Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Black Ships - Exclaim
Black Ships - Omens
By Sam Sutherland
With Cursed gone (for now?) from our national hardcore scene, there’s a big, gaping hole where our love for crushingly heavy riffs and speedy breakdowns used to be. Black Ships, a group of dirty punks from Montreal, might be ready to fill that void, as Omens, their first full-length release, can attest to. Opening with “No Eulogy,” the band make good on the promise of an earlier CD-R release and their Low EP, blasting out a slow explosion of guitars that build over a tom-heavy drum beat. Vocals here are run through some very Colohan-esque distortion, and that’s not a bad thing — this shit sounds heavy as fuck. By the time “The Flaws in Self-Help” kicks in, a brutal speed-fest that recalls Coliseum’s Goddamage, Black Ships have already proven themselves adept at covering a wide array of dynamics and tempos, elevating Omens above second-rate Entombed clones. As well, there’s sonic space on this record that isn’t always filled by a wall of crashing noise. From the lone guitar break of “Liars are a Dying Breed” to the calculated sludge of “Pestilence,” Black Ships are powerful, loud and, most importantly, original.
Did you have to approach Omens in a different way than you had tackled recording in the past, knowing you were making a full-length?
Drummer Taylor: With Omens, the recording process differed naturally due to the amount of care that we put into this album. First, we took our time choosing the right person to record this album. We also gave ourselves more time than we probably needed in the studio because we wanted to avoid the time constraints that existed in our past efforts. Finally, our good friend Julien Brousseau engineered the album and it was helpful to have an honest opinion from outside of the band in order for us to address all the subtle issues in the songs that we would have otherwise ignored.
It seems like more and more punk and hardcore bands are relying on MySpace to promote their music. You guys are currently touring like crazy. Is this a lost art?
Obviously it is easier for people to sit at home and run their bands from behind a computer but we would like to think that active bands still need to tour. We have always sold more of our music on tour than on some internet store. Also, heavy music always translates better live. We would much rather have tour dates under our belt than song plays on MySpace. (New Romance For Kids)
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
holy moly! Minks enter Top 10 pushing for first // Beck bound for 2nd place
1 1 Chad VanGaalen Soft Airplane Flemish Eye/Sub Pop
2 3 Human Highway Moody Motorcycle Secret City
3 9 Elliott Brood Mountain Meadows Six Shooter
4 7 FemBots Calling Out Weewerk
5 2 The Pack A.D. Funeral Mixtape Mint
6 19 Brendan Canning Something For All Of Us Arts & Crafts
7 5 Women Women Flemish Eye
8 21 The Stolen Minks High Kicks New Romance For Kids
9 -- Beck Modern Guilt DGC
10 8 The Walkmen You & Me Gigantic
Remembering 2006 when the Minks hit n.1.
Top 50
For the Week Ending: Tuesday, November 14, 2006
TW LW Artist Title Label
1 19 The Stolen Minks Family Boycott New Romance For Kids
2 2 Beck The Information Interscope
3 9 The Decemberists The Crane Wife Capitol
4 3 Shotgun And Jaybird Trying To Get Somewhere Sappy
5 -- Shout Out Out Out Out! Not Saying Just Saying Nrmls Wlcm
2 3 Human Highway Moody Motorcycle Secret City
3 9 Elliott Brood Mountain Meadows Six Shooter
4 7 FemBots Calling Out Weewerk
5 2 The Pack A.D. Funeral Mixtape Mint
6 19 Brendan Canning Something For All Of Us Arts & Crafts
7 5 Women Women Flemish Eye
8 21 The Stolen Minks High Kicks New Romance For Kids
9 -- Beck Modern Guilt DGC
10 8 The Walkmen You & Me Gigantic
Remembering 2006 when the Minks hit n.1.
Top 50
For the Week Ending: Tuesday, November 14, 2006
TW LW Artist Title Label
1 19 The Stolen Minks Family Boycott New Romance For Kids
2 2 Beck The Information Interscope
3 9 The Decemberists The Crane Wife Capitol
4 3 Shotgun And Jaybird Trying To Get Somewhere Sappy
5 -- Shout Out Out Out Out! Not Saying Just Saying Nrmls Wlcm
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Minks enter charts with High Kicks
www.earshot-online.com
1 1 Chad VanGaalen Soft Airplane Flemish Eye/Sub Pop
2 7 The Pack A.D. Funeral Mixtape Mint
3 3 Human Highway Moody Motorcycle Secret City
4 13 Stereolab Chemical Chords 4AD
5 9 Women Women Flemish Eye
6 12 The Stills Oceans Will Rise Arts & Crafts
7 6 FemBots Calling Out Weewerk
8 15 The Walkmen You & Me Gigantic
9 2 Elliott Brood Mountain Meadows Six Shooter
10 5 Wolf Parade At Mount Zoomer Sub Pop
11 21 Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir Ten Thousand Shoutin' Abner Pim
12 37 King Khan And The Shrines The Supreme Genius Of King Khan And The Shrines
13 -- Hexes And Ohs Bedroom Madness Noise Factory
14 14 Azeda Booth In Flesh Tones Absolutely Kosher
15 24 Okkervil River The Stand Ins Jagjaguwar
16 8 Calexico Carried To Dust Quarterstick
17 -- Don Caballero Punkgasm Relapse
18 17 You Say Party! We Say Die! Remik's Cube Paper Bag
19 10 Brendan Canning Something For All Of Us Arts & Crafts
20 25 Fucked Up Year Of The Pig Matador
21 -- The Stolen Minks High Kicks New Romance For Kids
22 -- The Telepathic Butterflies Breakfast In Suburbia Rainbow Quartz
23 11 Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes Sub Pop
24 -- Black Kids Partie Traumatic Columbia
25 -- Woodhands Heart Attack Paper Bag
1 1 Chad VanGaalen Soft Airplane Flemish Eye/Sub Pop
2 7 The Pack A.D. Funeral Mixtape Mint
3 3 Human Highway Moody Motorcycle Secret City
4 13 Stereolab Chemical Chords 4AD
5 9 Women Women Flemish Eye
6 12 The Stills Oceans Will Rise Arts & Crafts
7 6 FemBots Calling Out Weewerk
8 15 The Walkmen You & Me Gigantic
9 2 Elliott Brood Mountain Meadows Six Shooter
10 5 Wolf Parade At Mount Zoomer Sub Pop
11 21 Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir Ten Thousand Shoutin' Abner Pim
12 37 King Khan And The Shrines The Supreme Genius Of King Khan And The Shrines
13 -- Hexes And Ohs Bedroom Madness Noise Factory
14 14 Azeda Booth In Flesh Tones Absolutely Kosher
15 24 Okkervil River The Stand Ins Jagjaguwar
16 8 Calexico Carried To Dust Quarterstick
17 -- Don Caballero Punkgasm Relapse
18 17 You Say Party! We Say Die! Remik's Cube Paper Bag
19 10 Brendan Canning Something For All Of Us Arts & Crafts
20 25 Fucked Up Year Of The Pig Matador
21 -- The Stolen Minks High Kicks New Romance For Kids
22 -- The Telepathic Butterflies Breakfast In Suburbia Rainbow Quartz
23 11 Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes Sub Pop
24 -- Black Kids Partie Traumatic Columbia
25 -- Woodhands Heart Attack Paper Bag
Monday, September 15, 2008
Stolen Minks (more press)
NOW TORONTO
Disc Review
THE STOLEN MINKS
High Kicks (New Romance for Kids)
By Jordan Bimm
On High Kicks, this Halifax four-piece unleashes a brash assault of bluesy garage rock. Elements of surf and rockabilly also surface on this seven-song EP that’s cleverly disguised as a full-length offering, thanks to the addition of a handful of micro-songs that each clock in at under a minute.
A Stooges-worthy buzz-saw guitar line keeps Reflexes catchy, while opener Bring It benefits from vocals that start in a deep soulful register but quickly hit Le Tigre heights in both pitch and punch. Considering that the production on High Kicks often sounds like a live recording, the Stolen Minks are probably better on stage.
Disc Review
THE STOLEN MINKS
High Kicks (New Romance for Kids)
By Jordan Bimm
On High Kicks, this Halifax four-piece unleashes a brash assault of bluesy garage rock. Elements of surf and rockabilly also surface on this seven-song EP that’s cleverly disguised as a full-length offering, thanks to the addition of a handful of micro-songs that each clock in at under a minute.
A Stooges-worthy buzz-saw guitar line keeps Reflexes catchy, while opener Bring It benefits from vocals that start in a deep soulful register but quickly hit Le Tigre heights in both pitch and punch. Considering that the production on High Kicks often sounds like a live recording, the Stolen Minks are probably better on stage.
Stolen Minks Are Still Kicking
08/18/08 4:44pm
by Ciara McCann (CHARTattack)
All-female garage rock band The Stolen Minks will promote the Sept. 16 New Romance For Kids release of the group's second album, High Kicks, with a six-week Canadian tour before they head to the U.S. in October.
High Kicks was produced by Dave Ewenson at The Echo Chamber studio in The Stolen Minks' hometown of Halifax. Ron Bates mastered the album and Yo Rodeo!'s Paul Hammond designed the cover.
"Reflexes," "I Hate You" and "Viola Desmond" can be previewed on The Stolen Minks' MySpace page.
The Stolen Minks are composed of guitarist Steph Johns, bassist Tiina Johns, drummer Erica Butler and recently married keyboardist Rachelle Goguen. The band released their self-titled debut EP in 2005 and re-released it last year on seven-inch vinyl. Their first full-length, Family Boycott, came out in 2006.
Halifax's Gus' Pub will host a CD release party on Aug. 22, where the first 30 copies of High Kicks sold will be accompanied by a CD cozy hand-knitted by the group members. The Stolen Minks also promise "a cupcake eating contest, loot bags, costumes and fun."
http://www.trentarthur.ca
Snotty, shouty Stolen Minks: Arthur speaks to Halifax band the Stolen Minks PDF E-mail
Last Updated ( Monday, 08 September 2008 )
Written by Mike Butler, on 08-09-2008 10:07
The Stolen Minks play Rock n’ Roll music, plain and simple. Their snotty, shouty and sometimes silly songs inspire the kind of pure excitement you usually only find in a garage full of sixteen year olds. The all girl three piece from Halifax N.S. has released two EPs for Montreal label New Romance for Kids, and is currently on the first leg of a 60 date cross continent tour in support of their first full length, “High Kicks.” I caught up with drummer, Erica Butler, by phone as she was leaning out a bathroom window somewhere along the Trans-Canada highway.
Arthur: Lets start with the basics. How long have you guys been around and what brought you together in the first place?
Erica: I guess we’ve been around for about five years. We got together in Halifax. Basically Steph (guitar) and Tiina (bass) were working together and had all kinds of ideas to form all kinds of bands. They recruited Rachelle to play keyboards and me to play drums. Steph and I had played in a band that we had sort of thrown together for Ladyfest Halifax, so she knew I was sort of a novice on the drums. Steph was probably the most proficient, Tiina and I were pretty much novices. We did a lot of instrumentals when we started. We wanted to be a rockabilly band, we covered Link Wray and stuff like that. Then we just started writing more and more songs, and it’s been a slow progression, but I think you can notice a difference with every recording.
A: Alright. Lets talk about the new record then, and maybe how it differs from the first two.
E: This recording we did in a studio; before we were in basements. This time we understood more of what was possible. We all knew a lot more and knew what we wanted. Before, all of us were complete novices. We were working with a sound engineer for the first time, a guy named Dave Ewanson, and it was nice to be able to ask for certain sounds like, “Hey, can this be crunchier?” and then he could actually make it sound that way.
We had a lot of fun with the album like that. It doesn’t sound anything like our live shows; there are a couple sound effects and things like that, but our live shows are pretty straight up and basic.
A: Was it a conscious decision to do a full length this time rather than another EP?
E: Does it really matter? It has how many songs? We were kinda just working with what we had. We are aware of clocking in at sixteen minutes, we put in all this work and then its like “What? Its only how long?” But I think that’s the last thing to worry about. Does it really matter what its called? EP or Full Length?
A: No I guess it doesn’t. I’d like to ask you about the tour you’re on now. It’s pretty ambitious. Whose idea was it to do 60 dates over three months?
E: We all wanted to do it. The goals of the band have always been one step at a time. After we toured Canada last summer, it was like “Who wants to see the Grand Canyon?” There’s a certain romance to it, I mean isn’t the North American road trip what everyone wants to do? We’re all still at the point where we can book off a couple of months from our lives. So shortly after the summer tour last year we decided to go for it.
A: There’s a real girl power feel to some of your songs. If you had a revolution what would it look like?
E: I can’t really speak for everyone in the band, but as far as a musical revolution is concerned… I went to Ladyfest Midwest in Chicago last summer. It was awesome. The stages were filled with fifty-fifty boys and girls. Everyone’s making music, no one’s held back. That would be a good revolutionary goal. But all that stuff is kind of secondary. As far as a girl power thing goes, I think girls are too diverse a section of society to be represented by a band or a group of bands. It probably means something if you’re looking at the world and writing an essay called “On Representations of Women in Rock and Roll” or something… Then maybe. But not from our point of view. We don’t worry about it. We’re pretty much just hooked on performing and enjoying it.
The Stolen Minks are playing at the Spill on Monday September 10th with “BFF’s” The Guest Bedroom.
Vue Edmonton
Mini Review
The Stolen Minks
High Kicks
New Romance for Kids
What an awesome band!
Sloppy and delicious like
Sex with Dan Carlyle!
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