Jan. 11, 2006 - Issue #534: Workingman’s Death

Music Notes

 

The Anglers with Souljah Fyah • Sidetrack Café • Sat, Jan 7 • reVUE Even though our winter has been far from menacing this year, there’s no better way to warm up the January blahs than throwing a hot reggae party. The Anglers—who split their time between Edmonton and Taiwan—are more of a roots/funk/jam band than a reggae act, but they fit the bill perfectly nonetheless. Alternating between an acoustic guitar and a banjo, frontman Scott Cook led the steamy crowd of dreadlocked dancers along like a barefooted pied piper with his eclectic mix of musical styles. At the heart of it all was an undeniable groove and a message of universal love that gave the night a warm fuzzy vibe even a cynical old bastard like myself couldn’t ignore. — Phil Duperron

 


The Pants Situation • With Our Mercury and the Rocky Fortune • Sidetrack Café • Sat, Jan 14 (8 pm) “I just have to say that this is by far the strangest interview I’ve ever done,” says Brady Kirchner, frontman for Calgary’s undeniably catchy, mildly adorable, ridiculously named indie-pop quartet the Pants Situation. At this point, the evidently bizarre conversation is barely five minutes old, but this is, admittedly, a pretty accurate assessment—and, in Kirchner’s mind, quite an authoritative one at that (“We’ve done so many interviews in the last month—not to brag or anything, but we have,” he boasts).

In Music Notes’s defense, however, it is worth mentioning that this discussion’s apparent unconventionality likely owes less to this column’s supposedly unorthodox brand of investigative journalism than it does to Kirchner’s willingness to be interrogated via cellphone while he and guitarist Greg Newman wander aimlessly through their sleepy residential neighbourhood late one Sunday evening in search of some manner of fast food (and on that note: you Vue readers are a clever bunch, so please feel free to make up your own stoner/munchies joke at this point).

“I wish I was at home watching Family Guy,” he admits, “but instead I’m wandering around looking for food, because I worked all day”—at Starbucks, it was later discovered—”and then I got dragged to a band practice and now I am tired and cold and hungry and just trying to find a Subway that’s still open.

“I really hope you don’t ask too many questions,” he continues. “Just keep in mind that I am very cold and very tired.”

No questions at all, then? Fair enough, especially considering that, thanks to the exhaustive research (that is, five minutes of Googling and a quick glance at MySpace) that goes into every edition of Music Notes, Kirchner doesn’t need to explain how the band, which is rounded out by bassist Daniel LaPlante and drummer Joey Mooney, formed in January of 2004 while its members were attending Calgary’s Bishop Grandin High School, nor does he need to mention that the group has just released its first full-length album, The Ugly Man, recorded at Calgary’s Echo Base studio. He does, however, have to elaborate a bit on why he’s seemingly so distressed by our exchange, if for no other reason than to justify the long distance phone call for which this publication will be paying.

“No, actually, this is a pretty fun conversation,” he reassures. “It’s sort of like meeting over the internet, actually: at first it’s all sort of awkward, and then the playful insults come and break the ice, and then in the end you end up just having a mildly erotic conversation.”

Erotic?

“Yeah,” Kirchner continues. “So, um, what are you wearing, anyways?”

See? Now who’s giving the strangest interview ever?

 


The Johnsons • With Southside Riots, Michael Rault & the Mixed Signals and Ten Pints to Glory • New City • Fri, Jan 13 Chinese Democracy, the forthcoming new album by legendary (or, at least, unintentionally self-parodying) ‘80s rock icons Guns ‘n Roses, has been rumoured to be in the works for the better part of the last decade. In that time, the album’s recording budget has apparently ballooned to over $13 million, and G ‘n R frontman Axl Rose has replaced every member of the band at least twice.

With this absurdity in mind, then, the nearly five years it has taken Edmonton punk outfit the Johnsons to complete their upcoming full-length album Gypsies for Life seem positively ordinary—well, okay, actually it still sounds pretty strange, although head Johnson Nathan Burge insists his band has some pretty decent excuses for the album’s agonizingly long gestation.
“We wanted everything to be perfect, so we planned on taking a super long time recording, but, yeah, not quite this long,” Burge admits. “We ended up having to work with a couple different drummers—very soon after we started recording we ended up having to get a new drummer, and of course he had to learn all of our material, so that took some time to get really tight. And we also ended up only recording the drums in Edmonton—everything else was recorded in Kelowna, so all that traveling took time, too. I lost my voice at one point, as well, and that also held things up a bit. There were just a bunch of little problems, I guess.”

No kidding, although one has to admire the Johnsons’ persistence, especially considering how randomly the group formed six years ago while Burge was studying Digital Media Arts at Grant MacEwan College. “For a final project me and two other guys had to do this audio assignment where we had to record a band, but we decided rather than recording an existing band we’d just write a bunch of songs and play them ourselves,” he explains. “So we got together one night and wrote three really just terrible songs and recorded them. We thought that was that, but then a friend of ours was booking bands for this bar, and he was in a pinch one time so he asked if we’d play, and it ended up being a really fun time, so we decided to keep going with it.”

And keep going they have—somewhat amazingly, even after the unexpectedly Herculean effort required to get Gypsies for Life out to listeners, the Johnsons report that they are already hard at work on a followup—although Burge is quick to add that, even given its lengthy production time, Gypsies for Life doesn’t sound at all dated to him.

“We’re already working on the next record, and the new material is obviously a little different, but all we’re still playing all the songs on this album, and we’re not, like, tired of it or anything, but I guess [that material] is getting a little bit old these days,” he says, although he remains focused on his long awaited new arrival.

“We’ve finally gotten everything together, and it sounds exactly like we want it to sound, so we’re stoked to finally get it out to people,” he enthuses. “After so long, that’s the best part.”


 

Jukebox Shock • With Profunda Rosa and the Intensives • The Roost • Thu, Jan 19 In their relatively short existence, Jukebox Shock have made quite the name for themselves in Edmonton’s small but enthusiastic rockabilly scene, so when rumours circulated that the band was in the market for a new percussionist, inexperienced-but-enthusiastic local drummer Byron Kerkoff immediately began lobbying for an audition.

“I found out that they needed a new drummer, and I convinced a mutual friend to recommend me,” he explains, “so we jammed a couple of times and they asked me to join, which was pretty cool.”

Very cool, especially considering the fact that, unlike the rest of Jukebox Shock, who are “all, like, 23, or something,” Kerkoff just recently celebrated his sixteenth birthday and still attends high school, although he’s happy to report that this fairly wide age gap hasn’t caused much trouble for his new band so far.

“I thought it would be kind of weird,” Kerkoff admits, “but they’re all such cool guys that it turned out to not really matter in the end. It’s a little annoying because I have to get a special permit from the Liquor Control Board before we play at a bar, but other than that it hasn’t really been that big of deal.”

At also doesn’t hurt that Kerkoff is, by all accounts, one hell of a drummer, and a bit of an aficionado of the relatively esoteric rockabilly/psychobilly scene, a passion he says he felt almost immediately upon his introduction to the genre.

“I originally got into psychobilly when a friend loaned me a Necromantics albums a few years ago,” he explains, “and I was just, like, blown away by how completely different it was from anything I’d ever heard before—it was fucking awesome, and as soon as I heard it I knew I wanted to make music like that.”

According to Kerkoff, Jukebox Shock, whom he describes as “old-school Elvis Presley on crack,” certainly fit the bill, and apparently they’re as thrilled with the arrangement as he is.
“I guess I’m a fast learner,” he shrugs. “But we have a lot of fun, which is all that counts. I’m pretty excited about all this, actually.”

This excitement also helps dissipate any reservations about the somewhat unusual venue—infamous Edmonton gay bar the Roost—at which the band will be performing during what will be, among other things, Kerkoff’s first visit to such a place.

“I’ve, uh, never really been to many bars, gay or otherwise,” he laughs, “but I hear that everyone is really nice and really into the music, just like any other show at any other bar. When you’re 16, being in any bar is pretty cool, so I’m psyched.” V

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