Vancouver's Canned Hamm aren't performers, musicians or entertainers. They are entainers. Big Hamm and Lil Hamm's live show combines elements of karaoke, burlesque, disco and hot. Wavelength's own Marcel Gonsalves is a fan, proclaiming, 'œyou haven't lived until you've watched a rather tiny man in a white spandex one-piece and pink silk scarf being bounced on the knee of a rather large and hairy man in a white spandex one-piece and pink silk scarf while singing, "Giddy up, little horsey! Giddy up!"
Canned Hamm's first album, Karazma, was such a big hit that it spawned a tribute, Karazma: Reimagined, featuring the likes of Bobby Conn, Neil Hamburger, Carolyn Mark, Destroyer, New Pornographers and Nardwuar. Their new album, Erotic Thriller, was released by Boompa and is in stores now. Lil Hamm gave Shaunna Bednarek a quick email before dinner and answered most of her burning questions.

PLEASE PROVIDE THE READERS OF WAVELENGTH WITH A CONDENSED HISTORY OF CANNED HAMM.
When we started we were directly inspired by life experience and by the unreleased mid-seventies Beach Boys album Adult Child in musical sounds and themes, as we were also trying to find positive ways of dealing with our pain at the time. Emotional scars in the shape of happy faces, perky, catchy melodies. This, combined with a razzle dazzle floor show. We worked through that. I should state that many, many things inspire our personal vision quest as no one is a vacuum and existence is limitless. A lot of people have brought up the change come over Big and Lil Hamm from the last album, Karazma, and this new album, Erotic Thriller. We do certainly look and sound different. It could be the restructuring of priorities from song-and-dance act to becoming a dance-and-song act. We do want people to dance with this new album. Through astral projection on the couch, we were contacted by The Elder Gods of the Cosmos and they showed us so much. They say that we are only using ten percent of our brains! Only ten percent! With a flick of the switch we changed ten percents. That's right, we are now using a completely different ten percent! But it is still us, it is still the same brain. We previously only thought that the history of duos that we are drawing from only stemmed back to the legendary days of vaudeville. We were wrong-- it goes back to The Aztecs. As a result, our work is now more enriched and informed. All that without leaving the couch. If you have experienced one of our shows before please understand that we are touring a brand new show to coincide with our brand new album. And we have lovely new outfits!

WHAT'S THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT OF CANNED HAMM'”THE MUSIC, THE PERFORMANCE OR GETTING THE LADIES?
They are all important parts of "entainment," a catchy buzz word that we hope will take off; each aspect is carefully considered, is different, overlapping, important, and complementing under that greater whole.

YOUR NEW ALBUM'S CALLED EROTIC THRILLER. MY PERSONAL FAVOURITE 'œEROTIC THRILLER'? IS AN AFRO-CENTRIC B-MOVIE RELEASED A FEW YEARS AGO BY THE NAME OF TROIS. WHAT'S YOURS?
The title track was inspired by the master of the erotic thriller, Brian De Palma, and is meant to evoke his works such as Femme Fatale, Carrie, Sisters, Body Double, Phantom of the Paradise, etc. All great movies! The new album is meant to be cinematic in lyrical and musical tone. There is definitely some implied line going on. Also, we directly cover the Cannonball Run theme and have a song called 'œThe Conversation'? that is based on the movie of the same name.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE BIG HAMM TOUCHES THE LIL HAMM?
We like to touch our audience literally and figuratively and that can be electric. When we touch each other it is done to give the audience the same electricity that they have been deprived of. We do not give each other pleasure through the touching of each other, but rather through the audience being touched.

By Shaunna Bednarek