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The Constantines Are Your Neighbours
By Alex Molotkow
What do the Constantines have in common with the Guess Who? The same custom-made Garnet amplifier — Randy Bachman’s Herzog, to be exact — that gave “American Woman” its legendary fuzz. The Constantines’ new record, Kensington Heights, is dedicated to Gar Gillies, the man behind the device.
“[Keyboardist Will Kidman] wanted to get one, and some dudes in Winnipeg knew how to get a hold of Gar,” says guitarist/vocalist Steve Lambke. “He said he had parts to make one more — he hadn’t made this particular unit in years — and he said he’d be happy to make one, and he did. Will bought it from him, and then not too long after that, [Gar] passed on.” Canadian iconography has often been a theme in the Constantines’ output — their last release, 2005’s Tournament of Hearts, was named after the Canadian women’s curling championship — but now more than ever, the band seem directly involved with the symbols they pay homage to.
“I love regionalism in art and music,” says lead singer/guitarist Bry Webb. “To me it gives the author more credibility, or the speaker more of a solid place to stand. You read Crime and Punishment, and the city is a character in the book.” The Constantines’ various hometowns are scattered throughout Southern Ontario; if the region were to choose an anthem, it might do well to peruse Kensington Heights. The album bridges the band’s signature drive — “Fugazi fronted by Joe Strummer,” as the cliché goes — and the unexpectedly subdued approach that made Tournament of Hearts the odd one out in their catalogue. There is a balance of urban and rural sentiments: the wrenchingly earnest, community-based punk that brought the band early attention was borne of small town living, but the cultured, self-aware songwriting that the band have lately mastered is analogous to Toronto’s relative sophistication.
“When we started out — in terms of where we were, and the places we were playing — we were a punk rock band, playing community hall shows and church basements. Now we get to travel all over the world,” says Lambke. Toronto’s Kensington Market is an apt metaphor for the union of cosmopolitanism and grassroots ethos: “I didn’t really want to live in a big city ever; Toronto was kind of a practical move,” Webb says. “And then I loved it. It was because I was living in Kensington, and I didn’t feel the need to get out of that area. I had everything I needed.”
The Constantines have been playing together for almost a decade, and while contributing to an internationally successful act is a full-time commitment, band members have felt the need reassert their independence. “Shortly after [we] started, three of us were living in a house together. Hanging out, doing the same things every day, going to the same bars,” says Lambke. “Now we live all over the place, and have different relationships, friend groups and stuff.” The band has dispersed a little: Lambke and Webb have both moved to Montreal, and 3/5ths of the band have their own musical projects (Lambke’s Baby Eagle, Kidman’s Woolly Leaves, and Webb’s Harbour Coats). Distance has given the band a better sense of their collective assets. “It’s like living at home for most of your life, and you realize at some point you have to get out,” says Webb. “You’re not going to cut off that relationship at all, you just need to find some independence or some sense of self within this constant small family.”
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Simply Saucer’s Half Past, Half Future
 Simply Saucer had been broken up for ten years before their first record, 1989’s Cyborgs Revisited, was even released. Yet that lone album was quickly adopted by the underground as a long-lost masterpiece, garnering the defunct band an ever-increasing cult following. That persistent momentum ...Read More
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Gary Louris Leaves The Nest
 For 20 critically acclaimed years, the Jayhawks were driven by Gary Louris’s twin gifts of songwriting and guitar playing. But after the band ran its course following 2003’s Rainy Day Music, he reunited with his alt-pop all-star band Golden Smog and worked on several other projects, including the Sa...Read More
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Torche Make It Quick
 I need a mixture of melody and doom. I think we have a good combination of that,” says guitarist Juan Montoya about Miami-based quartet Torche. “We’re like Cheap Trick combined with Sabbath…maybe a bit of Pink Floyd’s spaciness.” Rounded out by guitarist/singer Steve Brooks, bassist Jonathan Nuñez and drummer Rick Smith, Torche has completed their anticipated sophomore album Meanderthal with producer Kurt Ballou (Converge, Ghengis Tron)...Read More
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Woodhands Sex It Up
 In Woodhands’ brief history, they’ve been called a lot: sensual, groin-based, the “two-headed indie Timberlake.” All warranted, all with good reason. One fiery live show at a time, the Toronto-based robo-pop duo has earned a reputation for encompassing all things sexual — something they fully embrac...Read More
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The Coast Are Tense
 “We bought a van right before we left — like a big 15 passenger van — and we just found out it’s got a crack in the gas tank,” says Ben Spurr, singer of Toronto’s indie pop-rock quartet the Coast. “We bought it used, so I guess that stereotype is true about used car salesmen.”
Out on the ro...Read More
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DL Incognito’s Urban Zen
 With the spring release of A Captured Moment in Time, DL Incognito can boast that he ranks among the few Canadian hip-hop artists to have four full-length albums under their belt. That is, if he wasn’t so humble about it.
“It’s just about the love of making music,” says DL over the phone from his Toronto-based crib. “It’s like when you love playing recreational basketball — you keep playing whether you make it to the NBA or not.”
This isn’t to say that Oliver Nestor doesn’t possess major league talent....Read More
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Taking a break at about the halfway mark of director Kathryn Bigelow's Iraq war drama, The Hurt Locker, I realized my jaw was sore. I had been unconsciously clenching it from the first moment of The Hurt Locker, which chronicles a three-man team of explosives ordinance disposal (bomb s...
Full Review
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