some guts. You never know what you’re going to find."
by Christine Leonard
Performing with Removal and Chupacabra at The Night Gallery, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Originally published in FFWD Magazine -- Friday, December 1, 2000
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