DAILY READING - May 6, 2010

From the latest PLANET S MAGAZINE

MUSIC · MAY 06 2010

Feather Cannon In 3-2-1... Engage!

SCATTERHEART BRINGS BIG ROCK BOMBAST BACK TO THE FUTURE
by Chris Morin

SCATTERHEART
Friday 7
The Roxy

With one listen to the fabulously flamboyant rock of Scatterheart, it becomes clear that fun is paramount for this Vancouver band (well, that and finding a tailor who won’t skimp on the plumage). Channelling the sound and style of ‘80s-vintage glam-pop metal — in the best way possible — it seems they’ve made it a personal mission to bring energy, love and brightly-coloured boas back to rock ‘n roll.

If nothing else, says frontman Jesse Enright, audiences should expect to be entertained — but if you’re going to see a band armed with their own feather cannons and bubble machines, that should probably be self-evident.

“We’ve only ever gotten positive reactions — at least to our faces,” laughs Enright. “I’m sure there are people out there who think it is ridiculous and silly, but that’s not a bad thing. I wanted to make Scatterheart a show like going to watch a theatre. As a band, you can just stand there in jeans and a t-shirt and whatever, or you can wear silly costumes, jump around, shoot feathers at people and have giant bubbles floating everywhere.

“There’s definitely a comedic part to it,” he continues. “Partly to amuse ourselves, but also to get people stoked — at our last big hometown show at the Commodore, I actually flew onstage with a harness. I mean it’s just fun, and everybody’s in on it — like when we play small towns in Alberta and these big, tough redneck-looking guys come up to us raving about our show, like they understand it. Everybody wants to have fun.”

Just as impressively, their latest album, The Masterplan, shows that Scatterheart can accomplish a recording worthy of the infectious energy of their Queen-inspired, larger-than-life stage show. Their songwriting goes much deeper than most bands featuring blow-dried coifs, bombastic stage shows and loud guitars could hope to achieve — and that’s important, says Enright, because a big stage show is still pretty much an empty shell if the music falls short.

“I ended up in Australia where the rock scene is really dark and sleazy — which can seem totally awesome and fun from the outside, but being on the inside is totally depressing,” explains Enright. “So I decided I wanted to get back into music. When we started we had this idea that we wanted to go through with: we didn’t just want to get some songs together and look cool and get chicks and all that. We had a purpose for doing this.”

Still, being the centre of attention during all that onstage bombast is a great time, says Enright — like a recent festival Scatterheart played in Korea, which he says was both rewarding and surreal.

“Korea was super cool. It was like playing the part of a Bon Jovi-type rock band — the show was incredible, with a catwalk and a jumbo-tron, and the crowd was incredible with how much energy they had. It was explained to me that Korean people work really hard, so when they want to have fun they make sure they really have fun. It was really overwhelming for the first couple of songs because it was a sea of people jumping, like 25,000 people,” says Enright.

“Plus, you have to act like you do it all the time — I was watching myself on the jumbo-tron and then I realized that I was acting like a dork in front of 25,000 people. I had to remind myself to act like it was all no big deal.”

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Shock Treatment, Indeed

NOBUNNY
Tuesday 11
Amigos

If you’ve ever wondered what Ramones-esque pop-punk would sound like as interpreted by a masked freak — well, you’re just plain weird. Still, you’re in luck — because Nobunny can answer that critical question.

Wearing a rabbit mask that comes across like a terrifying mix of Muppet and Slipknot, Nobunny (aka Justin Champlin) is an odd sight indeed. He’s also a guy who offers up hyper-charged doses of the kind of garage punk that’s so inexplicably — but thankfully — popular these days.

Obviously most well-known for his entertaining stage show — which has reportedly featured both firecrackers and partial nudity (though hopefully not at the same time) in the past — Nobunny is probably best seen live to be truly understood. Still, even his Twitter page (which is peppered with blurbs such as “Ewww! My underwear is moulding and growing hair!”) is absolutely hilarious.

But behind the gimmickry and bathroom humour is a talented songwriter, one whose knack for pop hooks belies his penchant for masked buffoonery. His latest album, Love Visions — featuring a cover photo that pays homage to The Ramones’ 1976 self-titled debut — is full of indie-punk gems that sparkle with both simplicity and a serious pop edge. Combine that with what clearly looks to be one of the most unique live displays you’ll ever see, and this show should be approaching can’t-miss status.


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Can You Print That On An Award Statue?

FUCKED UP
Saturday 15
Amigos

“If what I’m doing on stage looks hideous now, I can only imagine what it will look like when I’m 50,” laughs Damian Abraham — the 300-pound, often semi-nude lead singer of Fucked Up.

With a sound that more than matches their mammoth stage presence, the Toronto-based six-piece have earned the distinction of being a hardcore punk band that has inexplicably taken the mainstream by storm — an honour that was officially cemented when they won the 2009 Polaris Prize.

Still, Abraham is pretty sure that Fucked Up won’t ever end up the Rolling Stones of hardcore.

“We’re a band that has a built-in limit,” he says. “But there was a lot of luck and good timing on our side — [and] it gets to a point where it can only go so far. I mean, where do you go after you win the Polaris? We know it’s not going to last forever, so we may as well not worry about topping ourselves all the time. You can get caught up in [trying to do] something interesting all the time, and it can destroy you as a person.”

Few bands can match the intensity or the work ethic of Fucked Up. From their humble beginnings within Southern Ontario’s DIY hardcore punk scene, the band has since grown in both sound and reputation, becoming known as a musical force that refuses to accept the limits of their genre.

In a scant few years, Fucked Up has released an impressive library of music, including several albums (such as 2008’s The Chemistry of Common Life), mini LPs and dozens of 7” singles. Along the way, they’ve also become infamous for their manically destructive live sets, and for pulling off stunts like playing for 24 hours straight. (Want something even stranger? Well, Abraham was also invited to become a regular guest on the Fox News show Red Eye.)

Potentially short shelf life aside, Abraham promises that Fucked Up’s momentum — and penchant for the bizarre — will most certainly continue into the near future.

“We’ve definitely got some weird stuff in the pipeline, like some really weird, bizarre stuff,” says Abraham. “Every time something happened, there was always something weirder waiting in the wings, so we would try that.

“Our next album is going to be a rock opera — and it’s going to be our weirdest, and greatest, album yet.”