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

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SUPERSUCKERS hold the phone BY TREVOR MORELLI CANCER BATS the spark that will light a fire in the darkness BY TREVOR MORELLI “If they’re going to spend their time on their phone, that’s up to them; it’s their experience they’re going to miss out on.” photo: Harmony Gerber Touring overseas won’t stop Supersuckers front man Eddie Spaghetti from jumping on call. Over the line from Munich, Germany, he is audibly excited to discuss his band’s upcoming new album and their spring Canadian tour, one that sees the down and dirty Tucson trio playing a show almost every single night. “Well, I mean, it’s kind of how you have to do it if you want to come out ahead,” explains Spaghetti. “You gotta keep working. We’re like sharks. We’ve got to keep swimming to survive.” Always ones to fight the current, Supersuckers have been dishing up slabs of messy guitar rock with a big ol’ side of country, pop, and punk since 1988. It’s hard to believe the band has weathered the cultural changes that have affected their profession in all that time, of which Spaghetti says there have been many. “Oh man, I mean, you name it. The fact that people don’t buy records anymore. The Internet being like it is,” he remarks. “Cellphones! When we first started touring, there were no cellphones, so it was like pull over at a truck stop; you get on a payphone to advance your show. And a lot of notebook paper and writing shit down, and you don’t have to do that anymore. It’s kind of nice.” At least pen and paper won’t blind you from the audience. Spaghetti’s chief beef with cellphones is when fans flash-blind him during Supersuckers shows. “It’s the worst. That’s when I’ll actually say something. I’ll put my hand out and I’ll tell the dude, ‘I don’t know if you know or not, but your flash is on.’ I don’t care if they’re going to spend their time on their phone, that’s up to them; it’s their experience they’re going to miss out on. As long as it doesn’t bother me.” As for the internets, Spaghetti has tangled with both advantages and frustrations to being able to reach fans in a faster, cheaper, and more immediate manner. 28 | MAY 2018 • BEATROUTE “I don’t know, it’s tough to say. Its hurt us in the fact that we sold very little records as it were, even before the Internet, and now we sell virtually no records because of it. So, it’s definitely hurt in that regard, but it helps us in being able to get word out about the shows and keeping a presence in people’s faces should they choose to follow our little operation online.” In unaugmented reality, Supersuckers have finished recording, mixing and mastering a brand spanking new garage rock album that aspires to more than commercial success. It’s a signal to all comers that Supersuckers are as ballsy as ever and aren’t yet ready to give up their self-proclaimed status. “It’ll be out this summer and it’s super awesome, of course. They don’t call us ‘The Greatest Rock ‘N Roll Band in the World’ for nothing, my friend.” While Supersuckers’ last record Holdin’ the Bag (2015) focused more on the band’s country leaning influences, Spaghetti says the new disc is all about finger lickin,’ greasy rock ‘n’ roll. “It doesn’t sound much like Holdin’ the Bag at all. It’s a full on rock record, more like Get the Hell (2014) than Holdin’ the Bag, but it sounds even better than Get the Hell did, which is hard to believe because that record sounds pretty amazing.” “So yeah, we’re super happy with it. We can’t believe that nobody’s heard it yet because we’ve listened to it a million times and we’re just so stoked and thrilled that we’ve recorded such a great thing. We can’t wait for people to hear it.” Supersuckers perform with guests A-BOMB and The Foul English on May 15 at The Palomino Smokehouse and Social Club (Calgary), May 16 at The Starlite Room (Edmonton), May 17 at Capitol Music Club (Saskatoon), May 18 at The Exchange (Regina), and on May 19 at Pyramid Cabaret (Winnipeg). Reunited in the pursuit of punk rock thrills. The best surprises in life are the ones that blindside you out of nowhere. On April 20, Cancer Bats surprise dropped The Spark That Moves, their brand new, sixth ear-splitting album that was recorded, mixed and mastered in Winnipeg in complete secrecy. It’s the band’s first release on their own Bat Skull Records. “We’re coming out with a total bang,” proclaims lead singer Liam Cormier on the line from Toronto. “I’m going to pick up the vinyl tomorrow, actually.” We caught up with Cormier mere days before the surprise release, a genuinely pummeling album that’s being hailed as their best in a decade. Despite being the provider of the aggressive screams that anchor Cancer Bats’ hardcore sound, Cormier is a heck of a nice guy who expresses genuine excitement about the release. “We’re like, ‘This would be sick!’” says Cormier about the hush-hush nature of The Spark That Moves. “For us, it’s exciting. It’s rad, and I feel like it’s something that we would want as fans. I don’t want to wait for a pre-order for like three months.” Clocking in at just 34 minutes, The Spark That Moves packs a ton of meat into a short timeframe. Longtime guitarist Scott Middleton provides the distorted wails on highlights like “Rattlesnake,” drummer Mike Peters adds the machine-gun punk rhythms to songs like “Headwound,” while bassist Jaye Schwarzer brings deafening bass lines to stand-out track “Winterpeg.” The band is joined on the latter by Propagandhi’s own Chris Hannah. “A lot of the songs are back to ripping punk vibes. We wanted to embrace all of those things that we love about the band,” Cormier photo: Cindy Frey says. Indeed, the album merges sludge, punk, hardcore, and metal into a poignant melodic blend. “Obviously we’re trying to continue the journey and evolve, but at the same time we’re not wanting to get too far away.” Bands with global fanbases are often tempted to use crowd-funded campaigns to finance their records, but Cancer Bats chose to avoid this. Instead, they’re thankful to those metalcore patrons, who have purchased their music and bought tickets to their shows, for the last 13 years of financial support. “We were talking about this last year,” Cormier explains. “We were like ‘Oh, we should use a crowd-fund’ and me and Mikey were like, ‘No, we’ve already put aside all this money because we knew we were going to do this.’ So, we’ve already been funded by the crowds who have showed up to our shows.” At present Cancer Bats are tearing up the road on a showcase the tenth anniversary tour of their breakthrough album Hail Destroyer (2008). Armed with the detuned riffs and throaty growls of favorites like “Hail Destroyer,” “Deathsmarch,” and “Smiling Politely,” the band is set to play the album in full, or at least the parts they can get away with. “We’ve done a bunch of them already because we played Manitoba Metalfest in Winnipeg, so we did like 80 per cent of the record,” says Cormier, laughing. “We were just like, ‘You know what? Let’s just not play “PMA (‘Til I’m DOA)” and “Zed’s Dead, Baby” and we’ll see if anybody calls us on it.’ It kind of worked out perfect because nobody called bullshit and we just had a great show.” “We’ve never played “Zed’s Dead,” so that one’s kind of going to be interesting,” he continues. “I think it’ll be fun.” ROCKPILE
SHOOTING GUNS welcome to flavour country, population you Rising from the heart of the prairies like a rye-scented dust storm, Shooting Guns have been spinning sidewinding psychedelic tales since the dawn of their initial release, the mollifying 7-inch Dopestrings/Harmonic Steppenwolf, back in 2010. In the eight years since, the Saskatoon-based band has grown in skill and size, being nominated for a Juno and two Polaris prizes and founding their own label, Pre-Rock Records, amidst all the excitement and praise. And while their compliment has swelled in numbers, the hypnotic instrumental entity has repeatedly declined offers to take on a vocalist. At the core, Shooting Guns remains an ironically mute weapon, which may be what attracted them to the realm of silent cinema. Known for their work on the WolfCop film franchise’s riveting scores, the band recently entertained moviegoers with screenings of the classic 1922 horror film Nosferatu, featuring an unplugged Shooting Guns performing a live soundtrack at the front of the theatre. A highlight of 2017’s Sled Island lineup, the ambitious and spellbinding project has taken on a life of its own and will soon be released in video format by the very band who brought it back from the dead. “Have a good time all the time. That’s our philosophy.” “We’re just mixing the Nosferatu soundtrack and getting it ready for release in late summer or early fall on Cardinal Fuzz out of the U.K.,” reports guitarist Chris Laramee. “Other than that — work, life stuff, blah, blah has kept us pretty busy as of late, but it’ll swing around again and we’ll get back on more music.” photo: Sidney Smith Productivity has never been an issue for Laramee, whose other labours of love include playing with bands The Radiation Flowers (formerly Powder Blue) and The Switching Yard and a recording project called Wasted Cathedral. Riding high on the release of their big orange album, Flavour Country (2017), the unfiltered sextet is looking forward to seeing BY CHRISTINE LEONARD how they can top their favourite LP to date. “We have a couple things pretty developed for the next one, but no titles or anything yet. Excited to see where it goes! Our process is relax, get worked up, relax, repeat,” he relates. “We record everything at our own jam space and studio, which is great because everyone has full time jobs and it would be a major bummer if this wasn’t enjoyable. We produce and engineer it all ourselves, by which I mean Jim (Ginther, drummer) does most of the heavy lifting while we shoot rubber bands at him and pull on his hair.” Powering through slow-building, Sabbathy tracks with patient percussionist Ginther, along with bandmates Keith Doepker (guitar), Jay Loos (bass), Toby Bond (synths) and Brennan Barclay (guitar), Laramee has made a career out of mining the fuzzy pockets of ‘70s and ‘80s rock. From the heady mystery of Born to Deal Magic: 1952-1976, to the sludgy latitudes of Brotherhood of the Ram, Shooting Guns vision has remained as constant as a Saskatchewan horizon. Shooting Guns perform May 19 at May Bong Weekend Party at Distortion (Calgary), May 20 at Temple (Edmonton). ROCKPILE BEATROUTE • MAY 2018 | 29
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Page 8: INTERNATIONAL AVENUE COMES ALIVE!!
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Page 13: som. Watch how many energetic influ
Page 16: Double down the depths of hell The
Page 21 and 22: ROCKPILE THE ALLOVERS a tale of two
Page 24: PRE NUP the devil’s in the detail
Page 27: PALOVERSARY Palomino and friends ce
Page 31: A Get Down sampler photo: Michael G
Page 35 and 36: TG Juice: Fre Tekle Fassil Ethiopia
Page 37 and 38: STUYEDEYED with love from New York
Page 39 and 40: THE HEARTS slightly more sombre, sl
Page 41: MERCY FUNK just wants you to feel g
Page 44 and 45: PICTUREPLANE First discussion of ne
Page 47 and 48: ROOTS JILL BARBER her head and hear
Page 49: ASTRAL SWANS lifting the whole damn
Page 52 and 53: HAMMERFALL architects of the metal
Page 54 and 55: musicreviews Courtney Barnett Tell
Page 57 and 58: While the album is much more spacey
Page 59 and 60: the national anthem as a protest to
Page 61 and 62: PRVIS, Slenderbodies The Palace (Ca

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