BeatRoute Magazine Alberta print e-edition - Feb. 2016

THE CJS
scrapping their way into your hearts
The latest by The CJs is the sound of ‘three pumping hearts in a room.’
The face of rock and roll music has changed many times in its
lifespan in the Calgary scene. After a while, veterans may get
the feeling that they’ve seen every incarnation and re-imagining
of what music can look like. For those who yawn and say there
are no surprises left, there’s another tasty offering up on the city’s
menu. This one is a scrappy trio of caveman rockers who want to
yelp and riff their way into your hearts and souls. The band we’re
talking of call themselves the CJs and they want to take you back into
FAKE WEREWOLVES
warm blanket of sadness
do you write a melancholy song
about unrequited love? You could
“How
say, ‘I really want you but I can’t have
you,’ and leave it at that. Or you could say, ‘If you
were cold, I would set myself on fire, just to keep
you warm.’” So muses Alonso Melgar, principal
songwriter for Calgary emo band Fake Werewolves.
“The songs may sound pretty sad, but they’re also
melodic and endearing,” he continues. “Part of it
is me drawing from my own experience, but this is
true for all emo lyrics; it’s just hyperbole.”
Citing influences like Into It. Over It., Dads, and
Tiny Moving Parts, Melgar and vocalist/bassist
Gavin Howard set out to pay homage to the Midwestern
emo scene that they both connected with
while growing up. “It’s my first time being the lead
singer of a band,” says Howard. “And it feels like the
most solid music I’ve ever been a part of writing.”
“When we started this project, we realized there was
no one in Calgary writing emo callbacks that are
more pop sounding. More catchy like The Promise
Ring or early Jimmy Eat World,” adds Melgar. “So it’s
something new for people, but it’s also for people
who grew up with those kinds of bands [to revisit].”
When Melgar and Howard saw the overflowing,
rambunctious shows of the ever-growing scene festival,
The Fest, in Florida last fall, the duo realized that
there may once again be a hunger for this certain
breed of heart rending rawness. “It was so crazy to
see these crowds of hundreds of people losing their
shit and screaming along to every single song that
I’d never heard of...at 4 p.m. on a Saturday,” Howard
recalls. “This scene IS that.” “Going to that festival
was a kick in the pants to get recording and start
playing more shows,” Melgar reinforces.
While the Calgary scene is decidedly smaller for
now, Fake Werewolves are enjoying the ride immensely
by making music primarily for themselves.
However, they have a four-song, self-titled EP of
delightfully sad, undeniably catchy songs ready to
share with the rest of us too. Melgar explains, “We
thought, ‘Let’s just stick with our pals and stick to
writing the music we wanna write. If people like it
they will show up regardless of whether it’s called
emo or not.’
“This is just the most fun to play music. It’s pop
music. Anyone who doesn’t have fun playing pop
music is probably a communist,” Melgar laughs.
“You can’t not have fun.”
Catch Fake Werewolves at The Ship and Anchor
alongside The Ativans and Old Wives February, 24th,
2016. The will be releasing their debut EP online through
bandcamp.com in early February.
photo: Arif Ansari
the stone age with them where you’ll thank them for the privilege.
Forming about a year ago, these three musicians united with a
singular mission: to captivate the world with their own unique brand
of savagery. In a stark contrast to much of the overtly polished and
shiny radio friendly music populating the airwaves, Jesse Powell, CJ
Parsons and Seth Leon banded together to create a musical project
that combines wild, primitive drumming, heavily distorted riffs and
yelping vocals in a cacophony of chaos. Stressing that this is a fully
by Max Maxwell
collaborative project, these three veterans of the Calgary scene create a
force to be reckoned with.
This summer, they were tapped to make an offering for the Rock
Against Harper compilation and teamed up in the studio with Ryan
Lottermoser (of fuzz-psych group The Pygmies) to create “Sick of the
Death Star,” the song being an explicit anthem denouncing Canada’s
now-former leader. Learning that they meshed well together and
impressed with how smoothly the process went, the band asked to
record a few more tracks with Lottermoser, putting together a jagged
record that matches the band’s aesthetic quite fittingly. The result
was the band’s first release, a ragged little collection of songs dubbed
FYZ 66. According to Powell: “I like rock and roll that is not super
careful and overly cultivated. I like it to be that ragged burst of joy
that comes out of someone. On this album, it’s actually us excited
to be there. This was us really excited to be in a studio with Ryan
and him recording it. Kind of almost going off the rails all the time
because we were so excited.”
If you pick up a copy of the soon to be released tape, don’t expect
a carefully curated masterwork that has been slaved over until
flawless; that’s not the way this group likes to operate. Powell tells
us “I think that the idea of a ‘field recording’ is almost more important
now. I’ve been through the two years to record an album
thing, making everything just so. This was three pumping hearts in
a room excited about what they’re doing and this is a document
of it.” It’s this manifesto that shows through on the recordings
that give you a live-off-the-floor-feeling that will have you ducking
imaginary flying beer cans in your living room as you feel like you’re
really in the middle of one of their shows.
For those brave souls that want to experience the mishigas first hand,
The CJs be playing a double album release with their heroes, The Ex-Boyfriends,
in mid-February. If you can’t make it, don’t fret: The band plans
to play a number of shows around the city in the coming months, as well
as taking their motley act on the road to shake up cities and small towns
across Western Canada. Stay tuned, if for no other reason, than to watch
what these crazies will get up to next.
Catch The CJs in action with The Ex-Boyfriends, February 12th at Broken
City in Calgary.
Fake Werewolves lean towards the poppier side of emo on new self-titled EP.
by Willow Grier
photo: Gavin Howard
28 | FEBRUARY 2016 • BEATROUTE ROCKPILE