Jake Vaadeland
Whatever the Canadian equivalent of Americana might be, otherwise-Rockabilly Jake breathes it deeply. His tale of great-grandparents' journey from Norway to establish family province in Saskatchewan is one only he and thoughtful acoustic could relate.
Video: "The Homesteader's Song"
.jpg)
The Brains
No Brain, No Pain
(Cleopatra)
With their 2005 maiden platter, leathery Rene, Colin the Dead, and Phil the Beast tipped quiffs as among Psychobilly's fastest and loudest wrecking locomotives. Simultaneously entering were unsettling Creature-featurism vibes and screamed asylum declarations. The volatile admixture can and does explode. Realities splinter into technicolor mayhem. Cleopatra reissued No Brain, No Pain in 2023 for the benefit of all hungering to hear a blast furnace ripped from cellar flooring and heaved with perilous ambition.
Recommended: "No Brain, No Pain," "Black Jack Death Bet," "Taste Your Blood," "Train (Keeps A-Rollin' On)," "Don't Wanna," "Crazy Paradise," "Murcielagos" (bonus cut)
Videos: "No Brain, No Pain" (official video) "Taste Your Blood" "Crazy Paradise" "Murcielagos"
.jpg)
Taxi Girls
Who can slough off a demand for forthrightness, when it's hurled within chord-reeling smash-it-upism?
Video: "Say It!"
.jpg)
.jpg)
Murry Robe
Move it Over
(Untamed Records)
A phrase-turning laureate, who sports finger-snapping finery and manhandles longnecked gut-boxes like they stole something. Great White North slickster Murry, on leave from the Shook Boys, sequestered himself at home so as to cobble this spartan demo bundle. It cruises with aplomb, occasionally hinting at hijinx. And despite couch-and-coffee-table surroundings, he hiccups like he's at a little nightspot on the outskirts of town. That's the way to be.
Recommended: "Hate Our Youth," "Dance with Me," "Wild Ones," "Move it Over," "Rockin' the Lake"
Video: "Wild Ones"
The Swingin' Blackjacks
Never Tire, Never Stop
(Self-issued)
Interviewed last month by Blues.Gr, axeman/singer Matt Allen made clear a crucial truth that rigid doctinaires fail to grasp: "Blues didn’t shape Rock and Roll by itself; Jazz, Gospel, Hillbilly, and earlier 20th Century Pop music all had roles in the birth of Rock and Roll. It’s like a delicious musical stew with plenty of spice."
Revolutionary 1950s DJ Alan Freed stressed as much, in days when our music was barely out of its germinal stage. And Canadian Matt's Swingin' Blackjacks shout that verity in song after persuasively-jukin' track. Matt, drummer Adam David, and bass player/vocalist Gary Kendall maintain cool and collected Jazz poise, while perpetrating hot and cool, rockin' rhythms that goad flesh-and-blood transportation departments into fancy footwork.
Recommended: "Misery Train," "Deep in My Heart," "Heart Full of Soul," "Rock All Night," "Black Cat Blues," "Let's Pretend We're in Love"
Videos: "Misery Train" "Rock All Night" "Black Cat Blues" "Let's Pretend We're in Love"
X (Matt Allen)
The Brains
Zombie Nation red-marble vinyl reissue
(Cleopatra)
.jpg)
In addition to elating hedonistic wreckabouts everywhere, this 2010 Stomp Records release further credited Rene De La Muerte's vehicle as deserving of upswept stratum. (The group's rank having been established by three prior discs.) A digitally remastered incarnation has now been set loose by Cleopatra. Orange-and-blue flame-tongues rage toward night skies no less now than when initially kindled. Somewhere beneath soil exists a rumbustious club where the Brains are in neverending rotation.
Recommended: "We'll Rise," "We Gotta Go," "Screaming," "Apres Cette Nuit," "Sweeter than Wine," "As I Stand," "Zombie Nation," "Evil Never Dies," "Mexikaners," "Enjoy the Silence"
Videos: "We'll Rise" "We Gotta Go" "Screaming" "Mexikaners"
.jpg)
Rocket Revellers
Let's Have Some Fun! digital album
(Dionysus Records / self-reissued)
Up Vancouver way, the joint is jumpin': A countrified, swinging ensemble up front raises a ruckus every cool dynamo swears by. All kinds of yahoo menfolk and downhome dollies set the woods on fire, ears filled and limbs goaded by sounds birthed in humble barrel houses and barn dances of yore. Window glass shudders in time to swaybacked outpour. Taking turns under the center spot are busy fiddles, animated lap steel, and vocals whose casual drawl indicates unvarnished homefolkness. Couples hoot appreciation, as guitars are sweetly picked and drums do exactly right. Black-and-whites cavort. Joyfulness says closing time can go to blazes.
Recommended: "Let's Have Some Fun," "I Hear You Talkin'," "How Long," "Sweet Talkin' Mama," "I'm an Old Man," "You Ain't Nothin' but Fine," "7 Nights to Rock," "Red Top," "I'm Out"
Videos: "How Long" "You Ain't Nothin' but Fine (live) "7 Nights to Rock" (live) "Red Top"
Back in the Day, 1982
The Bopcats
Wild Jungle Rock
(Attic)
.jpg)
Canada's Bopcats also warrant recollection, to speak nothing of evergreen appreciation. Theirs was a fervent assault that laced belovedly familiar genre gesticulations with full-on firepower that bespoke Punk uproar. Country-tinted numbers provided oxygen between pummelings. Bopcats' drag-out fashion of bopping the Blues was fierce enough to trigger burg-wide sirens.
Following the foursome's untimely dissolution, drummer Teddy Fury cast his lot with the Crown Royals, while fretboard hitman Jack de Keyzer issued numerous Blues safaris. But Sonny Baker (vocals) and Zeke Rivers (bass) seemingly withdrew into the ether.
Recommended: "Wild Jungle Rock," "Home to Me," "Too Fast Past," "Dressed to Kill," "What Did I Do Last Night?," "Train Called Rock'n'Roll," "Lights Out"
Videos: "Wild Jungle Rock" (live) "Home to Me" "Train Called Rock'n'Roll"
Facebook (Jack de Keyzer)
.jpg)
The Brains
"Feel No Pain" single
(Cleopatra)
"An undead nation with my favorite ghouls, this song was a blast to write!!," enthused front man Rene De La Muerte, per a Cleopatra blurb. "Getting back to old school Brains songs...I feel no pain!"
Scowling mates Gui Kitty and Colin the Dead abet Rene in realizing to a fearsome metric the rampage he'd dared to conceptualize when putting pen to paper. Wreckers will collide in delirium when this shard from imminent exhaustive disc Crazy Monster carves jaggedly into surrounding ether.
