5 Questions with Rags #62 - Sam Klassik

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I could use this space telling you about how dope Sam Klassik is. How he does high-level musical acrobatics as he does crazy-hard things like splitting the difference between earthy and spacey, between funky and atmospheric. I could tell you about how I met him on a bus on the way to Tall Tree Music Festival last summer and that he's a rad, thoughtful guy. I could tell you about seeing his incredible range at Tall Tree as he smoked his own daytime set, sat in with Lazy Syrup Orchestra and Everyman. I could tell you how he's become an instant fixture in my beloved hometown Victoria since his recent arrival. All of these things are deep and true, but when I called the good homie up for a little 5 Questions action, he had just finished getting some dinner down. And it really sounded like some good dinner. “Ghetto ramen. Pimped out Mr. Noodles. It has a bunch of broccoli, mushrooms, onions and carrots. And an egg. You gotta put an egg in there. It's the key, that elevates it above the average ramen. You just drop an egg in the water when it's boiling, before you put everything else in, and you kind of swirl it around but you keep the yolk intact. Then you end up with a really nice yolk in it and the white mixes in with the noodles - makes it tasty.” So, now you to can share in Sam Klassik's dinner special with a recipe from the man himself. Maybe make it after you read this awesome round of 5 Questions, or maybe to nourish yourself before you go have yourself a serious dance.

1. What was the first album you bought with your own money?

On tape or on CD?

Either one. Or both.

First album on tape I ever bought was Green Day – Dookie. First album I ever bought on CD was Oasis – (What's the Story) Morning Glory?. And the first one I ever ordered from Amazon was Slim Shady LP. I ordered it on a dial-up modem on my home computer. Amazon was on that shit back at the birth of the internet.

Which of those three is your favourite today?

Probably the Eminem one. Something about his lyrical content was really fun to listen to. It's definitely not acceptable by todays standards but I think that's what made teenage Sam like it so much. It was just totally off the rails. He talked about drugs at an age when may have been getting interested in that topic.

2. When's the last time you did something for the first time?

In music, for the first time I created a beat as I was posting it to my Instagram story live in real time.

In life, I used a sex toy on someone for the first time.

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5 Questions with Rags #52a - Illvis Freshly (Phil and Doyle)

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If you've been paying attention to West Coast music at all in the last couple years, you've probably seen the Illvis Freshly around. Legit: They're pretty inescapable and it's easy to see why. Their heavy-hitting, ultra-fun, partyrific electronic rap songs are sure-fire ear-crushers, made for those days and nights with all the friends. As the summer finally takes hold of us all, Illvis Freshly's music is even more relevant, assured to keep you moving in time with all this glorious weather. And as we enter Festival Season, they're bound to show up in your face and plug your ear holes up with funky rap goodness, including summer kick-off shows at two of BC's premier festivals, Victoria Ska & Reggae Fest and Tall Tree. We got a lot to cover here, in fact so much to cover that this interview is TWO PARTS, so let's get after it and get this thing started. In part one of this monstrous 5 Questions we get down with Phil and Doyle, the non-verbal duo that gives Illvis Freshly their distinct live-electronic hip-hop sound.

1. Do you remember the first album you bought with your own money?

Doyle: Oh yeah, Bush – Sixteen Stone.

Favourite song?

D: “Come Down.”

When's the last time you listened to the album?

D: I heard “Machinehead” on the radio the other day and thought, “This is the first fucking CD I ever bought.” Apparently it was a hit 20 years ago, like '96. Gavin Rossdale, he's a handsome man.

Phil: My first album was Sum 41 – All Killer No Filler.

And the last time you listened to it?

P: I listen to it once a week. It's on my phone.

What's your favourite track?

P: “Handle This.” I'm younger than these guys so when I was 10 buying my first album, that was the album for a kid like me.

D: That was a little later than Bush, yeah.

P: They had to change their name to Bush X after awhile right?

D: It was Bush X actually when I bought it.

(Danimal): There was another band called Bush so they had to add the X. The other band stopped being a band so they got to drop the X then. They were still called Bush overseas.

I think I remember listening to Bush with you in Grade 7, Doyle. Didn't you do a project on one of those songs?

D: Yeah, I did “Glycerine.”

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5 Questions with Rags #49 - The Harpoonist & The Axe Murderer (Shawn Hall, The Harpoonist)

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The Harpoonist & The Axe Murderer have been the most exciting, innovative west coast blues act for awhile now. The need to have my face blasted off overtakes me fairly often, and these two cats have been a go-to since I first got the stellar A Real Fine Mess into my ears a few years ago. A few months ago I caught the video for “Forever Fool,” (Which is amazing and you watch it now) the first single from their latest album, Apocalipstick. That's also when I found out the title for the their new album, Apocalipstick. What was that title?! What was happening to this bad-ass blues band that I loved so much?! Then I listened to the album and sweet Jesus, it's the most perfect title for maybe the duo's most bad-ass record yet.

“I used to fool around with this line that said, 'She kept me up all night in a post-apocalipstick, she held me in her fingers like a chicken in a chopstick.'” says Shawn Hall, the Harpoonist, talking to me from Regina, a brief stop in the band's current tour. “Matt [Rogers, The Axe Murderer] came up with the name for the record. It's like the inescapable grip of road life, the grip of that style of relationship people can have – the toxicity, the skin-deepness of that kind of allure,” explains Hall. “It's open to a lot of interpretation but that was where Apocalipstick stemmed from. You think about what's going on what whores we are for attention on such a minute level of detail, then moving on to the next thing. This vast, vacant consumption of everything.” Apocalipstick is a goddamned burner, their finest album yet. And that's saying a lot.

“We've been working on it forever. It's not a dinner party record. We don't fucking care. I hadn't listened to it for a bit until we got it on vinyl and I was like, 'Holy shit, that sounds wild!' I totally forgot.” With the release of a new record comes a new tour, and this one is unlike anything the band has done. “We're just making sure we can really bring it. Being able to bring these new songs on the road with a second drummer is unreal. People are just used to hearing Matt play the drums with feet and now they can hear Matt with his feet plus the drummer behind him who's also playing bass synth with his left hand, and singing backups. You can't join our band and just play one instrument. You gotta be able to do the whole thing!”

1. What's your best memory of an elementary or high school teacher?

The best memory I have is when I was 19, my grade 8 school teacher sat down next to me at the Alma Combo in Toronto. I was watching Albert Collins, the blues guitar legend. Right after my teacher sat down next to me, the Black Crowes, the fucking Black Crowes at the peek of their heyday, sat down next to me at an empty table. That wasn't a teaching moment, but it was a pretty unique experience.

2. Do you remember the first album you bought with your own money?

The first album I bought with my own money was the soundtrack to Stayin' Alive. Stayin' Alive was not Saturday Night Fever, but it was the sequel. And it was horrible.

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5 Questions with Rags #46 - Moontricks

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If you've been around dance music in Western Canada in the last year at all, you've probably come across Moontricks. The duo, Nog and Sean, are out in these mountains and streets, making downright sexy bass music. They've become festival favourites, pleasing audiences of all stripes. (Anyone else get trapped in the line outside of Lucky Bar during Rifflandia? Goodness gracious.) It's not hard to figure out why their appeal seems so universal - the combination of deep, ultra-silky basslines and live instrumentation (Guitars, banjo, harmonica) is both new and familiar, futuristic and rustic. The fact that this all brought to our ears by two super-nice dudes is just a goddamned treat, really. It took me awhile to get these deservedly busy cats on the phone for a little chat, but I finally managed to do it, as they prepare to hit the road to help the masses thaw out from the winter and start getting ready for the warmer, sexier summer nights ahead. Go out there, see Moontricks on the road and wind up your waists.

1. Do you guys remember the first album you bought with your own money?

Sean: It was probably one of those order 10-CD club things, probably. I just remember some of the early stuff was Green Day, Sublime, Rage Against the Machine.

Nog: I tended to have mixtapes for the most parts that were just raided from my parents' collection. I don't think it was any album in particular.

Any particular song on those mixtapes that made you wanna get after it more?

N: Marvin Gaye. There was a tape that had Marvin Gaye's “Heard It Through the Grapevine.” That was a good roadtrip tune.

S: Classic.

2. When is the last time you did something for the first time?

S: That's a really good question. Ummm, we played Canmore. <laughs>

N: Yesterday I was out hiking and came across a cougar that had crawled up and died in this cave and was frozen solid in the back of this cave. It has icicles coming from the ceiling of the cave down over it. There's been a cold-snap for the last month and so there's this rock-solid cougar in a cave that we came across. That's the first time I've done that.

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The Big Work - I continue to tell you to listen to Dan Bern Pt. 2 - the EPs

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I like EPs. They're always nice quick listens - really good for trying to get a feel for an artist. But the obvious complaint that EPs get is that they are often showcases for one or two really good songs, then a couple tracks of filler, just enough to get a proper release. There are obvious exceptions to the rule but there isn't an artist who releases those exceptions at the rate of Dan Bern. His EPs are mini highlight reels, with song after song after high quality song. Minus one or two minor missteps that we'll discuss here, picking up any of Bern's EPs is sure to reward you with a deep, rich listening experience, inside of a nice compact listening time. For all your feeling needs, on the go!

Dog Boy Van (1997)

Jerusalem is on here. We glossed over it in part 1, but it looms so large in the world of Dan Bern, its inclusion on Dog Boy Van (Released prior to Dan Bern) warrants a little more discussion. It's a beautiful, funny song. It's like the Big Lebowski of songs, rewarding you with something new every time you take it in. I'm sure it's an amazing feeling to have a song that touches so many people, but, Dan Bern fans, I think we should make a pact to stop yelling out requests for it at live shows. In a catalogue of hundreds of songs anyone would be proud to call their own, let us collectively stop asking for the one that the man has undoubtedly played at least two thousand times. *Ahem*

"Hannibal," my second favourite set of Bern lyrics (First belongs to "Fly Away" from Fleeting Days), is thoughtful and vicious. Bern once told me that it's all in the tuning. Some of it might be there in the tuning, but he's hitting the guitar with a very specific kind of righteous violence. I'm desperate to put a sample of the lyrics here but I can't pick a part, so just check the whole thing out. I've heard both "Kurt" and "Live Another Day" countless times and I still feel that lump in my throat every time I hear them. "Oklahoma" is like the great sad movie that you can only watch once or twice. It's the last song and the easiest one to not hear when I put the album on. It's a song of tremendous feeling and power and I skip it every time.

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