THE WET SECRETS at the Horseshoe (370 Queen West, 416-598-4226), tonight (Thursday, June 12), 10 pm. $20, free w/ NXNE wristband (see page 62). Rating: NNNNN
Until recently, no one thought of Edmonton as an indie rock hotbed. But that all changed when bands like Shout Out Out Out Out, Whitey Houston and the Whitsundays started making waves. Now that people are paying attention to Alberta’s capital city, high-?energy buzz band the Wet Secrets should be the province’s next sought-?after export.
There’s one problem, though: the band doesn’t want to tour. “Our schedules will allow weekends away, but not much more,” says drummer Trevor Anderson. “Plus, Lyle [Bell, the band’s bassist] and I have clocked enough hours in tour vans driving across the Canadian Shield to satisfy us for a couple of lifetimes.”
So what are we non-?Prairie folk to do if we want to get a taste of the band? Besides seeing them this weekend at NXNE, pick up Rock Fantasy, an aggressive, distortion-?happy collection of songs new, old and remixed. The disc features six recent tracks, three tunes from their first disc and two remixes by fellow Edmontonians Cadence Weapon and Nik 7.
While the tracks are infectious, they’re memorable for more than the music. Song titles like Easy Prey Vs. Sex Maniac, I Teabagged Myself and Boat Gas Death Train are pretty quirky, to say the least. The song names not only point to the group’s ingenuity, but also to their fondness for playing on the lighter side of rock.
“When we’re together, the group brain takes over and we start making each other laugh,” says Anderson. “Eventually, the laughter turns into songs.”
This kind of carefree fun is something they don’t get in their day jobs. Bell’s a graphic designer and a member of Shout Out Out Out Out Anderson’s a filmmaker and festival producer tuba player Kim Rackel and trombonist Donna Ball run Capital City Burlesque and keyboardist Doug Organ runs a record label and plays in jazz bands.
With resumés like that, it’s no wonder they have a hard time touring. But thanks to the band’s “sense of humour and devil-?may-?care attitude,” Anderson says jamming with the Wet Secrets always feels like a “wild party with friends.”
But the best part? “We get to sing about teabags, douchebags, chinballs and the like.”
