BeatRoute Magazine [AB] print e-edition - [May 2018]

PRE NUP
the devil’s in the details
While sitting down over a cup of
coffee, arts journalist and musician
Josiah Hughes talked about his band
Pre Nup’s newest album, Oh Well (Debt
Offensive/Jigsaw Records). Musically
delivering a tongue-in-cheek, slack-jawed
indie rock sound, the album wraps up
pop, punk, indie, and twee in a jerkydance
inducing package.
Over many, many laughs, we examined
the long process of creation and
SCRATCH BUFFALO
Poltergrease hits the beach
Everyone needs to eat and everyone needs to sleep. But for
Chris Naish, the mind behind the Calgarian garage rock
trio Scratch Buffalo, songwriting is just as integral to maintaining
a healthy routine.
”I’m always writing. It’s just a thing I need to do,” Naish says. “I
need to write songs or else my body is uncomfortable.”
Aided by the physicality of drummer Mark Straub’s impressively
technical abilities and Scott Wildeman’s melodic bass
grooves, Naish channels that creative impulse into Scratch Buffalo.
The group’s upcoming self-titled debut release offers 11 cuts
of prairie surfin’ garage punk that hops around between thrashy
riffs, power pop vibes and rock ‘n’ roll psychedelia.
In Naish’s estimation, what sets Scratch Buffalo apart is the
band’s willingness and ability to convey sincere emotion.
“It’s supposed to be exciting garage rock that feels like it could
24 | MAY 2018 • BEATROUTE
how he feels about the state of the
music scene he inhabits.
After some conversation about the
obvious love and passion for the art
form, Hughes got to chatting about the
state of modern music.
“I think people take it for granted when
they have an audience,” he says in pensive
observation. “Like, there’s so much
content, so much streaming, so many live
shows and there’s so many fucking bands
everywhere. If someone’s actually paying
attention to you, you should try and
entertain them at least. Otherwise, it’s just
sort of self-indulgent in my opinion.”
With the pop-cultured Oh Well,
Hughes (who handles guitars, bass,
organ and vocals) wanted to write his
most honest record to date, while still
keeping to his celebrated satirical wit.
“This new batch of songs is probably
the most sincere, but it’s still the
framework of how I see the world and
how I communicate is still humourous.
I figure out what I want to say and then
I wrap it in a joke.”
Tongue-in-cheek nonchalance aside,
BY KEEGHAN ROULEAU
Pre Nup genuinely cares about their
audience. It’s an extra focus on lyrics,
mixing and messaging that makes the
fun and frenetic songs on Oh Well such
a fetching earful. Backed by his wife,
Sara Hughes, on drums and vocals; and
the multi-talented Chris Dadge providing
percussion, freewheelin’ harmonies
and additional keys, Hughes has spent
the last couple years recording, tuning,
re-recording and re-tuning until the
team was satisfied with what the warm
and fuzzy tones they heard.
“[Oh Well] is, I think, 21-minutes long.
10 songs and we worked on it for over a
year! So, we really painstakingly paid attention
to each second of it. Hopefully.”
Ultimately, it was this dedication to
making an album that could impress
even their harshest critic — themselves
— is what makes Oh Well so enjoyable.
Oh Well drops May 4; order a copy on
https://prenup.bandcamp.com/. Catch Pre
Nup (album release party) in performance
with Lab Coast and Bog Bodies May 12 at
Tubby Dog (Calgary)
BY MATTY HUME
explode at any minute, but doesn’t. Ideally, it sounds like a fun,
messy and exciting blast of music,” he says.
“With the lyrics, I really tried to do something that often isn’t
done in the genre, which is be very personal and honest.”
An indication of Naish’s penchant for songwriting, the tracks
that did end up making the final cut for the group’s forthcoming
self-titled album were selected from a pool of well over 40
Scratch Buffalo jams.
“I always like in movies, like That Thing You Do, when the producer
comes by and is like, ‘Oh, these are your hits, kid!’ I need
someone to tell me what connects,” Naish says of the editing
process.
Luckily, Scratch Buffalo found that producer in Hutch Harris
of The Thermals fame, who also pushed them to make the
album itself. Naish, an artist, also opted to design the introductory
album’s zany cover. A fun cartoonish landscape featuring
a bunch of anthropomorphic sweet treats enjoying a day at
the beach, Naish’s eye candy paradise reveals more upon closer
inspection. Alas, the treats are melting in psychedelic horror. In
truth, the cover’s description couldn’t fit the album better. It’s a
joyful surfboard ride on the surface, but with a strong life-lesson
hiding in the undertow.
“Mark told me to draw what I think the music is. You look
at it and think, ‘Oh that’s fun!’ But then you look closer and it’s
actually kinda messed up.”
Scratch Buffalo’s debut album is out on May 18. Catch the release
party on May 26 as part of the East Town Get Down festival at
International Avenue #250 - 3515 17 Ave SE (Calgary).
CHRIS REIMER
Hello, people
BY MATTY HUME
Although six years have gone by, the passing of Chris Reimer
(WOMEN, Azeda Booth, The Dodos, and many, many more)
in February of 2012 feels much more recent of a memory for many
members of the arts community in his hometown of Calgary and
beyond. And while his WOMEN bandmates continue to make
waves with their post-punk project Preoccupations, Chris’s impact
continues to ripple through the scene with the posthumous double-LP,
Hello People.
Faithfully produced by The Chris Reimer Legacy Fund Society,
which includes Chris’s partner Rena Kozak, his sister Nikki Reimer,
his parents Jo and Tim Reimer, and his good friend Marc Rimmer,
Hello People is a testament to his role in shaping the Calgary arts
community and the influence of his friends along the way. The resultant
posthumous release is a recording that explores both Chris’s
experimental solo forays and his remarkable growth as an artist.
“It came together because I always knew that he one of his main
goals in his life was to release his music — his personal solo stuff —
even though he’d done a lot of things in his various bands he had
never managed to get things together and release it,” Kozak says.
“He was always experimenting with different genres and playing
around,” Nikki recounts.
“As a result of that, there was a lot of material. Everyone involved
with the project had the task of listening to everything [and] the
emotional journey that that becomes.”
And that journey became Hello People, which includes 15 songs
spanning from upbeat melodies to ambient and drone. One track
even includes subtle vocals from Chris himself.
“He was writing new stuff where he was singing and playing
guitar and trying to do more. And I think he was starting to get up
the courage to release something,” Kozak says.
“[For Hello People], we really tried to choose things that showed
a bit more range and it showed different ideas that he was working
with,” Nikki adds.
The title “Hello People” on the cover is Chris’s own writing, pulled
from one of his many sketchbooks by Marc, who designed the
album’s layout. Nikki describes the words as a simple gesture and
gentle greeting.
“I miss him so much. He was my best friend,” Nikki says.
“And certainly he had his flaws and his faults too, but he was just
a magical person. So I would love people to get to know him a little
bit through this record.”
“He may not have said it directly to them, but he was just always
talking about his love for everybody in the music community and
I just want to get that across to everyone,” Rena says. “If you met
Chris Reimer, he probably loved you.”
Hello People is out on May 4. A release party and listening celebration
is going down right before the Preoccupations concert on on
May 5 at the Palomino (Calgary).
ROCKPILE