MNZAI

-jes burkitt

First off, I want to let

everyone to know about a
cool little organization
called Chronic Knot
Distro. The two girls who
run it (I believe their names
are Jody and Andria, but
I’m not too sure) set it up
to distrbute music and
‘zines. It is a totally cool,
totally nonprofit way to get
some new tunes, etc.

The music is all DIY (do
it yourself) on consignment
from Slow to Burn Records
in Victoria, made by bands
who don’t want to conform
to a major label’s rules.

The problem with that is |

that they don’t get as much
distribution as on a major
label; the benefit is that
they don’t have to pay the
major label a large chunk
of their cash. The distro
(and the people running it)
is the reason that bands
like this can exist. They are
there to support the DIY
ethic, to support other
music scenes and promote
unity among the different
scenes, and to introduce
some new music to this city.
Obviously, you won’t find
this kind of stuff at Sight
and Sound; this is the only
thing of this type in Prince
George.

Much of the music is on
7" vinyl, becuase it’s cheap
to realease 7"'s. Many
people don’t realize how

- cool vinyl is. Vinyl is much

more fun than CD’s, albeit
not as convenient. Vinyl is
also cheaper to run,
because all you have to do
is go pick up a cheap
turntable. Another point
about the distro is that
since you aren’t paying for
the major label
distribution and the retail
store markup, the music is

page 10 over the Edge Jan 24, 1996

cheaper. CD’s run from
$9-$11, and 7" are from
$3.75-$5. They’ve got tapes
too, but I didn’t get any
prices on them. This is a
great (and cheap) way to
discover some new music,
with lots of variety, from
hardcore to pop, and
everything in between.
Why do they do this?
Because they don’t agree
with music corporations;
because music is not a
commodity.

The local band Spunk
has got to have the coolest
stage show I’ve ever seen at

the Urban. The multitude
of different lights, the
smoke machine, the
trombone, the sawblades,

the static TV. The reason

for all this? “We can’t play
but we’ve got stage
presence; stage presence is
everything.” And their
music? “Cyber jelly funk
punk.” Apparently they
usually have a keyboard ,
and are closet rappers, but
this time they weren’t. This
was also the drummer’s
debut, and the first time
with live drums. The band
consists of Peter Pocketlint
(guitar, vox), Buddy
Skabowlie (bass), and Dr.

Rythm Guy Beat Machine
Dean (aka Dial, drums).
One thing that Buddy had
to say when he found out
that I was from a paper
was “Bassist: 6’0" dark
brown hair, likes bowling
and painting; a 5’8" blond
with green eyes preferred;
chick a must. Contact 1-
900-SPUNK.” Oops, I
don’t think that I was
actually supposed to print
that. The band has a tape
out (two of them actually,
but the first one is
discontinued), and if you
saw them play and/or want

of Peter for one; I’ tell you
how if you want. Some
parting comments from the
band: “We don’t do drugs,
except for caffiene; We’re
not religious, we just love
God (and coffee).” Gee,
now that I think about it,
I’m not too sure that those
are their real names...

Last Saturday was
exceptionally cool; it
seemed to be punkfest at
the Urban. Five bands, all
punk, 8 bucks. Tres cool.
The opening’ band,
twominutehate, was my
local fav. They did their
usual cool thing; they

opened it all up fast. This
a hard thing considering
that the opening band
usually has to deal with a
silent crowd with their
arms crossed. Thus, they
must be good. The second
band, Bound to Fall, was
great as usual. They
played a great set that
everyone loved. Third up
was The Unknowns.
Local favs, everyone
could sing along to the
choruses of the songs,
generating a _ great
amount of energy in the
crowd. Next were the two

bands up from Victoria,

10 Dead Men and Render

Useless. After some
careful observation, I
noticed that the bass
players for the two bands
shared avery remarkable
resemblance. 10 Dead
Men played good, and the
guitarist/vocalist did
some cool tricks with
cigarettes and toques.
Too bad the toque trick
didn’t work the first few
tries. Render Useless did
an excellent show, with
loud, percussive music
that got everybody on
their feet. Unfortunately,
many people had left to
do other things (party) by

that time, so they missed
out. Their loss. Overall,
the show was great; we
even saw local figurehead
Erin Kinghorn at the
show. Unfortuantely, we
didn’t get a chance to
throw her in the mosh pit
and watch her beat the
crap out of everybody.

I got a chance to listen
to the albums of a couple
of the bands that I saw
(and wrote about) before;
Terror of Tiny Town’s self
titled album was a tiny bit
of a letdown, but that was
only because their live act
was so cool. After to
listening to it a bit though,
it became better; their
excellant musicianship
shows through even better
on the CD than it does at
their concerts. Their songs
were of many different
styles, as was the show.
The reason they gave for
that is that most people
like to make mix tapes to
listen to, and this way
they’ve got a mix tape pre-
made for them. Small
Town Rhino’s self titled
album was great; it was

-even better than their live

show, but that could have
just been their technical
difficulties (ie. everything
broke at one point in time
or another). I really liked
both CD’s, and would
recommend both to
anyone who asks.

If you want any info on
these bands, how you can
get their music, where you
can get ahold of them, or
if you just want to
generally harrass me, you
can come by the office or
call, 960-5633, 5633 local,
Email at
jes.burkitt@ugrad.unbe.edu,
or just accost me in the
hallway, or whatever |
twisted type of thing you
can think up.