THE KETAMINES with UBT, SHEER AGONY, ZEBRASSIERES at Hard Luck Bar (772a Dundas West), Saturday (June 29). $8.
My first conversation with the Ketamines’ Paul Lawton ended when his phone died just as the singer/bassist was telling me how excited he was about playing Calgary’s Sled Island festival. The mood is quite different when we reconnect the next day: Lawton’s wondering where they’ll be sleeping now that most of the city is underwater and the rest of their shows are cancelled.
“We’re trying to figure out how to get our gear back from the venue, because the entire downtown is shut down,” Lawton explains. “We had a place to stay tonight, but it got evacuated.”
The Toronto-based musician started the band in the late 90s in Lethbridge, Alberta, with James Leroy, who still lives there. The touring version has featured a rotating cast of musicians backing up Lawton, while Leroy mostly sticks to the studio due to health issues. (He was going to make a rare live appearance at one of the cancelled gigs.)
Despite the natural disaster unfolding around him, Lawton is cheerful about the positive reception his band’s new releases are getting on tour.
Their two new 7-inch singles diverge from the scrappy psych punk and power pop of their recent LP, You Can’t Serve Two Masters (Mammoth Cave). All The Colours Of Your Heart (Pleasence) is oddly funky in a psychedelic garage way. Meanwhile, the Eleven Eleven EP (Leaning Trees) squeezes three songs on each side that almost blend together into two multi-movement prog-punk epics.
Lawton’s relief stems in part from the lack of backlash he’s received from his infamous Slagging Off blog, which began as an anonymous savaging of every band playing this year’s CMW. (He outed himself when innocent parties were accused.)
The blog then evolved into a larger critique of the industry – most famously, the role of organizations like FACTOR – but has obviously resonated with some of its initial targets.
“This guy came up to me in Halifax and said I’d described his band as ‘uninspired riff rock’ and they were really upset about it but then they realized it was true, and they’ve actually changed their direction as a result.”
benjaminb@nowtoronto.com | @benjaminboles
