Martha Wainwright in Burnaby: a brief review with photos

Very warm and engaging performance last night from Martha Wainwright at the Shadbolt Centre. Second time I've seen her -- the last was at the ill-fated venue The Imperial about ten years ago; comparing shows, she was chattier last night, warmer, introducing songs in some detail, talking about how she inherited the house she used to live in with Kate on the main floor and Rufus on the third, talking about her children (there's a new song that deals with them about waking up in make up that I will likely buy the album it comes out on, but it doesn't seem to be released yet). 

Her band last night also had more personality, made more of an impression, compared to the Imperial band, with a compelling, quietly beautiful opening set by guitarist Brad Barr of the Barr Brothers and a drummer -- I didn't get his name and can't find it now -- who seemed to be in a transcendent state when playing. He might not have been high on psychedelics -- nothing else in his behaviour suggested it -- but the music itself seemed to put him in an altered state of consciousness... he did some very subtle work... 

...and surprisingly, psychedelics actually arose as a topic at one point, when Martha commented on psychedelic aspects of that first album, which she then free associated with popping sativa gummies. The biggest laughs of the night surfaced when, having mentioned sativa, she then reached in the wrong mental filing cabinet to namecheck arnica, instead of indica. She laughed at her mistake and quipped that these days it is more arnica than indica... and HMT Cream; she mimed rubbing some on her wrist. 

She also still does the thing with her left leg, kicking it out to the side while she performs, like she's loosening up something in her lower back. In fact, she's a very physical performer, with the music getting into her body, making her move, her pelvis rocking in a way that you wouldn't necessarily expect from female musicians with at least a foot in folk music... she was quite fascinating to watch. And I loved her jacket; I think she had been dressier at the Imperial, vaguely recall some sort of little black dress, but I preferred the more comfortable attire of last night. 

We heard all the first album, though not in order -- the closers were "Factory" and "BMFA." There was also a segue into some Rufus Wainwright and a handful of songs from other points in her career. I'll leave some surprises for people. But heads up to people seeing her in Sidney tonight: there are still copies of the first-ever, 20th anniversary vinyl release of her first album available -- a clear vinyl pressing that I assume will be for the tour only -- and lots of shirt and sweater variations, as well as copies of her memoir, Stories I Might Regret Telling You, but none of the cassettes of Ground Floor have made it this far, and there are no CDs of that (I think also I read about deluxe CD editions of the debut LP being prepared, with bonus tracks and such, but they aren't ready yet). 

The only other item on her merch table was a t-shirt designed by Brad Barr's wife, for her husband to sell -- an artful and interesting shirt, which my own wife would have bought one of, except all the remaining shirts were small! I do believe he said that there's a new Barr Brothers album due this fall...

The good news, however, is that Martha was more than happy to hang out and sign records and memoirs and even the odd shirt. Only about 30 or so of the 200 attendees stuck around for that, which surprised me a bit, but she was very personable. I hope she makes it to Alexander's in Sidney for a white chocolate raspberry scone today (Erika's recommendation); she seemed to appreciate that I'd brought my Wainwright Sisters album for her to sign, as well, and I commented on how marvelous it is. Then I asked her if she'd heard about the Vancouver record dealer who found the rare Beatles Decca demos ("it made the New York Times") and got her to sign something for Rob, as well, since he has a birthday soon. She hadn't. I hope she'll look up the story; it might amuse her that she's now tangentially connected to it. 

Great night; I hope people in Sidney enjoy it (there still seem to be tickets available!). 

Heads up, ALL fans: the Chad Price Peace Coalition to play LanaLoü's (plus news re: SLIP~ons, Doughboys, and Büddies Fest)

Only ever saw ALL once, and I think the lineup that I caught, at the Cruel Elephant in the early 1990s, was likely with Scott Reynolds on vocals, circa Allroy Saves; I remember being excited to hear "Educated Idiot," which was their newest tune and the one that spoke the most to me. The subsequent (and current) vocalist -- the one on Breaking Things, Pummel, Mass Nerder and Problematic -- is the one relevant to this article; his name is Chad Price, and he's got a new band, the Chad Price Peace Coalition, who are playing LanaLou's this Wednesday, with some very cool openers, including, yes, the SLIP~ons; Brock Pytel of that band -- and former drummer/ vocalist for the Doughboys -- designed the banner you see above, and has some history with ALL, he explains: "When my era of Doughboys toured with ALL, Dave Smalley was the singer. I met Chad later, possibly in Boston after I’d left the band. I remember telling him I was a big fan and loved the way he sang, to which he replied, he’d been inspired to sing that way by me. That’s the kind of gentleman he has always been." 

For his part, Brock's favourite Chad Price/ ALL song is "Shreen" ("though Chad would probably roll his eyes at that," he notes). 

This Wednesday's show at LanaLou's is just a teaser for a more significant coming-together of related bands, Brock explains, that will be taking place in mid-July, back east, where two of Price's other bands (Drag the River and the Chad Price Peace Coalition) will be playing alongside ALL at Büddies Fest in Tillsonburg, Ontario, with Scott Reynolds doing a separate set of his own. Brock also hints that "Greg Norton is doing Hüsker songs with Jon Snodgrass and David Jarnstrom" and that Brock may or may not have been "asked to sing a Grant song," though that gets away from all things ALL- and Chad Price-related. 

In anticipation of this Wednesday's show,  I did a brief email interview with Chad Price to talk about ALL, his new album (A Perfect Pearl) and various projects in-between, which run the gamut from American roots (Drag the River) to prog metal (A Vulture Wake). 

AM: Were you making music before you joined ALL? How old were you, and what were the circumstances of connecting with them? 

CP:   I’m from Kansas City, Missouri. Back when ALL was planning their move to Missouri from California I met Bill through a friend who had booked the band. We remained friends and my band at the time hung out with the guys and played barn parties together and shit like that. When Scott decided to quit, Bill hit me up and asked if I was interested. Of course I was, because ALL was my favorite band on the planet. He sent me some demos to check out and I drove out to Brookfield and recorded a couple songs. He then flew to L.A. to try others out. I got the job.

AM:  Curious about working with Bill! As I was telling Brock, my one interaction with him (gushing fanboy stuff after an ALL show here) was cut very short -- he had to get to the washroom and just didn't much seem to be into hearing me blurt how much I loved his songs -- it was like, "uh, thanks... I gotta pee," an indifferent mumble... Brock tells me he does warm up!

 
CP: Hahaha that sounds correct. Yes he does warm up but he’s not one for small talk. I’m not either so we often sit in silence together. Seriously though he’s a trip and a blast to talk to when you get to know each other.

AM:  Tell me about bringing songs to ALL? That must have been somewhat intimidating, if you were already a fan! What songs did you write with them? What was the first? Did they support and encourage it, or suggest changes, or...? 

 
CP: I was barely a guitar player but I tried to emulate the ALL sound anyway. The only pre -ALL song I had written that remained was "Original Me." The guitar riff is basically exactly what I wrote but when the three of them play the song it turns into an ALL song. And yes every time I ever showed a song to them it was intimidating. I was just a kid only beginning to write.

AM: Curious if you have a Milo story? (He also seems like a weird dude to me, based on seeing him with the Descendents a few years ago: he had what I was told, some sort of hydration unit strapped to his back, under his shirt, which made him look like he had a really square hunched back. I've never seen anyone perform in a getup like that and I think if I were going to wear a backpack live I would go with the "outside the shirt" look, rather than the "what's wrong with his back" look! https://www.reddit.com/r/Descendents/comments/6bbvtm/why_does_milo_wear_a_backpack_when_singing_live/

CP: He’s your basic nerd hahaha. He’s very kind and fairly normal. I met him when he did back up vocals on Breaking Things.

AM: What was your greatest moment with ALL?

CP: I got to do some very cool things for sure that I’ve taken for granted. I mean I played a song on Conan O’Brien and got put up in a fancy New York hotel room and rode in a limo and shit like that. Crazy stuff I never expected to happen. One great moment was when we had a sold out show at City Gardens in Jersey and I had zero voice. Bill called Milo to come sing instead of cancelling so I got to stand in the crowd and see Descendents for the first time.

AM: I gather there's some crossover between ALL and [Chad's subsequent band] Drag the River -- that a song you wrote on Mass Nerder, "Until I Say So," was originally written as a Drag the River song, and eventually recorded as one? How did that happen? Do you do other ALL songs (whether you wrote them originally or not) in your sets with the Chad Price Peace Coalition? Do you do any A Vulture Wake songs [Chad's prog-metal project]?

CP: Any song I would write I would run by everyone. I would write everything on acoustic so even if it was meant for ALL it sounded more acoustic based. If anyone liked a song we would figure out how to make it an ALL song no matter how simple the tune. These days I focus on my solo songs live but we’ll work in some fun surprises in the future.

AM: A Vulture Wake's song "The Fool Must Be Killed." I have some suspicions who the fool there must be, but...?

CP: You know exactly who the fool is and the song is more relevant than ever now.

AM: Aha. Indeed. Explain the band name A Vulture Wake to me? I'm curious if you named the band after the practice of Sky Burials. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_burial

CP: A vulture wake is a group of vultures feeding. I thought it was an appropriate name and very cool sounding as well. 

AM: For a band with prog roots, titling a song "Red" seems ballsy indeed! Somehow I think it's commenting on American politics again, but I can't pick out the lyrics... a dying clown? I don't hear a connection musically with King Crimson's "Red," so... not criticizing, just curious -- what about the song motivated that title? 

CP: No King Crimson connection there. You are correct in your American politics assessment. It was the fuel for the whole record. Drowning in red seas.

AM: If I can ask -- are you, as an American, doing okay? The mood up here is not good re: America right now. I was going to post the Exploited's "USA" on Facebook apropos of the tariffs but then I thought, "Wait, I have LOTS OF AMERICAN FRIENDS..." Then a local punk band started covering it...

 
CP: It’s so fucked up and I’m still shocked at how many were/are so easily duped by an obvious conman. Just so fucking despicable. I know the majority of Americans are not with this orange clown but the rightwing is so loud and dumb that it sure seems like they outnumber us.

AM: What is One Week Record? It is not actually a Peace Coalition record? It seems very roots-oriented. Was it made separately from -- at a different time from -- A Perfect Pearl? Do you do songs from it in your current set?

 
CP: A few years ago I put out a record on Joey Cape’s (Lagwagon) label One Week Records. It’s named this because artists spend a week at Joey’s house recording a record. It’s usually a stripped down acoustic record and the label model was a subscription that you bought to listen to the catalog. They wanted to release my full band record even though I didn’t record with Joey and I asked that vinyl was made, which they had never done. When it got a physical release it somehow became titled One Week Record which is idiotic hahahaha. It’s a Chad Price record but Chad Price Peace Coalition is just Chad Price with a full band. Our live set focuses on this record and the new record A Perfect Pearl.

AM: Aha. Okay, tell me about the title A Perfect Pearl? Again, there's some chutzpah in that title -- I think somehow of Big Thief calling their first album Masterpiece, though they undercut that quite a bit with an image of kids playing on the cover... 

CP: The title is a tribute to my little girl dog Pearl who we had to let go after I got home from recording.

AM: Oh, man, sorry to hear. Okay, a final question: given that you went from ALL to country music to prog metal, with a few stops in between, I wonder if the band name the Chad Price Peace Coalition is meant as an in-joke, that you're uniting all these genres in harmony -- a coalition of your musical influences?

CP: I didn’t think of it in that way but that’s exactly where I’m heading. I don’t want to be confined to a genre because I like a lot of different things.

Thanks to Chad Price for answering my questions! Check out the lead single from A Perfect Pearl, "A.M." (no relation to my initials, ha) here and the newest video, for "Rose," here. And note that the Tillsonberg weekend pass is a mere $174 CDN, which is actually almost affordable... if you want an excuse to fly to Ontario!

Meanwhile, speaking of the Doughboys, the last time I caught them, they had 7" of a session from 1987 on their merch table, named after the studio where it was recorded; you can hear it here. It's a three-song demo that first came out in 2003, though I believe the vinyl is new. 

Brock's history with that band and with the SLIP~ons is covered here; I don't know if there are still copies to be had at the merch table, but if so, it's a must-get, if you care about Canadian punk, with the songs likened to the poppier moments of Hüsker Dü on PunkNews. I don't have any other Doughboys material that Brock is on, personally, so I'm super glad to have added this to my collection!

For tickets to this week's Chad Price Peace Coalition shows, see his website! For Büddies Fest tickets, see here. 

Cousin Harley Plays the Blues: a live show note

 THIS JUST IN: if you can't get a ticket for tonight, take heart! A show has been added for next month at St. James! Yay! 

Selfie with Art Perry: I don't usually do these, but we had been gabbing for near an hour. Someone should interview this guy! Y'know that Ray Condo was his student? Jim Cummins, too. But there's so much more...

Anyhoo, as you see, I went out last night. It was an expensive way to reward myself for having survived the month of March, which involved both friends and family having surgery, a pre-tax-refund stretch of bein' broke, a death-march of transcription (which I have returned to) and some lower back pain from being sedentary too much, not to mention being capped off with two weeks of illness. I truly spoiled myself: Dinner at Frankie's + a taboo beer + a soggy tiramisu cost $65 with the tip (not bad but I coulda just stayed home and eaten what was already in the fridge! On the plus side, it was nice to have an alternative to my own cookin' -- there's a Larry Norman lyric about being stuck with your own cooking, maybe in his most playful song, and there really is a point where that becomes purgatorial, y'know?). More importantly, I snagged two Paul Pigat slabs o'vinyl ($60), his Ray Condo tribute and the one I just interviewed him about, which he was debuting; it was fun getting the whole band's signatures. Derry, the trumpet player, was the hardest one to track down, since I didn't see where he went: so I lurked outside the toilet for awhile, then went and checked out the front of the venue, where a couple players (let's leave them some privacy) were, I suspect, smoking something (but probably just tobacco; no vipers here, not even Stephen Nikleva). Then I went back to lurk by the toilets again, feeling kinda self-conscious, like -- "Look, Martha, there's that pathetic nerd with the Sharpie and the record again."

Fuck y'all, this is cool to own: 

But I'm still run down, and have a doctor's appointment at 9am -- the semi-annual "has your cancer come back" check up, which is kinda in my experience akin to a warranty (because my cancer didn't come back last time until after the warranty had run out -- err, after my doctor told me I was in the clear and could stop coming in; six months later, what's that sore on my tongue?). So I made my apologies, having got my rekkids signed during the mid-set break, and ducked out. I see from the setlist that in so doing I missed out on a trio-format "High and Wild" off the Ray Condo tribute, but c'est la vie (really, I coulda probably caught that and then ducked out, but I didn't actually read the setlist until after I got home: d'oh!). 

It was my first trip to Frankie's. Everything was decent, though David Matychuk had advised me to try the tortellini, which I could not see on the menu at all. But the guy beside me was having chicken linguine, and it looked great, so I went with that. It was definitely decent! My enthusiasm for any pasta meal often runs out before the pasta itself, but it was tasty and well-presented and came with focaccia slices with a balsamic/ oil dip. Honestly, the three best things about Frankie's weren't the food, but a) the sight lines, which are good from almost any seat, even the bar where Art and I were sitting; the sound, which was terrific; and the civilized audience, who -- even though Cory Weeds had joked about how the no-noise policy wasn't going to matter much, so fullsome was the band's sound, and told people, by way of alerting them to the policy, that they could pretty much ignore it -- did not make a single sound that *I* could hear over the music. Often restaurant gigs suck, because bands are hired as "background", but not at Frankie's, apparently. I'd go there again! 

My photos aren't very good, mind you, but who cares, Art Perry was there, go bug him! I did decide midway through the first set to lift my camera and shoot vid, and was surprised and delighted that Paul proceeded to namecheck me in introducing the next song, "Down in Mexico," which rearranges the Coasters original quite a bit. I get namechecked infrequently by musicians, and never when I've got vid rollin'. Great song, great arrangement. I imagined Melody Mangler suddenly manifesting from the wings (she was present the last time I saw Paul, at the Rickshaw, doing a solo set opening for Los Furios). Or did I see him one time after that, with Mike van Eyes? (Nope, that was the week before). 

 Art joked as we walked to the Skytrain that he was going to get himself a red bandanna: I guess he dug "Down in Mexico" too.

The thing about last night that people should bear in mind: this is not what Paul usually does. This band is so tight, so skilled, and the music such a joy to listen to that it really does put an imperative on you: if you like bluesy jazz, as led by a rockabilly virtuoso, you really really should see if there are tickets to Frankie's tonight, because there might not be another chance. There hadn't been, earlier -- the words "sold out" were on the page, as they are now, but then it turned out when I clicked there was one seat at the bar that opened up. It's not optimum, being at a 90 degree angle to the band, seated on a bar seat that has no room for re-positioning, but if you twist your ass around and get your left foreleg up on the seat, you can actually get a pretty good view. My leg didn't even fall asleep, and I only kicked Art a little. 

He forgave me!   

AK-747s: Of Silent Hill, suicide, abandonment and abuse (a Rob Nuclear interview)

The cover of the AK-747s new album, No Shortage of Cruelty, consists of a heartbreaking image: a dead lamb, a mourning ewe, and a murder of eager crows, ready to feed as soon as she drops her guard. Rob Nuclear, leader of the AK-747s, tells me the painting is called Anguish, by Schenck, painted in 1878, adding that Schenck was concerned with "poverty and the social conditions of his age" -- things true of Rob's provocatively-named band, as well (which we previously discussed here). The image somehow reminds me of something that I read in Stephen Jay Gould, I think it was, about how it was once taken as a proof by Victorians of the non-existence of God that there were species of wasp that would paralyze a spider, lay eggs in it, and then keep the spider alive so the larvae would have fresh food to eat. What God would organize the universe this way? And yet the universe is organized this way, so therefore (said the Darwinists of the day), there is no God...  

As you might gather from that album cover, there is a lot of pain in the music of the AK-747s. No Shortage of Cruelty is suffused with suffering, melancholy and mourning, though the music is driving rock, a fusion of punk and metal, which are not normally genres that "melancholy and mourning" are associated with. There's a curious contradiction that arises, because as dark as things get, it's not a depressing album in the slightest; quite the opposite -- it's liberating. In that respect, it reminds me a bit of Bison's Lovelessness, still a favourite local LP of mine, the cover for which is a closeup of the cancer that killed Bison leader James Farwell's dog (see here). It taps deep into unhealed wounds, but it's not digging in with the end of wallowing in mind, but rather offering catharsis, release, a strange kind of comfort, even (it would be amazing to mosh to, if the pit were right). Godspeed You! Black Emperor does similar things at times, making music that can strike you as very dark and discordant, that requires you to acknowledge pain, suffering, sorrow, but that, if you can connect with it, actually has an immensely uplifting quality (they get even more transcendent, actually, but would be useless for moshing purposes). 

I began paying attention to the AKs with their 2021 album, I Love What You've Done with the Place, which is also very powerful, and has cover art by Goya, and probably what is still my favourite song by the band, "OK Boomer" which I think of every time I discover myself struggling to rotate a PDF at work. It's got a super-catchy hook to it that connects me with my time in the 1990s listening to early Afghan Whigs, Dinosaur Jr., and other such discordant, guitar-driven rock. But No Shortage of Cruelty seems the stronger album, benefiting from the trio having played together for the last few years (one of the members, bassist Ryan Fitzgerald of The Thing and Witch of the Waste, was brand new to the band when I did my interview with them two years ago, and wasn't on the previous album: "He brings a lot to us, not least of which are his kindness and grit," Rob observed then, and maybe his continued presence and/ or the stability of the lineup have bolstered the band's cohesiveness...). Is this just in my head, though? Is this album really the stronger of the two, and if so, is it down to Rob's writing, or the dynamic of the current trio, or...?

I am happy to see that I am not completely off base, when I make these observations to Rob: I Love What You've Done With the Place, Rob tells me, "came from a place of managed chaos" as he reckoned with family issues (and the "real and imaginary chthonic horrors that attended that experience"), coped with the pandemic, and undertook "what can only be described as a significant amount of self-medication" (aha!). By comparison, he explains, No Shortage of Cruelty is "the first album I have ever written sober." And the new lineup has indeed helped: 

In terms of the writing process I will say that Ryan has brought a measured concentration to the band and an absence of ego to the situation which has given us a space to spend less time managing the personalities of others and more time to spend on making the best album we can. Craig of course has acted as the great filter for the riffs as he always has. There is an abbatoir of rejected files on the cutting room floor that did not pass his muster and he was even more grim and unforgiving in pushing me to do better and I am deeply grateful for it. Yes, the album is stronger than anything we have done. I am stronger now and I am among friends and brothers who were all on the same page. There was no hesitation and no conflict. We rehearsed for the recording like oarsmen on a victorious galley. Craig recorded his drum parts in a single sitting to no one else playing. The man is a like a new type of weather.

...but about those family issues: asked about the painting, Rob also wrote, after the note about Schenk, that No Shortage of Cruelty 

is part of an ongoing art project that is linked to the Instagram stories on the AK-747s account where each song is a meditation on the writers confrontation with the imaginary and the real through their social location, existence, and identity being questioned put on trial and restructured as they found their long lost family after searching for them for 25 years and came to terms with the grief and loss and horrifying confrontation with the unconscious and the self as their family members grappled with the trauma of reunion as well as our own addictions and reckonings with our vile misdeeds and haunted selves all against the backdrop of a genocide and the horror of the modern age. 

 

I can't speak to vile misdeeds, either on the part of Rob or his family -- he speaks elsewhere of a "series of bad-faith manipulations" that followed being reunited with family members -- but you do get the sense that Rob is pretty haunted, himself, actually, and that he channels a lot of that into his art; he wrote to me in response to one question that "I'm pretty much grieving for my entire life," so it does mean something to him that people can connect with his music. 

But what's with the Silent Hill stuff? The lyrics and even the title of "For Me It's Always Like This," reference what seems to be some sort of suicide note from the video game franchise, written by the character of Angela, though Rob departs from the letter to sing other lines of dialogue from the game as lyrics ("Do you see it too?": always a menacing and evocative phrase, that).

I actually  happen to have played Silent Hill 2; it's an extraordinary world that they build, much more disturbed/ disturbing in the game than in the somewhat silly film series, with intersecting narratives around characters morbidly obsessed with their pain, guilt, and loss, all circling the drain, threatening to drag the other characters down with them. It's dark enough that the AK-747s include a suicide prevention number on their Instagram, alongside stills from the gameplay ("Help is available 988 in Canada 1800SUICIDE in the United States"); the band has built a whole rock video around Silent Hill, which ends with one character walking into flames, presumably to die... and another following soon thereafter.

Rob explains the connection with Silent Hill thus:

Angela's story has always resonated with me because of the horrific abuse I suffered when I was a kid and a teenager. It was papered over by people who found it inconvenient to understand what I had gone through and was going through as they grappled with their own privilege in a musical subculture that venerated suffering, but only if it could be used to secure social currency. I suffer from extreme continuous suicidal ideation and over the years people who became aware of that decided to concern troll ["the action or practice of disingenuously expressing concern about an issue in order to undermine or derail genuine discussion"] by asking if I was going to actually kill myself or if I spoke openly of these things to get attention or to get them to feel sorry for me. The great irony being that when a guy who looks like me talks about these issues candidly, we are immediately accused as using it as a mechanism for social aggrandizement. There has been a phenomenon where people do indeed use their grief and put in the image of suffering from things like complex PTSD and major depressive disorder to secure social currency and it is my hope that the work shows that candid unvarnished conversations about it and the true attendant horror that comes with it is nothing to venerate or to use as a social bludgeon, as people will only appreciate what you are going through in many cases if others perceive their apprehension: One is always happier to jump in the river to save someone from drowning when others are watching than when they are not.

The phrase "do you see it" to refers to Angela talking about the fire surrounding her in Silent Hill. For her it is always like this and it is always like this for me too.

Suicide comes up in "Call Me When You're Not in the Red," as well, which, Rob explains, is "about my half sibling on my father's side attempting to drive me to suicide because he was convinced I slapped him around on the beach when I met him even though I didn't and just said that he just made me sad." 

The lyrics for that song read as follows:

I would have killed and died for you

And you know what I probably still would

I tried to fail at all the things that a big brother could

I knew if I played it one way that I’d be the one to push you out

I didn’t have the overreach the baited clout 

 

Call me when you’re not in the red

Woe betide you when you hear the sound of my boots on your steps

Call me when you’re not in the red

With a grieving servants' heart I return into the shadows

If they die on your watch it will destroy them

She never showed them a mothers love

And I sounded like he did when she died

We are always in two places

Call me when you’re not in the red

Woe betide you when you hear the sounds of my boots on your steps

Call me when you’ve not in the red

Well played, see you on the court

If you get this far I’ll still be here

I hope you escape from your past one day

I hope I hear that little voice ask my name

I hope I turn around and say pickle

I swear by the fire in the stars and the darkness between

them that I will forgive you if it takes me the rest of your life.

There is a line there about how "we are always in two places." This occurs elsewhere on their bandcamp, along with phrases in Gaelic ("chaidh uir air suil Odhrain," which Rob translates as "Earth was put over Oran's eye"; English ("I'll see you in paradise"), and Arabic (لا قاسي ولا جبان, which translates as "Neither cruel nor cowardly"). Rob tells me he was learning Arabic, and now Gaelic, but -- what do these phrases signify?

Rob used AI to help him with this answer, which draws on Lacan -- an interesting exercise, though this may be further down the rabbithole than you want to go. (Come back after the indented quote, however, if you just want to read about rock music!) Rob explains, " I will give the AI a prompt like 'describe the psychological makeup of the person who wrote this from a Lacanian persoective' and it's remarkable the level of pop analysis that it provides." This may be a bit dense -- especially if you just want to rock out at a punk show -- but it's definitely of interest: 

To construct a Lacanian psychoanalytic analysis of the statement and a psychological profile of the speaker, it is essential to examine the text in light of the subject's biographical trauma: paternal abandonment followed by a symbolic act of domination—the father paving over the very city he orphaned his child in. The statement itself weaves through multiple languages (English, Gaelic, Arabic), evoking a fragmented identity and multilayered unconscious positioning.

I. Lacanian Analysis of the Statement(s):

1. "We Are Always In Two Places"

This line articulates the core Lacanian concept of the split subject (sujet barré). The subject is inherently divided—between the ego (Imaginary), the unconscious (Symbolic), and the trauma that resists articulation (Real). The phrase might also imply:

A psychic division between presence and absence, particularly the absence of the father, whose symbolic function has not been internalized.

A melancholic fixation: part of the self remains stuck in the past (abandonment), while the other tries to survive in the present landscape of domination (paved city).

A displacement of identity, hinting at diasporic trauma or fractured belonging.

2. "chaidh uir air suil Odhrain" (Earth was put over Oran's eye)

This Gaelic reference invokes the myth of St. Oran, sacrificed and buried alive to stabilize a church foundation. In Lacanian terms

This is a metaphor for the Real, the unassimilable trauma that resurfaces despite repression.

The buried eye represents the return of the repressed, a gaze that cannot be fully buried, a haunting witness to betrayal.

The subject may identify with Oran—sacrificed by paternal Law (the Father) for the sake of symbolic order (urbanization).

The myth also introduces a disturbing paradox: life beneath death, sight beneath burial, and truth beneath language.

3. "i'll see you in paradise"

This line implies deferred reunion, a fantasy of reconciliation. In Lacanian terms, this is a screen masking castration—the loss of the primordial unity with the (m)Other and the objet petit a (object-cause of desire).

Paradise is Imaginary—a mirage of completeness.

The father, who was absent in life, may be fantasized as approachable in paradise, which defers confrontation indefinitely.

This reinforces the subject's neurotic structure: desire is sustained by the impossibility of fulfillment.

4. "لا قاسي ولا جبان" (Neither cruel nor cowardly)

This is a negation that functions as a disavowal (Verleugnung): a refusal to accept an internal truth while unconsciously affirming it.

These two traits (cruelty and cowardice) may represent the introjected qualities of the father, now both rejected and feared as one’s own.

The disavowal points to ego defense, possibly guilt or shame about how the subject relates to aggression or self-preservation.

The use of Arabic, alongside Gaelic and English, suggests a symbolic scattering across linguistic registers—echoing the fragmentation of the paternal function.

II. Psychological Profile of the Individual

Drawing from Lacanian structural categories, the following profile emerges:

1. Neurotic Structure (likely hysteric or obsessional)

The subject’s division and displacement signal a neurotic structure. There is an unresolved relation to the Other (the Father), expressed through melancholic longing and deferred fantasy.

The subject circulates around the absence of the Father, never confronting it directly, instead symbolizing it through myth and multilingual fragmentation.

2. Displacement and Symbolic Exile

The subject exists in symbolic exile, estranged from the Law (the Father) yet shaped by its effects (the paved city).

The city, once a site of origin, has become a crypt—a space overwritten by the father’s act of symbolic erasure and control.

This results in an inability to locate the self within a stable narrative or community.

3. Fantasy and the Imaginary

The invocation of paradise and martyrdom (Oran) reflects a fantasmatic compensation for real loss.

The subject constructs heroic or spiritual fictions to mask the wound of paternal abandonment.

This also points to a sublimated death drive: an attraction to self-sacrifice, martyrdom, or a longing for annihilation that brings symbolic closure.

4. Linguistic Fragmentation and the Scattered Self

The multilingual composition of the statement—Gaelic, English, Arabic—illustrates a subject fractured across signifying chains.

Each language becomes a mirror of a different identity fragment: ancestral, colonized, diasporic, or spiritual.

There is no master signifier (S1) that anchors the subject; instead, the father’s absence becomes the organizing lack (manque-à-être).

Conclusion

The subject speaks from the place of symbolic dispossession, their trauma structured around the foreclosed paternal signifier. The city has become both grave and monument—testament to what was lost and overwritten. The father, by paving over the city, enacts both abandonment and omnipotent presence, leaving the subject oscillating between desire and death, fantasy and trauma.

The individual likely exhibits:

A complex neurotic structure haunted by abandonment,

A symbolic relation to space and memory,

A deep identification with loss and sacrifice,

And a psychic economy governed by the tension between repression and the Real.

If desired, this reading can be extended into an exploration of how these psychic structures might manifest in relationships, artistic expression, or sociopolitical identification.

...which is actually more readable than you might expect, if you've spent some time with French philosophy (I try to avoid the stuff, myself -- especially feckin' Deleuze and Guattari!) -- but maybe you just want to find some self-transcendence in the mosh pit, eh? Let's get back to rock music. I mentioned a couple of players that Rob's savage, emotive, sheets-of-notes approach puts me in mind of (Zen-Arcade-era Du might also be relevant? Even the harsher moments of Neil Young or Sonic Youth?), but who does he claim as antecedents -- like, what guitar players does he dig? And what about the comments that the band is too punk for the metal crowd, and too metal for the punk crowd?

Rob's reply:

Humbled and honored by the generous comparisons you make. Craig [the drummer] is the metal in the band and I'm the fucking weirdo. I've had people say we aren't really punk or really metal, probably the kind of loser who describes themselves as a tastemaker and is mean to people at shows. Mick Harvey, Mark Belke, and Infernus from Gorgoroth are some of my all time guitar inspirations. Just the best. I'm a big black metal fan but you gotta be careful because of all the Nazi shit so now I tread lightly. Devouring Void is the best black metal band in Canada respect to Adam and his crew. OUGH!

A final question comes up as a result of the exchange of several emails, where Rob often signs off with the words "God bless." It seems to take us full circle, what with my consideration of spider wasps and that very painful painting. Can Rob reconcile a universe where there is "no shortage of cruelty" with a concept of the divine? Does he have a faith?  

I'll speak to my faith on a personal level only and these comments reflect my own views and not those of the other members of the band: my faith does not merely allow for but demands a universe of horror, complexity, apprehension, and reality of just the situations you have described and much farther. My faith expressly describes and makes clear the case that the only way for there to be a possibility for even the most remote sliver of a tautological good to exist is that the universe must create conditions that encompass not only that evil, suffering, and abject sustained terror which we see all around us, but that which is also hitherto unimaginable in its dismal rote eternal repetition, so as to set the stage for every act of decency and mercy such as the feeding of the poor, the admission of wrongdoing, the searching of one's heart for ones on failings, the actions of redemption be they successful or not, to be just as infinitely important and by virtue of their simple understanding as being good in and of themselves this confirming that through our observation of horror that the self evident proof of a moral universe and all of the grand implications and gravity of that understanding implies is now shown to be true. That the landscape of the universal is within us is and the potentiality for the divine is reified through its obvious actuality in all of us to be good when we are apprehended with those decisions that we know in our heart to be the critical locus upon which the well being of another is dependent by virtue of their very existence in the same reality as you. In short ethical life is revealed religion and that comes from the understanding of culture which bridges the divide of sense perception and actuality. It is this inherent contradiction which drives my understanding of my ethical life and artistic practice in this work. 

Or as he puts it elsewhere:  "That contradiction and aspiration exist should not be a barrier to accepting that majesty can be filthy."

Amen! 

POST SCRIPT: See here for a video clip of "For Me It's Always Like This" live April 5th 2025 at the Grey Lab, Vancouver! 

Thanks to Rob Nuclear for his provocative, thoughtful answers. Note that, in terms of Saturday's show at the Grey Lab (ask a punk, but it's a bit closer to downtown than the Black Lab was). GADFLY are opening; they have a new song, and note that I previously interviewed them here. I don't know Vancouver Island punk band Dead Rights, but their bandcamp is here. There will be a listening party for No Shortage of Cruelty -- the complete album -- online today at 7pm, and while I am not sure how exactly that works, you can RSVP for an event invite on the AK-747's bandcamp page. Further gigs listed on the poster! 

Oh man I'm wiped

 So I've been helping out a buddy while he recovers from surgery... trying to get writing done... nursing a cold... tryin' to power through it and do my job, but that approach seems to be dragging the illness out; it's not going away so much as mutating... today was the onset of sinus pain behind my cheekbones... there's also family stuff happening on the island that's not for the blog, as well, but suffice to say, it's a stressful, exhausting time. I have two things coming up on the blog in the next while for sure: something on the AK-747s album release this weekend, something on the Chad Price Peace Coalition and something on Russian Tim and the Pavel Bures. But I also have a few magazine articles I'm working on about other stuff... more to come there... if I can get it all done...

...But I might be a bit scarce for awhile. Just imagine me spinning FEAR and playing with the cat. That's how I spent tonight, when I wasn't vacuuming, doing the dishes, or blowing my nose... I'm tired, gang... I think I'll go to bed now...

 

Cousin Harley talks Jump Blues, Ray Condo and vinyl (plus the gig at Frankie's this weekend!)

Don't be mislead by the title of Paul Pigat's new album, Cousin Harley Plays the Blues: there's blues and there's jump blues, and a fairly large chasm between them. Much as I love the idea of Paul Pigat -- one of Vancouver's finest guitarists, usually in a rockabilly mode -- flexing his fingers on Willie Dixon, jump blues is generally an up-tempo, playfully jazzy derivation of the form, often with horn sections and the like: think "Saturday Night Fish Fry." The title just doesn't have the same ring to it, if you stick the word "jump" in the middle! (The previous link was to different streaming services but the bandcamp page is here, if you prefer). 

With a live show two nights at Frankie's this Friday and Saturday, and Pigat's second vinyl release this year impending, after his Ray Condo tribute album, I threw some questions at Paul to get clarity as to what audiences would be seeing at Frankie's and his experience with getting vinyl pressed (a relatively new thing). 

Allan: So this seems different from any previous Cousin Harley show I've seen; how did this project come about, and how will you present it at Frankie's?

Paul: Every song on the new record, Cousin Harley Plays the Blues, has a full horn section on it. It’s sort of started because Cory Weeds from Cellar Jazz wanted to do a record with me; he wanted me to do a Smoking Jackets record, which is my band that I had together in Victoria. I like keeping the guys and cousin Harley working so I decided that I would do a similar idea but with the guys from cousin Harley and a hotshot crew from Vancouver. A lot of it is music I’ve done for many many years when I started the Smoking Jackets in victoria in the mid 90s, but I had Jerry Cook do all new arrangements for the tunes and I expanded the horn section.  The shows this weekend will have all the members of the band from the record: a full horn section plus Chris Gestrin on keys. [This means Paul on guitar, Jesse Cahill on drums, Jeremy Holmes on bass, Cory Weeds on tenor sax, Jerry Cook on tenor and baritone, and Derry Byrne on trumpet]. Honestly, this might be the only time we perform with the full ensemble. I might do more shows with just a single horn and the piano, but it’s just not cost-effective for many other shows. Unless I make it big, that is!

Allan: I confess: I don't know much about the form. Why is it called jump blues? The only stuff I have in my collection that counts, I guess -- and ONLY ON CD, the scandal! -- is Louis Jordan, but I don't know all his songs -- are there other players we should know, who you take inspiration from? I'm curious in particular about guitarists...

Paul: You know to tell you the truth I’m not exactly sure why they call it jump blues. It differs from Chicago blues as it has more to do with the transition from swing to rock ‘n’ roll. Generally small combo with more arrangement and most of the stuff that I like is either from Texas or from California. Louis Jordan is awesome! Guys like Johnny Otis, Gatemouth Brown, Johnny Guitar Watson and early BB King can all fit into the category. There was a great guitar player named Bill Jennings, who I think might be the cornerstone of all modern jump players. Other guys you could check out our like Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson as well plus there’s the more modern second generation kind of players like Junior Watson, Kid Ramos, Charlie Baty... and of course, the baddest of them all, Hollywood Fats.  These were all guys playing around in the 80s and 90s. I steal my stuff from every one of those cats.

Allan: I see you've done some Leiber and Stoller on this! Your version of "Down in Mexico" sounds markedly different from the Coasters'. 

Paul: Leiber and Stoller were a ridiculously prolific writing duo! I don’t think they wrote anything that was bad. My version of "Down in Mexico" is just the way I hear it. I did it years ago for a special event with the Nightcrawlers (Jesse's band) and always thought it was a great number so decided to keep it for this record. I couldn’t do it like the original, even if I wanted to, though: I didn’t have that many singers in the band! Plus it features the guitar a lot more and it’s a little dirtier.

Allan: Curious how the album was recorded. I imagine that you'd get the horns and such down and then play the guitar over that...? Does having a horn section affect how you play?  

Paul: We recorded the rhythm section and the horns live in one day at the warehouse studios. I overdubbed all my vocals and guitars later. As I had my hands full directing the band who were pretty much just learning the arrangements on the spot, plus I really wanted to spend my time getting the guitar sound I wanted and not just getting what was possible in one day at the studio. Fat and fuzzy was the goal.  

Allan: This, with the Ray Condo release, is the second piece of vinyl you've released in the last year! Curious for whatever deets you can share about this, for people thinking of getting vinyl pressed: you had 200 of each made? How is that turning out?

Paul: Man, I swore I would never print vinyl! However, that being said, CDs, regardless of how much I love them, are an antiquated format and are very difficult to sell now. With the current situation with streaming, hardcopy music has basically just become a memento of a show unfortunately. Vinyl is a drag to transport because of its size and weight but it honestly does sell a lot better than CDs. At least I’m hoping that it does and it’s way more expensive to make. If you ask me why I did it... I can’t tell you definitively if it was a good idea or not, but it sure does look pretty. 

Paul (continued): The Ray Condo record was honestly just for me. I’ve done almost no promotion for it and I still have copies left. I just really wanted someone to do something to commemorate him; I didn’t think anybody else would do it, plus I’ve been playing Ray's material for so long and he was so important to my early development that it would be the least that I could do to make a tribute record.

I’m sure I would sell more of the Ray Condo records. If I let more people know about it, maybe I’ll do a blast sometime in the summer. I printed 300 and I think I have almost half of them left. However, this summer is gonna be pretty quiet so maybe I’ll make a fort out of them all!

Allan: I bet there are songs on the setlist that are NOT on the album; will you be adapting other Cousin Harley stuff....? Will the setlist be the same or similar both nights at Frankie's? Anything else we should say about the shows?

Paul: I’ve done a couple more arrangements to add to the horn sections job for the shows. some originals and a couple of tunes I have done forever but not the standard Cousin Harley repertoire.  I think we probably start off each set with a smaller version of the band, the trio plus saxophone and maybe piano. It’ll definitely be swing oriented and not so hillbilly psychobilly. I’m gonna try and switch up at least a few tunes for each show so it’ll keep me interested and hopefully the audience as well!

Thanks, Paul! Frankie's event page is here -- not quite sure if the shows are both sold out? But maybe we can still get in if we show up early, bring cash, and are nice about it? 

The FEAR / Dead Bob/ Vicious Cycles show: Live at the Rickshaw, March 30th, 2025

My favourite photo from last night -- of the ones I took -- involved Nomeansno band biographer Jason Lamb, whose "Bob" shirt was incredibly visible in the pit. I took a few shots of him, and gotta say, this one is near perfect. It almost looks like I've drawn the word "Bob" on using some computer program, but nope, that's really the back of his shirt. 

Meantime, my favourite musical performance was Dead Bob doing "Long Days," which I shot vid of here. I took no photos otherwise of Dead Bob. I have seen every single public Dead Bob performance in Vancouver and I confess, parts of this one, I sat out, because cripes, I'm exhausted... sick, tired, weak, stressed  and so forth. 

But I caught a couple of good pics of the Vicious Cycles MC. I'm going to send them the video I shot, though, in case they want to use it!

And I was delighted and surprised at who came out from backstage to check the VCs out. He was mobbed by a few fans who wanted selfies, of course. Me, I have never really been much about selfies. But I did shoot a couple photos, more for the VCs sake than anything else (they have been doing some things with Lee that we will discuss at a later date). It was delightful to see one of the heroes of Los Angeles punk enjoying one of our home team bands. Robert of the VCs told me afterwards the name of the bike Lee used to ride and the bike club he was in, but, y'know, I had *had* some of that pot cookie I was sharin', so... I'll have to ask again at a later date.

I am hoping there will BE a later date. Lee seems like a real sweet guy when he's not singing "Strangulation." 

Oh, and hey, look, there's that dude with the shades who would NOT LET PEOPLE ALONE in the pit, including me, colliding into us, grabbing onto us, tugging on our arms, grabbing our shoulders, pulling at us like anyone not moshing was somehow doing it wrong. I wondered if he was some sort of paid plant, tasked with getting people physically riled up; it worked, insofar as I visualized punching him in the face, after he nearly toppled me over, but I don't think that's the kind of "riled up" he was aiming for. I even told him flat-out that he had nearly knocked me down and asked him to stop grabbing onto me, just LEAVE ME ALONE, but he would not. (He actually seemed to mean it all in a friendly way but that still didn't mean I wanted to be grabbed by him). Ultimately -- after he'd pretty much wrecked "White Stone Eyes," one of my favourite Dead Bob songs,  I just left the pit; it was impossible to enjoy the music with impending, involuntary doughboy action coming at you every few minutes. For fucksake, folks, MOSH WITH PEOPLE WHO WANT TO MOSH WITH YOU, and leave the people standing off to the sides ALONE. They want to mosh, they will -- let people enjoy things in their own way! 

I sat out the rest of Dead Bob's set, but I totally enjoyed, in particular, the version of "Life Like" they did at the end, which, no foolin', put me in mind of the BEAT show I saw, y'know, with Belew and Levin and Vai and so forth. It wasn't a bad song to be seated for -- to close my eyes and listen to. I would have preferred to be up front, but really, it's been one hell of a month (I even sold my Amyl and the Sniffers ticket last week, and had no regrets -- I couldn't have managed it, was falling-down exhausted and ill). 

Finally, it was time for FEAR, and I snuck back down to the front, hoping the coast was clear. I snapped a few photos -- not many, but enough! (Bob was getting good stuff that maybe you'll see at some point; I do hope to write more about this night). 

Lee was in fine voice; Spit Stix was a fuckin' machine, and the guitarist, Eric Razo, was a fine replacement for Philo -- maybe not quite as flat-out goofy, but deft as hell, very enjoyable. 

Somehow, this show was much, much better than the Vogue show the other year. Part of it may have been the more intimate environs, and part of it may just be that I'd come to accept that Lee is not exactly the menacing toughguy that I had been expecting, based on the footage in Decline, the last time I saw him. But he was plenty chatty and personable between songs last night; he even made a kind of witty joke at the end of "Strangulation" -- which has the grossest of any of the lyrics he sang, so I welcomed his quipping as it finished something like, "And then I'll ask her if she loves me." He punctuated jokes like that with little gruff "heh hehs" that put me in mind, I dunno, of how I imagine Robert DeNiro might sound in Dirty Grandpa, which I have not seen, but he was also pretty positive and friendly in the things he said -- he really ISN'T the guy in Decline anymore: "It's all about sportsmanship and love, and if you bump into anybody while you're bouncing around, please say excuse me." 

It's almost like Lee could read my mind, re: the pudgy pit provocateur, and was making fun of me or something.

Actually, quips like that made me want to ask him if he has Bill Murray stories. The infamous Saturday Night Live appearance was all about John Belushi, of course, but Lee these days has more of a Bill Murray vibe to him, maybe -- a sardonic senior wiseguy (not in the mafia sense). I hope I get to interview him at some point... he seemed amenable... 

There's not much else in my bag of stories, though, folks. At one point, someone shouted out a request for "New York's All Right," and I responded somewhat loudly, "but Vancouver's better." Rest assured, I didn't really mean it, it's just that I'd been thinking about my brief chat with Syd Savage, out in the lobby, who had recently led Death Sentence through a cover of the Exploited's "USA," which I would LOVE to hear them do live. If there's a timely punk song, that's it, and if there's a local band perfect for it, it's them. Syd assures me that Death Sentence will be at the Rickshaw soon enough...  

The other entertaining non-FEAR related conversation I had was with resident Vancouver genius of transgressive horror burlesque, Betty Bathory, who has announced she is going to give up all non-disgusting, non-horrifying side-projects and focus on her own brand, as expressed through Daddy Issues ("there are plenty of people in this town who can sing, but no one else is doing what I do": amen!). I recently had a vid I shot of them at Ronfest doing Mudhoney's "Touch Me I'm Sick" censored off Youtube because of sexuality and nudity and such. I did try to dispute it! I mean, she WAS pulling some sort of horrifying goo out of her vaginal area, as she is wont to do during that song, but it wasn't, like, REAL vaginal goo, nor was it her REAL vagina it was coming out of. To my mind, that makes it art! 

The Youtube censors stood by their decision, alas (they didn't even give me space, in filling out the appeal, to explain what they were seeing).  Oddly though, they left the clip of her performing that same night in her Peg-Bundy-from-Hell wig, with a girthful dildo strapped on, online for all to see. Fake dicks okay, but fake vages are taboo? 

Love the guy with the finger! 

Anyhow: it was great night, even for someone as wiped out as I was. Got to briefly meet Lee and Spit and and Eric and one of the two other FEAR members, getting a couple things signed. I was happy to say to Spit Stix, "You gotta bring Nasalrod up here," and he grinned and said "I know!" I hope other people know about his other band, that I wasn't the only one who remarked on how amazing they are -- they were the other band on that Victims Family split the last time Dead Bob played the Rickshaw, and to my great amazement, their songs were every bit as great as Victims Family's, which is a tall order. Someone should line up a show between them and Vic Bondi's band Redshift, also a Pacific Northwest band... that would be amazing to see, eh? 

We need to be nice to our American punk neighbours, folks -- they do not deserve what is happening down there; like Lee said as he launched into the band's nihilistic closer, "No More Nothing," we're all family, we've got to be good to each other (I'm just paraphrasing, but it was pretty close to that). 

Thanks for having come back to Vancouver, FEAR. See you again sometime?