25th ANNIVERSARY ISSUE
The rise and rise of
Billy Talent BeGentsHrealerntpleessr FREE
Duke Spirit Americanize in the desert
Health Get down with the sound of clowns
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PUBLISHER/EDITOR IN CHIEF Darryl Fine MANAGING EDITOR Jonathan Dekel COPY EDITOR Karen Bliss DESIGNERS Curtis Austin David Waldman WRITERS Ben Rayner Cam Carpenter Chelsea Clark Elena Vardon Gregg Wolfe Hai Vu Joe H. Nathan Jonathan Dekel Keith Carman Kelowna Vincent Matt Darling Sheena Lyonnais Jen Unbe PHOTOGRAPHERS David Waldman Richard Sibbald Steve Locke Sydney Adram Renata Racksha CONTRIBUTORS Stacey Case NATIONAL ACCOUNTS Hartley Pickens hartley@canadarocksmedia.com Darryl Fine info@gasolinemagazine.com DISTRIBUTION AND ADMINISTRATION Gregg Wolfe Mailing Address: 538 Queen St W Flr. 2 Toronto, Ontario M5V2B5 Telephone: 416 203 1407 Fax: 416 504 7571 Copyright © 2009 Gasoline Magazine All rights reserved by Gasoline and content may not be reproduced, published, or transferred in any form or by any means, except with the written permission of Gasoline Magazine.
CONTENTS
JERRY CAN
Front and Centre .4 Teenage X by Darryl Lee Crooked X .6 by Chelsea Clark The Horrors . 8 by Matt Darling Ben Harper . 10 by Kelowna Vincent Tattoo . 12 Dennis Pase by Gregg Wolfe Fashion . 14 Mister Softee by Richard Sibbald Billy Talent . 20 by Ben Rayne Duke Spirit . 24 by Jonathan Dekel Health . 26 by Sheena Lyonnais The Queers . 28 by Jen Unbe Movie . 30 Flight 666 by Hai Vu Bif Naked . 32 by Elena Vardon Fashion . 34 Muddin’ by Steve Locke Anti-Flag . 38 by Chelsea Clark Video Game Review . 40 by Hai Vu Cars . 42 with Stevie Chop
I’ve taken back
the editorial page from managing editor Jon Dekel for this issue because I wanted to spend a little time thanking the readers, the advertisers, and all the people involved with the publishing of the first 25 issues of Gasoline Magazine. My staff asked me why I wanted to make a big deal about the 25th, rather than the 20th or 50th issue. I thought about it and tried to remember when I felt like an adult. It wasn’t my 18th, 19th or 21st birthday; it was definitely my 25th. I think a few of us caught in between the Baby Boomers and the GenXers feel that 25 is the correct entrance to adulthood. College is over; we were out of the parents’ house for a few years and working to pay the bills was a new priority. Of course, today’s parents of 25 year olds would beg to differ. They are telling me that their kids are still either living at home or living off them? The video game effect, I guess. Too much couch time? In any case, Gasoline has grown up. If you have issue #1 or
issues #2 through #10, or the adolescent #11 through #17, you can see the progression of the publication, the care, and the enthusiasm that the staff at the magazine have put into each book. We love making it. We know that our 100 percent pickup rate means you love reading it. To keep it simple, I want to shout out to the members of Billy Talent for all the support they’ve given all of my projects, including their Bovine Sex Club shows ( the last for the Queen Street West Fire Relief Fund ). Mostly though, I wanted to thank them for the shits and giggles, drinks and companionship over the years. They have always been there for us and we felt they should be our 25th anniversary cover story, just as they embark on their tour schedule with their new disc. Thanks boys. I also want to thank Harris Rosen for getting me into this mess, and Jonathan Dekel, David Waldman, Gregg Wolfe, Curtis Austin, Richard Sibbald, Ron Boudreau and Karen Bliss for getting me out the messes, as I create them ( a.k.a. going to print! ) Note to my repeat customers. Lets do more with less. Please keep buying pages, of course, but think of us as a street level marketing conduit. We are open for business every night of the year. Whether it’s at my venues and bars (Bovine Sex Club, Shanghai Cowgirl and Watusi), one of our national concert events or if we are showcasing talent at an international festival. Let us know if you want to come along for the real ride. It requires sleeplessness, booze and other stimulus, human and organic. Finally, Jill you are my inspiration and my patience. None of this works unless you are behind me and beside me.
Reviews . 44 Gig Posters . 46
Darryl Fine Publisher
FRONT AND CENTER
Teenage X To hear frontwoman Sara Page tell it, the conception of her band Teenage X wasn’t just a grouping of like-minded musicians, but fate. “Teenage X started on the anniversary of Elvis’s death, and I was born 50 years to the day after Marilyn Monroe.” Says the enigmatic singer. “So obviously destiny is on our side” Page, a classically trained pianist and band rat, began her musical career playing trumpet in Skaface at the tender age of 16. Since that time, her band pedigree has included stints in Cancon musical favourites the Tijuana Bibles and the Threat. ”I have toured Europe a couple times with the Tijuana Bibles. We partied with crazy Serbian’s on a boat in Danube!” She recalls of her wild past. “In Eastern Canada with The Threat, I met local hero PJ Dunphy [Iron Giant], who we found naked in a bank vestibule after the party. Those were some memorable moments” The band - Page, guitarist/ songwriter Rich Gaskin, bassist Phil Page, Guitarist Chris T. and drummer MyKill A.D.- is a self styled punk anthem generator and makes no bones of its rock linage. “Our influences are MC5 and Bad Brains to Black Flag and Iggy Pop“, remarks Gaskin, formerly of the Downbelows. The band is currently gearing up to record their debut album this summer and plans are in motion to tour in the fall of 2009, However, in the eyes of several of their younger fans, Teenage X has already reached their Rock N Roll summit. “I work as a nanny,” Page laughs. “the kids think I’m a famous rock star.”
by Darryl Lee photos by David Waldman
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Rated
Teen rockers schooled on the road
“Sure, we might not get to go to normal high schools or go to prom or whatever, but look at the stuff that we do get to do!”
by Chelsea Clark
It’s not every up-and-coming band that gets to tour with Ted Nugent and KISS, or have MTV document the experience. Nor is it every band whose debut album comes out to remarkable anticipation and heavy critical praise with a single immediately employed on Rock Band. Even rarer, though, is the band who achieves these things before its members celebrate their 15th birthdays. Oklahoma’s Crooked X can claim all of the above. Having made the decision early on – seriously early, at age 11 – to make something of themselves, the members of Crooked X have been dedicated to success ever since. On Crooked X’s self-titled album, the childhood friends — singer-guitarist Forrest French, guitarist-singer Jesse Cooper, bassist Josh McDowell and
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drummer Boomer Simpson — have created an album of heavy, melodic, true southern metal which pays respect to its twin inspirations, Metallica and Pantera. Speaking with Cooper, who finds himself back in his hometown of Coweta, Oklahoma with spare time before the band is back on the road for some summer festivals, one gets the sense that deciding to make a career out of music before entering junior high is really not a big deal. “We’d all been playing for a while, together, and our parents asked us if this was something we really wanted to do, and since it was, they just supported us through it and treated it as something with a future instead of just us playin’ around,” he says.
So down to earth that he’s nearly blasé about the entire experience, Cooper takes the band’s success in stride, noting that the chance to play to crowds of 35,000 in Sweden opening for KISS puts into perspective the importance of actual life experience versus that of the traditional. “Sure, we might not get to go to normal high schools or go to prom or whatever, but look at the stuff that we do get to do,” he says. “When we come home, it’s mostly the same thing. Our friends, the ones we’ve hung out with forever, they still treat us the same. It’s still just us hangin’ out, but then we get to go and play music we really, really love.” Though they initially took their parents on the road with them as crew members, Cooper notes that they’ve slowly but
surely been building up their own cast to take on the road – not that they’re lacking role models or positive influence while they’re out. “I’d say Black Stone Cherry guys are some of the most influential we’ve played with. They were some of the coolest guys we’ve ever gotten to meet. They hung out and helped us with our gear and had some secret, well – some, let’s say kinda confidential advice for us when out on the road,” Cooper laughs. With the talent they bring to this initial release, in addition to the unparalleled musicianship and drive to continue, in time French, Cooper, McDowell and Simpson are certain to find themselves in the position to be offering big brother advice to their own protégé.
OH THE HORRORS !
“We have very short attention spans” by Matt Darling photo by David Waldman
English buzz band finds new direction
F
or most bands, the sophomore album is the
most critical point in their career. The fear of failing to recreate the magic of their first attempt haunts most bands in their post-debut downtime. But then some bands aren’t interested in recreating anything and evolve organically. UK garage ghouls and NME darlings The Horrors fall into this category. “The first record was very much where the band was at the time, which was playing live and trying to capture that live energy on record. The second record, we were able to take our time, hole up in a rehearsal studio and lose ourselves in our own little world,” says guitarist Joshua Third (formerly known as Joshua Von Grimm) of new album, Primary Colours. “We’ve just become better at our craft, and therefore created more of a complete record and more of a listening experience.”
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Recently championed in an online post by the gothfather himself, Trent Reznor, Primary Colours is anything but predictable. Gone are the manic howls, heart attack riffs and Munsters organ, and in their place, warm washes of distortion and lush, cinematic synth lines. Frontman Ferris Badwan (formally billed as Ferris Rotter) channels the ghost of Ian Curtis rather than Screamin’ Lord Sutch and the tone is more Eno than it is The Cramps. The quintet, which features Badwan, Third, bassist Tomethy Furse, drummer Coffin Joe and keyboardist Rhys “Spider” Webb, met in clubs on the Southend circuit, like-minded outcasts bound to gravitate towards each other. Badwan and Furse attended rugby school together and had shared interests in ‘60s garage rock and collecting obscure vinyl. In the early stages of the band, its repertoire consisted mainly of two covers: The Sonics’ “The Witch” and
Screaming Lord Sutch’s “Jack the Ripper” (previously covered by The Gruesomes, and The Fuzztones). The Sutch cover remained a staple and appears on both The Horrors’ debut EP and its first full-length, Strange House. Describing its sound as “psychotic sounds for freaks and weirdoes,” the band became fast favorites of UK music rags, which proclaimed it the next big thing. Creating an experience seems to be the band’s main objective from the Edward Gorey meets Tim Burton image, the art-house music videos and chaotic stage show, to the fanzines created by the band and handed out at early gigs. Just like their sound, the other elements have evolved as well. A more psychedelic visual has been created to compliment the experimental, shoegazer sound, and the video for the band’s latest single, “Who Can Say,” has a more minimalist approach, but is just as striking as previous clips.
The growing synth element in the band’s sound can be attributed to Webb and Furse’s experimental electronic side project, Spider and the Flies, and their growing collection of vintage synths. “We have very short attention spans and are always trying to push things and excite ourselves, and I guess that’s why the organ sort of fell by the way side,” explains Third. “We’re not looking to repeat ourselves; we’re not that band. Some people who like the first record kind of expect we’d do it again. I’m quite confident in the fact that the first record was different from what was going on at the time, so anyone who got that obviously likes to be challenged and likes hearing something new.”
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Relentless White
by Kelowna Vincent
Ben Harper is not just a passionate
performer, he is a passionate person. This is almost intimidatingly apparent as he speaks on his cell phone at the bar in Toronto’s SoHo Metropolitan Hotel’s grand lobby restaurant orchestrating travel plans. Done. He walks back to greet me, arm extended and offers a firm handshake. Taking a relaxed position with his arm draped over the length of the top of the leather couch, there is no doubting how firm he is in his focus and how proud he is with this new path when we begin discussing
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his recent release, White Lies for Dark Times and new band Ben Harper and Relentless7. “This is a new musical voice for me. It’s a huge transition into an entirely different sound,” he says confidently. Ben Harper released his debut album, Welcome to the Cruel World, in 1994. It was only four years later that he met the men that would cause this new trajectory in his sound. Since the mid-nineties, he collaborated with a band called The Innocent Criminals and whether they were credited or uncredited, they played a strong role in the sound of many of his album releases and his live performances. So it comes as no surprise that a chance meeting in a van en
Light
route to a festival gig in Austin, Texas would take 11 years to materialize into a workable musical relationship. It was unusual for Harper to sit in the front seat of the van when the band was taken to a show. He preferred to sit in the back, but suspected it was fate that caused him to sit next to the driver, who just happened to be a singer in a local band. It definitely takes some gumption to ask an international music star to listen to your demo under any circumstance, perhaps even more so when you have him trapped in a moving vehicle. At first, Harper was a bit hesitant. He had his own pre-show ritual and wanted to consider the mood of the rest of his
bandmates, but the singer’s earnest way won him over and he agreed to let the music play. That band was Wan Santo Condo and Harper liked what he heard so much, he helped it get a record deal. Wan Santo Condo’s guitar player was a guy by the name of Jason Mozersky. A strong, lasting friendship began between the two of them, which led to Mozersky being called into the studio to record tracks on Harper’s 2006 release, Both Sides of the Gun. While in the session, Mozersky touted some musician friends of his: Jesse Ingalls (bass) and Jordan Richardson (drums). Harper was intrigued and invited the trio back to play together from
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“I’m not going to allow this band to ride on the shoulders of where I’ve been. This band deserves an objective viewpoint and not to be saddled by anything I’ve ever done.”
which came the song “Serve Your Soul.” After that studio session, Harper continued to tour with the Innocent Criminals but couldn’t shake the chemistry he had experienced during his brief studio time with these new players. When he returned, they fashioned a jam session together and his curiosity yielded to a certainty that this was truly a special musical collaboration when the four of them found their first song uniquely recorded in just one hour (“Up to You Now”). Prominent percussion and more electric guitar are two of the defining features on White Lies for Dark Times. One wonders if this heavier side of Harper will alienate long time fans. “You haven’t been to one
Jam legend Ben Harper brings on heavier rock direction with the Relentless 7
of my live shows, have you?” he teases. “Listen, anyone who’s been coming to my live shows is going to recognize this record straight off the bat.” So while fans of Harper’s live shows will likely embrace the more rock-based direction of Relentless 7, Harper’s signature soft lyrics and slow songs have not been completely removed. They figure prominently toward the end of the album. “I can’t be concerned about perception because perception will stifle the creative process,” says Harper. “I tell you what I’m going to do — I’m not going to overplay with this band. I’m going to play to what this band earns. I’m not going to allow this band to ride on the shoulders of
where I’ve been. I’m not going to ride on the newness of this band. This band deserves an objective viewpoint and not to be saddled by anything I’ve ever done.” He takes a brief pause and then smiles. “I know that’s ridiculous to say and I know it’s going to happen anyways, but this music will succeed with my name or without. This band has to be twice as good. This band has a statement to make.” Harper is also quick to point out that even though he’s finding this collaborative energy with this new project, that it does not strike out any potential return to working with the Innocent Criminals. “It’s a good thing.” Harper insists. “The music and the creative
process has a way of dragging you kicking and screaming or willingly drawing you where you are supposed to be.” With so much passion, it won’t be hard for Harper to distinguish between the two bands nor is there any question where his present focus is: “This is not a side project. This is not a project. It’s not a side band. It’s not one record. This music represents a catalogue of music for the future. This is a band. This is my band and this is what I’m going to be doing for a long time.”
Tattoo Culture
Beard of preyDennis Pase
by Gregg Wolfe
I met Dennis Pase at Acme Ink in Louisville, Kentucky, when he
tattooed my brother Justin, the lead singer for London, Ontario metal band Thine Eyes Bleed. Justin chose a skull with a beard along with a banner that said “beards of prey.” The shop is off the trendy street, Bardstown Road, and is adorned with wacky art and traditional old school flash. The common area opens up to a winding hallway of doors with little rooms for the artists.
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My friend, Matt Brown, is an apprentice there and he had agreed to tattoo a spark plug on me. The shop was closed to the public because it was Derby weekend. As my brother was waiting for my tattoo to be finished, he started flipping through Pase’s portfolio and loved the stuff, so Brown called his boss down to the shop. When Justin saw this burly metal guy with the big beard, it seemed fitting he would be inking his beard-themed tat. Pase has been in the tattoo industry for six years, beginning at Altered State Tattoo in
West Palm Beach, Florida, where he built up a loyal client base. He then moved to Georgia where he worked at Black Orchid Tattoo and, over time, pressure from friends from the Bluegrass state landed him in Louisville in 2007.
offered a job [at Altered State Tattoo] and took it.
What made you start in the tattoo industry? I had been getting tattooed for about eight years and doing some house tatties on the side of working an 80-hour-aweek management job at [shoe and clothing retailer] Journeys. One day, I carried my poor excuse for a portfolio of six months experience and was
How would you describe your style of tattooing? I see a lot of elements of old school flash with a new school twist? My style is always changing from week to week, but I try and stay in the vein of American and Japanese traditional with a twist.
What do you think you’d be doing as a career if you weren’t tattooing? If I wasn’t tattooing I’d still be in retail — fuck retail!
“I do whatever Satan tells me.” What are you currently listening to? Wolves in the Throne Room, The Haunted, Dark Funeral, Gorgoroth, Cult of Luna and Rosetta, to name a few. For a guy dressed all in black with a beard that would make most bikers jealous, you use a lot of bright colours in your work. Is this a personal choice or the request of the client? The colour thing used to be by choice, but lately I just try to keep things more classy. Maybe pick a colour scheme and not try to pack a million colours into every tattoo. I like to find cool ways to add contrast. I do whatever Satan tells me. What are your favourite things to tattoo? Skulls. I love skulls. There’s so much you can do with them. Who are your influences and/or some or your favourite artists? Influences: Pooch, Eric Eaton, Mike Rubendall, Filip Lu, and everyone I work with at Acme Ink, as well as others. My
favourite artists: Pooch (again) and Joe Coleman. What made you set up shop in the dirty south, a love of bluegrass and BBQ? I did have a mean pulled pork sandwich on Bardstown Rd, but worth the move? I love Louisville. I’ve always wanted to live here. It’s easy livin’ and I’ve always admired the standards of Acme Ink. I think it’s safe to assume you’re a metal fan. What’s the scene like in Louisville? There’s not much local metal, but there are two bands that are awesome as far as metal goes, Anagnorisis and Coliseum. We do get a lot of good shows coming through, lots of good death metal shows, strangely enough.
Do you play an instrument yourself or explore any forms of art outside of tattooing? I play drums and guitar. I paint water colours when I’m not tattooing which is rare. A generic and open ended question I ask most metalheads — what do you hate? Ignorance — and Belle and Sebastian (laughs).
I looked at your trophy list online and see that you attend a lot of tattoo conventions. Have you, or do you have, any plans to attend any of the tattoo conventions in Canada? I actually attended last year’s Montreal convention. Canada is fun. I’d like to go back for sure. I’m taking a little bit of a break from traveling after August so it’ll have to wait until next year.
FASHION
photos by RICHARD SIBBALD hair,make up and styling by PAUL LANGILL assisted by ARTURO SALVINO special thanks to mistersoftee.ca for the ice cream truck 14
on Lacey Hat - H&M Bikini - H&M Accessories - H&M
on Lacey Hat - H&M Tank top - Dex Vest - H&M Tights - Bench Accessories - H&M
on Ken Hat - Goorin Vest - Bauhaus Tank top - H&M Jeans - Bauhaus
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on Ken Jacket - Bauhaus Jeans - Bauhaus Accessories - H&M
on Lacey Bikini top - H&M Short - 39sixtyone Accessories - H&M Shoes - Models own
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COVER STORY
t a e r h T e l p i Tr
Billy Talent talks he
by Ben Rayner photos by David Waldman It wasn’t quite a picture-perfect
realization of the rock-star dreams the members of Billy Talent might have shared as Mississauga, ON highschoolers besotted with Nirvana’s Nevermind back in the day, but it’ll do. The Toronto quartet has surpassed numerous “pinch me” milestones – gold, platinum and triple-platinum record sales (twice), multiple Juno awards, a transatlantic No. 1 album and a sold-out hometown gig at the Air
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Canada Centre in February of 2007 among the most notable – since it first took hold of the Canadian public’s imagination with its ripping signature single, “Try Honesty,” and the accompanying, eponymous debut album during the fall of 2003. Still, one of those instances where everyone involved in a long haul dating back to 1993 had no choice but to offer a modest shrug and concede “Yes, we have arrived” came while playing a festival before 80,000 Finnish rock fans in the summer of 2006, shortly after the album Billy Talent II had pleasantly
stunned the band and its handlers by debuting at the top of the charts in Germany, as well as Canada. Under-rehearsed and scarily frayed by sleep deprivation, Billy Talent – frontman Ben Kowalewicz, guitarist Ian D’Sa, bassist Jon Gallant and drummer Aaron Solowoniuk – was collectively horrified upon arrival to learn not just that its performance would be broadcast live on MTV Europe, but that it had been granted a prominent position on such an enormous bill just beneath the Foo Fighters. The shellshocked
foursome, still shaking from the experience, therefore had to fight off a collective case of the vapours when Dave Grohl himself came sauntering into its dressing room after a tentative knock a little while later to offer some words of praise. Then, while the lads were still coming to terms with the fact that they were swapping war stories with the guy behind the impossible drum part to “Come As You Are,” who should follow Grohl into the room but fellow Foo Fighter, former Germ, exNirvana conscript and general living punk-rock legend Pat
“We’re four guys who met in Mississauga and went to high school together… to all of a sudden be working with [Pearl Jam producer Brendan O’Brien] is pretty impressive.” – Ben Kowalewicz
eroes, hot chicks, and helluva new album Smear? Flushed, as it turned out, with an unlikely new infatuation. “He was trying to sleep in the dressing room, which was right behind the stage, and he said he woke up during the set and was, like: ‘Oh, man, that chick sounds really hot,’” says Kowalewicz, who subsequently had to disappoint one of his formative influences by explaining that he, in fact, was the hot chick in question. Several rounds of Crown Royal shots ensued. “Stuff like that, you really can’t explain.” Go fishing for defining anecdotes from within the Billy Talent success story and this is the sort of semi-starstruck
material you’ll often get. We invoke the awe with which the longtime friends still regard a common, grunge-era hero such as Grohl, however, not simply as evidence that Billy Talent hasn’t been running with the rock ‘n’ roll A-list so long that it’s lost sight of what it is to be genuine rock ‘n’ roll fans. That stuff counts, of course, but it counts even more when you consider that another of those same heroes, textbook ‘90s-alt-rock producer Brendan O’Brien, wound up taking the reins in the studio on the group’s robust and resoundingly – for lack of a better word – grungey new disc, Billy Talent III.
Neither the beefed-up, low-end riffage setting BTIII apart from its predecessors on tunes like the squareshouldered opener “Devil On My Shoulder,” “Rusted From The Rain” and “The Dead Can’t Testify,” nor O’Brien’s involvement in the striking finished product stemmed from any shrewd master plan. There was definitely an unseen hand or some sort of unintelligible cosmic alignment, however, that compelled the band to revel in the music that drove it to make music once writing for its third album commenced. “I think it all started with ‘Devil On My Shoulder,’ which is the first song on the album,”
says D’Sa. “I had this riff and I’d written this awesome chorus for it, but it sounded like this bluesy, almost retro-‘70s kind of song. At the time, we’d all be jamming it out and we’d say ‘This sounds like a cool, kinda‘70s throwback’ and we figured the rest of the record was just gonna be classic, punky Billy Talent. But it all ended up going down that same direction.” A list of “dream” producers for Billy Talent III was floated even before the band negotiated its recent swap in U.S. labels, from Atlantic Records to the more rockattuned Sire – both, strangely enough, alternate tentacles of the same Warner Music
empire Billy Talent still calls home in Canada – and found itself with a fresh team of supporters itching to do whatever was required to break it Stateside. Tellingly, given the roots Billy Talent unearths on the new album, O’Brien – perhaps most revered by all in the band for his visceral work on the Rage Against the Machine albums – and his similarly omnipresent ‘90s foil Butch Vig (the studio savant behind Nevermind and the Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream) were pitched as ideal collaborators, although both were presumed pipe dreams. Vig, recalls D’Sa, “called back interested but ended up working with Green Day.” O’Brien, preoccupied with such tasks as producing a pair of new Bruce Springsteen albums and remixing Pearl Jam’s Ten for reissue, was mute. And so, after a couple of months passed with no word otherwise, Billy Talent was prepared to let D’Sa assume the
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producer’s role he’d shared with Gavin Brown on Billy Talent II. Then, thanks to some connections newly forged at Sire, everyone’s No. 1 pick finally responded — in the affirmative. The band was beside itself, and set aside a chair marked “Mr. O’Brien” in its rehearsal space in preparation for its new producer’s arrival in Toronto. “That’s a big check off the list,” says Kowalewicz. “I’m a big Pearl Jam fan, so just sitting around and hearing stories about recording Vs. and Vitalogy, just getting insider information about how these things were done and recorded – well, his stories are unbelievable and he’s really good at telling them. He’s really good at telling them. “We’re four guys who met in Mississauga and went to high school together and always dreamed of being a band and just played and played and played. And now, to sit and talk with someone who’s been so close – like, one
st album on fir r ou h it w t ou e m ca e w n he “W our fifth ly ab ob pr as w ch hi w l, be la or a maj ically at m to au le op pe d an , nd ba a as recording r he ot an or ry go te ca e on in us w thre that kinda stung.” – Ian D’Sa
location courtesy of WATUSI, Toronto Canada degree of separation – from something that has helped us and changed us, to all of a sudden be working with him is pretty impressive.” With O’Brien on board, songwriting and rehearsals were attacked with a whole new level of commitment in the nearly year-long run-up to the Billy Talent III sessions. Good thing, too, because the band’s chosen taskmaster soon had it tracking the new songs live off the studio floor for the first time in its recording career. Peculiarly enough, it took this long for Billy Talent – which was filling sizeable Toronto venues such as Kool Haus on the strength of its crack live shows before it had a hit single or a majorlabel deal – to relax and indulge its instinctive, battlehardened musicianship when the tape is rolling. “One thing I learned, for sure, is trusting your first impression and trusting your ‘blink’ instinct,” says D’Sa. “Brendan’s definitely not afraid
to put stuff to tape. When we were doing guitars, for example, we’d have several pedals in the chain link going to the board and normally, when you record, you have a dry signal going to tape in case afterwards you want to take those pedals out. But he would always say, ‘No, you’re going directly to tape.’ And I was, like, ‘What if I want to change it?’ And he’d say: ‘Well, you’re not going to change it. This sounds great now.’ He’s really all about if it sounds good to you instantly, stick with it.” “He’s all about subtleties,” adds Gallant. “Right in the last week of mixing – we’d already finished recording and everything – he’d stop during the middle of mixing and say, ‘I think this part could use a clavichord or a tambourine or even a triangle.’ And right in the middle of his mix, he’d stop and go into the tracking room and Nick (DiDia), the engineer, would just track him playing various percussive
instruments and then he’d come back into the mixing room and tuck it back into the mix. There are all these little subtleties that you don’t really notice.” Subtlety? Clavichord? Yes, we’re still talking about Billy Talent here, unmistakably, actually. O’Brien might have brought some added sonic flourishes to the game (he contributes Mellotron to “White Sparrows,” notes Solowoniuk reverently, “just like he did on the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ ‘Breaking The Girl’”) and taught the band to occasionally shift things down a key so Kowalewicz can sing without undue strain, but three albums in, Billy Talent can now confidently lay claim to its own sound – even when it’s stretching out and explicitly stitching together a bunch of Police references on “Diamond On A Landmine.” The staunchness of vision and brewing maturity evident on Billy Talent III, in
fact, should go a long way towards silencing the doubters who leapt to tar Billy Talent with the same brush as mallpunk horrors like Simple Plan and Good Charlotte during the band’s initial rise. Regardless, living well is the best revenge. “It kinda stung a little bit,” says D’Sa of the early criticism. “Being a band since 1993 and getting signed to a major label in 2002, that’s a long time. We’d been playing the clubs and bars in Toronto for years. So when we came out with our first album on a major label, which was probably our fifth recording as a band, and people automatically threw us in one category or another, that kinda stung.” “We love the progression of our career and what’s happened to us and we feel pretty lucky for everything and where we’re at,” shrugs Gallant. “So as much as that stuff can sting, there’s so much medicine to fix the sting it really doesn’t matter.”
Desert Sessions
“We feel a great surge of love for all those people, the band and the extended Joshua Tree family.”
The Duke Spirit finds solace and kinship under the California sun
by Jonathan Dekel photo by David Waldman
For pastey English folk, the members of The Duke Spirit sure love the desert. More specifically the Mojave Desert, home to Queens of the Stone Age/Eagles of Death Metal member/producer
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Dave Catching’s infamous Rancho De La Luna studio. “We always pop ‘round there when we have a few days off in LA,” explains lead singer Leila Moss. “We go and eat Dave Catching’s fine cuisine and listen to music together.
Catch up with the neighbors, that sort of thing. We feel a great surge of love for all those people, the band and the extended Joshua Tree family.” Sitting in the kitchen of her London flat “surrounded by a floor tom, two amps, three
guitars, a huge dictionary and some tea,” Moss recalls the origin of the love affair, back in 2007. “We were invited by the group/production gang U.N.K.L.E to guest on a song [“Mayday” off the album War Stories] which they were
recording at the Rancho De La Luna.” The comely singer recalls “After our guest session, we just had to go back. The people and the place were too magnetic and brilliant not to return so we asked to make out album there too.” Recorded over several weeks at the Rancho with another Josh Homme collaborator, producer Chris Gross, the resulting album reflected the loose spirit of the Joshua Tree studio. Christened Neptune, the band’s sophomore record, and first for independent label You Are Here, featured a more mature sound than its predecessor [2004’s Cuts Across The Land], Showcasing a more varied, pop based songwriting style made ever more poignant by the way Moss’ soulful reverb drenched vocals lushly lay over guitarist Luke B Ford, bassist Toby Butler and drummer Olly Betts sonic
assault. While working on the album, the band also forged a close bond with several members of the Eagles of Death Metal; a partnership that resulted in the grizzled, famously right-wing Rock N Rollers taking the young Brits out on tour with them. “I realized my own apologetic meekness that comes with being British!” Moss laughs, recalling the resulting tour and the debauchery that ensued. “But I really cherished our time opening up to a different way of communicating with folks. At the same time I also enjoyed the character difference. It was a good, weird combination!” Keeping with the California ‘love in’ vibe that has surrounded the band since Neptune’s release [as well as the EoDM tour, the band landed a righteous gig opening for Silversun Pickups during SXSW and the record’s
first single “The Step and the Walk” continues to receive airplay on influential California radio stations Indie103 and KCRW], an unexpected invite will see the band spend much of the summer of 2009 playing amphitheatres across North America with unlikely musical partners, alt-rockers Incubus. “It’s a surprising mix, sonically.” confirm Moss. “However [Incubus] personally asked our management and were really forthcoming and kindly in a time when the live music industry is feeling the strain. We felt that they had really put themselves out to offer us a sought-after tour that paid us well and would take in so many places. “If people show a real solid kindness in this kind of business, I think its right to take
it up. Music fans gain hugely if what they see live is eclectic and broad. It’s an education.” In the meantime, the band is already at work on their next album. “We are writing most of it today in this fucking kitchen.” Moss exclaims. “We’re nine songs in. I’d like to pinpoint the exact direction but I won’t know until I line all these songs up and analyze! If nothing else though, Moss and co. seem to have been influenced by their former tourmate’s pop ascetics. “I think a sense of modernization has struck us all in the group. The words ‘lean’ and ‘hookridden classics’ were uttered at some point this afternoon.”
ation has iz n r e d o m f o nse rds ‘lean’ o w ““I think a se e h T . p u o in the gr uttered at e struck us all r e w ’ s ic s s den cla and ‘hook-rid ernoon.” his aft some point t
Stressed out but on target, blog faves get sad and sexy
“I think this album sounds like you got fucked by a clown or something”
by Sheena Lyonnais photo by Renata Raksha
HEALTH bassist/ noisemaker John Famiglietti is ridiculously stressed. Sounding exhausted over the line from his California home, he admits the noise-rock band is behind on deadlines for the September release of its sophomore album, Get Color. The artwork was just completed and although the recording has been done for months, the process feels never ending in a journey he just wants to be over. The self-produced followup to 2007’s self-titled debut will credit a co-producer who allegedly did nothing but add to the band’s stress, says Famiglietti.However he refuses to name the person during the interview. HEALTH is a highly detail oriented band, one in which every song and note, every effect is a calculated effort to encapsulate a certain energy or emotion. Adding another opinion into the mix did nothing but make them hate recording more. “We’re not working with anyone else again on records,” Famiglietti states. “It really soured us against working with people. This is the first time
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we weakened ourselves and we wanted to work with other people for better equipment and other things, but that really put a bad taste in my mouth for doing it. I don’t even want to talk about it. Ego-stuff or vanitystuff you really don’t want to deal with when you’re making a record.” Recording and producing an album is a daunting task, especially for an act like HEALTH. The vocals alone need three tracks to sound good, a discovery made early on in the band’s career when it started recording demos, says Famiglietti. Vocalist Jake Duzsik’s hauntingly ambient voice just didn’t work with the music unless recorded in threes, he says. Add that to the numerous sounds and effects and it’s no wonder Famiglietti is eager to get back on the road and away from the madness. “Recording is really hard, especially with what we do. It’s hard to get those frequencies down there and if you do it’s really shitty to listen to,” Famiglietti says. HEALTH started making waves back in 2007 when Crystal Castles did a version of “Crimewave.” Destined for
dance floor stardom, the L.A. noise scene became a feeding frenzy for music bloggers, making HEALTH one of the most blogged about bands of the year. In 2008, it landed a tour with Nine Inch Nails where suddenly Famiglietti, Duzsik, guitarist Jupiter Keys and drummer BJ Miller said goodbye to small dirty underground bars and hello to stadium shows in front of thousands of people. “You learn how far even just regular indie music is from mainstream rock music and what can communicate on a big stadium stage,” Famiglietti says of playing to NIN fans. “You’re used to your own taste and what you like, but when you see it translated on that scale with the kind of people who are at that show, you realize how different the music can be.” HEALTH spent the last two years touring the world and mastering the art of song construction. On the first album, the band wrote the music, then had to figure out how to sing it. This time, they wrote with vocals in mind. The band released a 7-inch of the Get Color single “Die Slow” on April 7. It takes a more
melodic direction and portrays the band’s fresh focus on singing. “When we were doing the music, we were thinking about the vocabulary and the sound we were trying to make,” Famiglietti says. “It was totally new to us and was really hard to figure out how to sing on top of that stuff. The goal with us is to just get better and I think it definitely is better with more singing.” The new material, he says, is different, but still exciting. Famiglietti explains it best: “The vocal sound is the same, but I think this album sounds more sad than evil, sad and sexy. Like you got fucked by a clown or something. That actually didn’t make any sense. I fucked up. It’s hard to describe.” HEALTH will be touring North America and Europe once Get Color is released, but also has some Canadian dates lined up at Toronto’s Horseshoe Tavern June 18 for NXNE and Calgary’s Sled Island Festival June 26 and 27. Like the selftitled album, the new release will be followed by a remix album that’s currently in the works.
Queer
Bashing
Joe Queer on the death of punk rock, his mom and Joey Ramone “My mom still thinks I should change the name of the band”
by Jen Unbe photo by Sydney Adram
I met singer-guitarist Joe Queer at a Queers show at Toronto’s Reverb a few years ago. I was humbled when he wanted to hear the demo I clutched in my hand and blown away by how genuine he was. You see, “Like a Parasite,” “Punk Rock Girls” and “Punk Rock Confidential” helped hone my punk rock aesthetic. They didn’t make you think too hard and you could dance to them. Since then, my band, Toronto’s The Unbelievers, have toured with the Queers and Joe produced our first album. Born Joe King, Queer first put the trio together in 1982 in New Hampshire. It disbanded two years later. In 1990, he reformed the band with a new lineup (there would be a revolving door) and released a barrage of pop-punk albums, starting with 1990’s Grow Up, followed by their breakthrough, 1993’s Love Songs for the Retarded. Nearly two decades later and the current Queers — Joe, bassist Dangerous Dave
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and drummer Lurch Nobody — are still pushing the limits with a hectic tour schedule ( 25+ dates in June alone ) and a new as-yet-untitled album due later this year. On The Unbelievers second Canadian tour with the Queers, I snagged Joe backstage at Montreal’s Foufounes Electriques for a Q&A. What is your first music memory? It was probably hearing the Rolling Stones and the Beatles on the radio. How supportive were your parents when you told them you wanted to be in a punk rock band? I never told them. So they still don’t know then? Ha. My mom still thinks I should change the name of the band. The only time my parents saw us was when we opened for the Ramones. My mom met Joey. It was pretty funny. You know, Joey and my mom.
Now that your studio Electric Cave is open, how do you manage being in the band and running a studio? It’s hard, but I’m learning to balance things. Lately, I haven’t been in the studio as much cause I’ve been touring. What can a band expect from recording at Electric Cave? I like to get the band to use their ears and get them involved. That’s what I’m used to. You know, try different mics see which one they like best, try a different kick. On every project, I try to do something different, see if it works. I’m just starting out; I’m learning. Every time I talk to you, you’re running around like crazy, picking something up or working in the studio or getting ready for the next tour. Why so busy? Is it ‘cause idle hands make mischief? Ever since I sobered up it’s like there isn’t enough time in the day. With music, you’re always busy.
So when you find those 5 minutes for yourself, what do you do? Walk the dog, sit around at home. I just never have free time too much. You love to work. Love it. After 20 some odd years writing music, do you find it hard to keep writing fresh songs to keep you inspired? I don’t write as much. I’m not as into it anymore, don’t have that same fire. But I am really looking forward to the next album. We’ll go in to record at the Electric Cave in August probably. How’s your side project going? I do The Drunken Cholos with Wimpy [Rutherford, original Queers member]. We just recorded a couple songs. They say that punk rock is dead. Who or what killed it? Fat Mike and Anti-Flag.
MOVIE
Ed Force 1 “It’s kind of an old-fashioned rock and roll story”
Iron Maiden tak By Hai Vu
For most bands
, getting to the gig in style is simply not an option. Maybe you started out hauling your gear on transit or asking your parents for a lift. When it came time to do some consistent touring, you managed to snag a rusty used van that made it to the show, just barely breaking down along the way. As your music grew in popularity, it might be time to
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upgrade to a fancy tour bus, complete with your band’s logo on the side. Beyond this point, if by some miracle you reach P. Diddy status, why not buy your own private jet? While you sip Cristal and peer down at all the little people, it would be fair to say, “Look at me world, I’ve made it!” But sorry to burst your tiny little dream bubble because, sadly, never in your wildest dreams will ever do what Iron Maiden has done.
Taking on the most ambitious tour of the famed metal band’s three-decadelong career, the Somewhere Back In Time world tour saw Maiden play 23 sold-out shows in 13 countries in just 45 days. To make this feat possible, the band retrofitted its own Boeing 757 to shuttle themselves, the crew, and 12 tons of equipment around the globe, covering 70,000 km from Mumbai to Toronto. They dubbed the airliner,
complete with Maiden decals, “Ed Force One” after their institutionalized, zombified, mummified, time-traveling mascot, Eddie. And if that weren’t enough to make you bow to the greatness that is Iron Maiden, the jumbo jet was piloted by Maiden’s lead singer, Bruce Dickinson. Thankfully, for all Maiden fans, the band brought along Canada’s resident metal experts directors/producers
Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen to document the band’s skyhigh-jinks. The documentary, aptly titled Flight 666 (which was Ed Force One’s call sign), is the duo’s third documentary exploring the metal genre. “We had a relationship with Maiden that goes back to our first film [2005’s Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey] where we met Bruce Dickinson and their manager, Rod Smallwood,” says Dunn. “When we came to make our second film, Global Metal, we interviewed Bruce again and filmed Maiden playing their first show in India. Scot was emailing Rod and mentioned in a P.S. that we should do a documentary about Maiden one day. [Smallwood] emailed back immediately and said, ‘Like that idea. We’re gonna make a new record in 2010. Maybe we should base it around that?’ And then the press release for the Somewhere Back In Time tour came out and Scot emailed that maybe we should do it about this. Initially, Rod didn’t want to do it. He didn’t think the band would ever agree to having cameras in their faces all day because the tour was already going to be challenging. But then randomly, while in Barcelona at a film festival, Scot got the call. At that point, it gave us two whole months to get everything prepared.” Let it be said that Flight 666 is the polar opposite of such recent rockumentaries as Anvil! The Story of Anvil
“One review [of the film] said ‘It was a reminder that being a rock and roll musician should be fun.’ With reality TV, we’re so used to people beating each other up or having screaming matches. We’re kind of conditioned to expect that stars are supposed to fall. But here’s a band that developed their legacy through a commitment for what they do and a real understanding of their fanbase and what their fans are expecting and what they can bring to their fans. It’s kind of an old-fashioned rock and roll story that way.” A colossal heavy metal tour that remained drama-free? Seriously? After a pause, Dunn continues with a laugh. “Well, it wasn’t perfect. But it was close to. A lot of the band members got sick right off the bat in India. There were moments they questioned if they would be able to play some of these shows in Australia, and the fans had been waiting 15 years for them to come back. There are so many scenes you’ve got to lose because you want to keep the audience engaged, but in Puerto Rico, much later in the tour, there was a power failure and they were struggling to get the power back up and the show was delayed. There
conflicting goals between these two. Writing about the devil’s music has quickly become the pair’s bread and butter, and they are perfectly content to continue in that vein. After explaining the vast metal genre to audiences with A Headbanger’s Journey, they explored how that music connects fans the world over in Global Metal. Now, Dunn and McFadyen are taking an introspective look at metal by showing the personal journey of a single band with Flight 666. Where can the demonic duo go from here? The answer is to dig even deeper into the music with an eight-episode mini-series for VH1. “The series is also about metal,” Dunn explains. “It’s taking our heavy metal family tree [featured in A Headbanger’s Journey] and doing an episode on each subgenre. We’ll have an episode on black metal; we’ll have an episode on progressive metal because what we found with that chart is that it has become hugely popular with fans. We get emails all the time asking [for] a copy of it.
The film is set for release in early 2010. It may be far off, but McFadyen understands that it’s important to take the extra time to do the story justice. “[For] all these projects, especially band ones, there’s a level of responsibility to all their fans— people who live and breathe Rush. It’s exhausting.” However, McFadyen knows he has a story to tell with this upcoming movie. “It’s [about Rush’s] history and the influence they’ve had on different bands, yet never gaining the full respect that they deserve. I don’t think Canadians have an understanding of just how big they are around the world—and all the musicians that they’ve influenced. It’s not just Trailer Park Boys and SCTV,” McFadyen says with a laugh. The Rush project may be a year away, but for the meantime Iron Maiden’s Flight 666 will see a June 6 release
“We’re not glossing over anything. If there was drama, we’d show you the drama”
kes to the skies with Canadian filmmakers in Flight 666 and Metallica’s Some Kind of Monster. The movie, which won the 24 Beats Per Second award at this year’s SXSW festival in Austin, TX, captures Iron Maiden at the height of its popularity and professionalism. So massive and so well orchestrated was this globetrotting endeavour that film audiences will have to wonder how the possibility of such an undertaking could go off without so much as even a hiccup. It would seem that, perhaps, Maiden really had made a deal with the devil when it sang about the number of the beast 27 years ago. “[Their professionalism] became the story,” says Dunn.
was a moment that they were seriously concerned. They had 15,000 fans outside this venue and they were wondering if the show would go off, but it turned out that it did.” “There’s nothing serious the band didn’t want shown,” McFadyen insists. “There were maybe some musical shots. But there was no drama that we didn’t show. We’re not showing a band better than they are. We’re not glossing over anything. If there was drama, if there was conflict, we’d show you the drama and conflict. But with 500 hours of footage, how do you make a decision on what goes in?” As for Dunn and McFadyen, there are no
And also for non-metal fans, it’s a way to wrap your head around this thing ‘cause when you tell people we made a chart about 24 sub-genres of metal, they usually say, ‘There’s 24 sub-genres of metal? That’s ridiculous!’ It’s exciting because it’s a series and it’ll be a little different. Hopefully, it can have some continuity and sustainability, but it’s also challenging logistically because it requires a whole different way to think about scheduling and shooting and writing.” As if that weren’t enough, Dunn and McFadyen are already well underway on work for their next feature-length film, a documentary on Canadian prog-rocking legends, Rush.
The Bee In Bif attackED BY BEES SINGER emerges with The Promise by Elena Vardon photo by Richard Sibbald
Bif Naked instantly
emits a warm, friendly vibe. Her eyes are large and receptive, and she’s open, willing to share. After beating breast cancer (she was diagnosed in early 2008), the Vancouver-based rock singer says she’s finally getting used the new short hair. It’s a different look for her, but she looks cool, liberated, strong, despite her delicate physique. In light of her health situation, she says the recording of her new album, The Promise, “was physically a little bit more challenging” than it was on her previous albums. “Just because there were so many days when I just simply wasn’t feeling well, but working with Jason [Darr, the producer] was such a great opportunity because, well, number one, we’re friends, but number two, he never treated me like [I] was sick. In fact, quite the opposite. I think maybe he was actually trying to kill me.” But she’s glad for his motivation. “It was great,” she says. “I’ve never had such a challenging time working on a record, and I dare say that the next time—and hopefully I do another record with Jason— he’s going to really kill me.” Bif is excited about her new album, but don’t expect a sentimental tear-jerker. “My fear is that a lot of people will be expecting a really melancholy album or something like that, and it’s not at all that,” she says. It’s obvious from the viral single, “Fuck You 2,” an invigorating, jokingly aggressive tune released online in February, that The Promise is more than just a collection of laments. In a playful move, Bif held a contest
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“I’ve never had such a challenging time working on a record”
where fans could submit videos of themselves lip-synching along with the song. The winners appear in the YouTube music video for “Fuck You 2.” The rest of The Promise radiates a colourful spectrum of emotion. The first official single, “Sick,” is a strong, unabashedly angry song, while “Blue Jay” is cathartic, a mature, reflective piece. The most interesting song perhaps is “Honey Bee.” “I get bees in my apartment all the time,” she swears. “And I had to help them transcend into the other plane, and I felt so guilty about it for so many days.” Her eyes shine with wistful sympathy. “[But] I got stung by a bee last year during chemo when I was immunocompromised.
It stung me in the mouth [when] I was riding my bicycle and I ate it. The area swelled up, like elephantitus. It was so unbelievable. But yeah, it was out of my guilt,” says Bif, a strict vegan. “I mean, it quieted me. I felt so bad, so guilty. I still feel bad. The bee’s a sentient being.” Her compassion is genuinely touching. She comes across as so fundamentally gentle, she almost seems vulnerable. Given her cancer scare and the reflection on life and death, she is happy with
her career. “I’ve never been the kind of person to regret anything, even a bad tattoo,” she says. “Because you can’t, you know? Everything happens at the time it happens for a reason.”
FASHION
Top - Wal Mart Bottom - Rogue Shoes - 69 Vintage Earrings and necklace - Two Foals
MUDDIN’
Hat - Torture Couture Bikini - H & M Skirt - Vexi Shoes - Fornarina
photos by Steve Locke style and Creative by Sandra Roberts make up by Erin Harris Jacket - Only hair by Crystal Walley and Marci Prashaw Jumper - American Apparel assisted by Justin Roberts Human Kebab appears courtesy of USS genius. thanks to Extreme Rockstar Clothing and Ebony from Two Fouls 34
Dress - Ed Hardy Earrings - Two Foals
Tee - Monarcy Hoodie - Christian Audigier Denim - William Rast Glasses - Imago HQ
Suit - Rogue Necklace and earrings - Two Foals Jeans - Cheap Mondays Suit - Ed Hardy Shorts - Junker Glasses - Vintage Ray Bans
Hat - Imago HQ Dress - Chrisian Audigier Shoes - Iron Fist Bag Two Foals
Swim suit - Ed Hardy Earring - Two Foals Glasses - vintage Ray Bans
The V-Rod® Muscle motorcycle brings urban energy to the VRSCTM power cruiser platform Sweeping side-pipe exhaust, a clipped-and-clean rear end, and gaping air scoops are a perfect match for the high-revving power of the 1250 Revolution® V-Twin engine. A fat, 240 mm rear tire, high-performance Brembo triple-disc brakes with available ABS, a race-bred clutch with "slipper" action and a long, low profile inspired by the drag strip. Don't eat dust. Visit your local, authorized Canadian Harley-Davidson® Retailer and go to www.harleycanada.com.
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www.harleycanada.com
THE AUDACITY OF HOPE Just because Bush is out, doesn’t mean Anti-Flag aren’t still angry
by Chelsea Clark
Driving across Holland – he thinks – Chris Barker, a.k.a. Chris #2, AntiFlag’s bassist-vocalist is in fine, if somewhat confused, spirits. “I am so tired. We appear to be driving past farms, or maybe just fields,” #2 begins, in attempt to explain where he and his fellow Pennsylvania bandmates – guitarvocalist Justin Sane, guitarist Chris Head, and drummer Pat Thetic – are at the moment. “It’s pretty brutal, but it’s a short tour. Right now, we’re at nine flights in six days, and we played two festival shows in Russia yesterday, but we just need to get around to all these new places, and let people know of the existence of — well, us.” With the release of The People or the Gun, the band’s seventh full-length album (which remains true to form as angry, loud, fast, and chockfull of political observations and critiques), Anti-Flag is on a tour of relevancy. Having always been on the forefront of political development, the past year-and-a-half gave the band ample writing material, and #2 acknowledges the importance of releasing and supporting an album while the issues are still hot on the skillet. “We really wanted to have the songs come out and be as pertinent as possible,” he says.
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“That’s where the speed and ferocity of this release comes from. For us, it was a truly inspiring time. To witness the fall of George W. Bush’s empire was really great. It felt like we didn’t have to worry about the cliché anymore. We could really focus on the actual problems at hand because it almost became that when we a song and criticized a policy of the administration, people disregarded it by saying, ‘Oh, you dislike George Bush so of course you’re going to say this and be angry.’ “That just really wasn’t the case,” #2 continues. “Clearly, this guy was doing some truly awful and harmful things, but at the same time, the rest of the politicians in America were letting him trample all over the rights of humanity, which leaves us with a lot more fingers to point than at Bush alone.” Sceptical of the new administration, #2 is eager to discuss new President Barack Obama’s potential for greatness, and perhaps slightly puncture the growing balloon of hope that he will be America’s Messiah. “After Obama, you know, walked on water, or whatever it was that he did, I still think it’s so important to remember that we can’t lose sight, we can’t lose our diligence, we need to remain as ferocious as ever,” he says. “Obama was elected under the guise of ending the war in Iraq and now we hear talk of extending time tables and slowing
“After Obama, you know, walked on water, or whatever it was that he did, I still think it’s so important to remember that we can’t lose sight, we can’t lose our diligence, we need to remain as ferocious as ever,”
the withdrawal of troops, and that is just something which is unacceptable to me. That we have spent six years in Iraq, in this quagmire, this huge debacle, which everyone in the world wishes did not exist, it is just unacceptable to continue to be led down this path.” Understanding the urgency of the situation, AntiFlag took it upon themselves to ensure the speedy release of this record. Having just concluded its two-album deal with RCA, the band invested all its money into building a studio in its native Pittsburgh and, with no company to release the record secured, put business on the backburner until the recording was finished. “When we were done, we called up our friends at Sideonedummy and just said, ‘We need to release this album now.’ And that was it,” he says. Delving further into discussion of the recent
election, #2 expresses extreme distaste, anger even, as to the progression of the collective American political mentality. “We are supposed to be making this great leap forward, and yet on the very day that we as a nation get to slap racism in the face, you have the most liberal state in America [California] repeal an affirmative action! That gay marriage bans could be on the election ballot and pass is just remarkable. It’s a true sign of how much you have to push and how far we still have to go. It is fucking 2009!” he expresses incredulously, before finishing. “These are not things you need to be in a punk band to understand or care about. These are things you just need a beating heart and a functioning brain to want to correct.”
VIDEOGAMES HAI VU’S GAME REVIEWS Movie-Based Video Games Money squeeze or exciting offshoots?
By Hai Vu
I can’t say that I’m a fan
of movie to video game tie-ins. Often these movie studio-licensed games blatantly attempt to squeeze every last cent out of a popular movie’s fan base. The very first film/game crossover came in 1982 when E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was released for the Atari 2600 after only six weeks in development. The game was widely panned by gamers and critics, and is considered by some to be the worst game ever created, and contributed to Atari’s downward spiral. But where there’s an easy buck to be made, studios will never learn. Modern video game tieins are still being fast-tracked to meet the film’s theatrical release date, leaving them inundated with programming bugs and crammed full of filler. Poorly developed storylines often fall flat, and the movie’s original plot doesn’t always mesh well with newly created side-stories. Overall, the package can come off as a piecemeal and lackluster attempt to recreate some of the film’s best moments. Mid-year has always been slim pickings for good gaming titles but, with summer movie season in full swing, let’s see how these movie-to-game adaptations fare for the couch potatoes.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine All consoles Activision It’s shnickity, shnick time! The prospect of slipping into Wolverine’s adamantium claws and wreaking havoc on helpless foes sounds ever so enticing. But, sadly, X-Men Origins plays like your typical run-of-themill hack ‘n’ slash. Where some games in this genre excel in style and substance (for example, the God of War series), Origins becomes even more repetitive and tedious as you progress through the game. Wolverine’s abilities, although entertaining at first, overpower most enemies, making levels quite easy. It can be a mindless button masher if you choose to play that way. (I still have no idea how I pulled off half the moves I did. But, hey, at least they looked cool, right?) To be fair, the game is above average. The character models look great and the voice acting, which was comprised mostly of actors from the actual movie, shows some flair, even if the game’s script may be lacking. The opening stage’s jungle environment, though not as stunning as the landscape in Far Cry 2, is still visually
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impressive. Wolverine reacts and interacts with his environment accordingly. The use of weapons is interesting—rails and spikes can be used to impale enemies—but it’s disappointing that the enemies are mindless drones who seem content to line up and take damage. There are some impressive slomo attacks, but they are repeated over and over ad nauseam. At least with Wolverine taking real-time hits, the game gets pretty gruesome. Some of the action sequences are actually better than those in the movie. If only the PG-13 film could have taken some cues from this mature-rated game. The story is loosely based on the movie—and I mean loosely— because when you start adding giant lava monsters and Sentinels, it’s fair to say some liberties have been taken. The game spans five chapters, which some would consider to be quite short. However, with the amount of repetition, it’s actually good that the game ended when it did. What started off as a promising beat em’ up quickly falls into monotony. If anything, X-Men Origins: Wolverine is worth a rental.
The Godfather II Xbox 360/PS3/PC Electronic Arts When you take a classic film—especially one as celebrated as The Godfather II—and pixelize it into video game form, you’re walking a very dangerous line indeed. If you start making too many changes to the game’s plot, you’ll have many fans of the movie crying foul. Perhaps that’s why the makers of The Godfather II game played it safe by only overlapping the movie’s storyline in brief instances. You play as the customizable character Domenic. Very early in the game, your character is handpicked by Michael Corleone (who looks and sounds nothing like Al Pacino) to take over Don duties in New York, Miami and Havana. It’s an open-ended world that you can explore at will, leading to many new possibilities. It’s just a shame that the cities all seem quite small. The graphics are not overly impressive and could have easily run on a PS2 or original Xbox. The character animations and voice acting are quite well done, but have their fair share of glitches. It’s good, though, to see Robert Duvall reprise his classic role as family lawyer Tom Hagen. The first Godfather game, which was released in 2006, was considered to be merely an above average Grand Theft Auto clone. And the sequel follows very much in the same vein. The inclusion of “The Dons View” does, however, add an extra element of game play. This new feature (which is essentially a glorified menu system), shows players an overhead map allowing you to keep track of how much money your mob family is making, who you might want to whack next, and which of your territories is under attack. With Godfather II’s open-ended approach, the game can last anywhere from 15 to 20 hours. If you’re a fan of the movie, it’s not certain that you’ll like this game, as it only hints at the source material. It may, however, be worth checking out, if just to see some familiar faces. * Be sure to check out the next issue of GasolineMagazine, where I will provide full coverage of this year’s E3 convention in Los Angeles.
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CARS O
n a typical Saturday night in the spring on Queen St. W. in Toronto, one might stroll down the boulevard and pass the various denizens of rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle. The legendary Horseshoe Tavern, The Hideout, The Reverb, Tattoo Rock Parlour ( yikes ) and Shanghai Cowgirl. Also on a typical Saturday night, before the bands start at Shanghai’s big sister the Bovine, Stevie Chop and his 30’s Model A Coupe hold court street side. It shiny, root beer coloured, with its exposed, hulking custom Dodge Hemi engine, stuffed to the brim with carbs, it screams sex. Stevie Chop, inspired by the 1970’s and in love with his 1930s Model A, synthesized the two eras, to create a rockabilly to disco, Chop special.
CRUIS’N STREET TaLK WITH STEVIE CHOP by Darryl Lee photos by Richard Sibbald
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TECH 1930 Model A Ford Coupe Stevie Chop custom frame 1957 Chrysler 354 Hemi Root beer metallic paint Budget: too little Cost: too much Fuel Economy: 1.7 Mpg Top Speed: Fast
REVIEWS
Sonic Youth The Eternal
(CD)
(Matador)
Nearly 30 years and 16 albums later, my god, Sonic Youth is still around. But despite its immense back catalog, right away on The Eternal — the band’s first album back on an independent label (Matador) since 1988’s iconic Daydream Nation — it’s clear that Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo still can churn out spacey, dreamy, head-spinning guitar lushness. Sonic Youth’s strength throughout many of those 16 albums has been its ability to re-invent its sound with each new release while still having a distinguishable sound. The sound on The Eternal is probably the band’s most poppy and rocking since 2002’s Murray Street. Some of it even harkens back to the Dirty / Experimental Jet set days with bouncing tracks like “What We Know” and “Malibu Gas Station.” The Eternal is full of great lyrical hooks, amazing guitar lines being slashed and traded between Thurston, Lee and Kim Gordon. It’s not quite clear how they manage to have such chemistry together even after such a lengthy career, but this is an encouraging sign. by Mike Wilkomirsky
The New York Dolls ‘Cause I Sez So (ATCO)
(CD)
If you told me 25 years ago that I would have two more New York Dolls records in my collection I would have said you were nuts, but here we are in 2009 and the boys have released their second “comeback” album “ ‘Cause I Sez So”. Kicking it back way old school they recruited original producer Todd Rundgren to get back behind the boards (he produced their debut album in 1973). The album starts off with two great Doll’s rockers “’Cause I Sez So” and “Muddy Bones” and then swings in to mid-seventies Rolling Stones territory with the bluesy “Better Than You” and “Lonely So Long”. After teetering on heels for the early part of their career it’s nice to see the boys settle in to a comfortable pair of shoes for most of the album. “My World” picks up the pace (and other than the reggae re-
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The Mars Volta Octahedron (CD) (Warner)
recording of “Trash” – better left alone) and sounds like the most Rundgrenera Dolls song on the CD. “This Is Ridiculous” sways dangerously close to Buster Pointdexter territory but the great guitar interaction keep it safely on Dolls turf. “Temptation To Exist” tips the fedora to old street mates Mink DeVille and there is a Phil Spector feel to “Make It Rain”. “Nobody Got No Bizness” harkens back to their second album “Too Much, Too Soon” and “Exorcism Of Despair” closes the record on a high note with its perfect Dolls rock harmonies. Should be a killer song live. For once in their lives this is substance over style. If you have never seen the Dolls try to catch them on this tour, this ain’t no revival act. They will be coming to Club Soda in Montreal on June 29 and Lee’s Palace in Toronto June 30. by Cameron Carpenter
(CD)
It was 2005 when The Mars Volta released its first pretentious prog-meets-political-meetsart rock release, Frances The Mute. Here we are on the fifth album, Octahedron, a more memorable, well-crafted, and rhythmically impressive release than past albums. Although “Teflon” and “With Twilight As My Guide” fall flat, drums and bass sound fantastic overall on Octahedron, kicking things up a few pegs. The band has called this its “acoustic” and “mellow” affair, and this works effectively. Tracks no longer simply delve into extended prog guitar noodling and instead find greater depth and mood to build on, rather than seeming forced and pretentious. Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s voice, usually a fine line between intensely compelling and powerful and screechingly obnoxious, appears to have evolved. He comes off as a stronger vocalist. Octahedron is a solid release, although for those who still mark At The Drive-In’s Relationship of Command and the first Mars Volta album as the high mark for Bixler-Zavala and guitarist Omar RodriguezLopez, the current incarnation of this band is lacking. by Mike Wilkomirsky
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POSTER ART
psychedelic one - gaven dianda saffronsect@yahoo.ca jack johnson - jeff motch www.livelyandmotch.com BSS - louis durand louispdurand@gmail.com tranzac show - Jesjit Gill jesjit@gmail.com Trash Palace show Hayden Menzies hayden_menzies@hotmail.com
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