May
Wavelog
Man With Target
By wavelength ~ Posted Sunday, May 7th 2006Man With Target's music is a mess of bloodshot eyes and flailing limbs, a massive sound that somehow always targets and finds the weak links in your psychological armour. One song, 'œPhantom Creek'?, sounds like Tom Waits in the throes of a horrible PCP adventure, where the devil appears unto him in the form of an emo band, and they get into an existential argument. The emo band gets slaughtered. Demian Carynnyk talked to Graham, the singer, an awfully nice guy to be making such awfully heavy music.
HEY, WHAT'S UP? WHO ARE YOU? WHAT ARE YOUR MILD-MANNERED DAYTIME ALTER EGOS?
Well, some of us have cooler alter-egos than others. Evan (bassist) works at a record store and also teaches bass and guitar to kids. Dave (guitarist) works part time at a studio and is currently trying to get the money together to build his own studio. Paul (drummer) does irrigation, installing watering systems for office buildings and houses. As for me I work at some boring financial place in downtown Toronto that is so mind-numbingly drab you'd fall asleep if I described it to you in any more detail.
AJAX, ONTARIO, CANADA. WHAT'S GOOD? WHAT'S BAD? WHAT'S IT LIKE LIVING THERE?
There isn't really much of a scene here like there is in other towns. The good thing about being in Ajax, however, is that we have a small but fierce group of friends and fans here that have rallied behind us a lot and that's been really fantastic. We don't get to play in Ajax a lot, but when we do it's always a great time because of those people.
WHAT'S IT LIKE PLAYING ACROSS THE PROVINCE, MAKING FANS AND FRIENDS, AND THEN HAVING TO GET BACK HOME TO YOUR DAY JOBS?
Everywhere we go we seem to be playing better shows, making more friends and winning more people over, which is great. You wish you could not have to work some shitty job you hate just for the money to fund everything. It's a necessary evil, though. As tiring and disheartening and financially stressful as the tug of war between the two can be, you just suck it up and deal with it.
ARE YOU SPONTANEOUSLY MAKING CHAOS AND NOISE IN ALL DIRECTIONS? ARE YOU CONSCIOUS AND DELIBERATE ABOUT THE KINDS OF HEAVINESS YOU WANT IN YOUR MUSIC? A LITTLE OF BOTH?
I think a big misconception people have about bands like us is that we just get into a room and make this big, improvised cacophony of noise that doesn't really have any direction or point. A lot of what we come up with definitely gets birthed from jam sessions, but we all put a lot of forethought and planning into our attack, and the choices we make as songwriters are definitely deliberate ones.
WHAT WOULD YOUR MUSIC LOOK LIKE IF IT WERE A LOW-BUDGET HORROR MOVIE?
It would probably be somewhere between the original Dawn of the Dead and the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. An undead Leatherface who has risen from the grave to slaughter a shopping mall full of vacationing teenagers.
ANY MAN WITH TARGET TOUR STORIES OR ROCK-RELATED MISHAPS?
[At one show] I hit myself in the mouth with the mic so hard I chipped a large part of my tooth off and opened up a huge cut in my mouth, and started bleeding profusely all over my face and my shirt. I didn't even realize I was bleeding until I noticed all the people who were up front start to slowly migrate backwards as I came closer to them. Ha ha. I actually had a great time with it... I climbed on all fours across the bar and knocked over some drinks.
ARE YOU GOING TO MUSICALLY BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF ALL OF US WAVELENGTH INDIE NERDS?
Well, even though I play in a heavy band, I'm a pretty big indie nerd too, so I have a soft spot in my heart for you guys. We're going to bring it as hard as we always do, but if it's your first time, we promise we'll be gentle.
- Demian Carynnyk
The Hoa Hoas
By wavelength ~ Posted Sunday, May 7th 2006
Breast stroking through the Sea of Green, I travelled far and wide across Strawberry Fields to find the Love. Taking the 13th Floor Elevator past the Stereolab I heard a most curious sounds coming from the Byrds that were melting and dripping in front of my very eyes. Following them I found a band. A most curious band. With its' sounds created for the expansion of time and space I decided it most important to let them plead their case.
Pulling out a fresh and crisp Kool Aid Acid Test and number 2 pencil, Matt Thomas began his trip the light fantastic avec les garcons musique from TheHoa Hoas.
ROLE CALL/INSTRUMENTS
Richie, Lee and Femke all play guitar vocals bass and some keyboards'¦we switch it up....and thank god we've got Shane Airplane playing drums and percussion ..... it's fun that way to change instruments you get different sounds that way...
Is there a mysterious Srgnt Pepper style reason for you boys and your band
member names...ie.Shane '˜S.S. Airplane'˜ Kurenoff ?
We really love our influences and we want to carry on things like that
cause well it makes it cooler !!! But really it's a throwback to the 60's
man shane...airplane....in the sky . jefferson airplane. High inner
flight ...Johnny Thunders ...Matt Hollywood that sort of fuckin' around ..
If the Hoa Hoas were around in the Liverpool and or Manchester scene what
would you have done and who would you have hung out with for kicks?
We'd probobly be dead .. or retired with millions... we'd be in a band
called the Luv Luv's or something crazy ... would have hung out with Primal
Scream , Happy Mondays , SPACEMEN 3 .... But since I havent exactly
figured out time travel....(not yet)... it's hard to say really ..
How much do you like Brian Jones...do you like like him or just like him and
why?
OH! BRIAN JONES how I love you so..... Like ? yeah right The word
is LOVE because listen to those fucking Tunes man !!! The rolling stones
'64 -68 AMAZING !!!!
Pretend you just ate your weight in Peyote and give us a SHORT rant on how
you feel the music.
How to feel music: Step one: Love it. Step 2: Feel it. Step 3: Take
it. And Step 4: GIVE it back. The peyote has nothing to do with it
really but I guess it would be a lot of fun if you didn't have to stand or
think .. I couldn't imagine taking that stuff.
What can you tell us about the folks of Yummy Recordings?
YUMMY RECORDINGS is Joe Lapinski's label outta St. Catharines and he is a
great man, plays tons of music as well with bands such as Palooka, solo
stuff ,woodchoppers and just crazy jams in general. He also puts on a lot
of shows in St. Catharines and records other bands too. He's cool look him
up.... we have a new album almost finished that we did in his studio
If the Hoa Hoas live show was a 60's film what would it be, who would it
star and how would it play out?
If it was a 60's flick it would be called " Tripping Out and Having Fun
with The Hoa Hoa's and Friends" and all these crazy jams would go
down...Pink Floyd , Love ,13th Floor Elevators , The Velvet
Underground....It would star those people and we would have a wicked party ,
film it and that would be it...Go home for the comedown
Us Wavelengthers want to know...how will you set the mood so we'll put out?
How could we set the mood so you put out??? Refer to the question about
how to feel it ...Once you feel it you can really start to spread it
....plus we're good looking our guitars are so cool it's easy
And...what will the heightened plane of existence be like when you take us
there.
As the President of Space, Sonic Boom from spacemen 3, said .... "Desert
sands, the secret plan, the lords own knowledge is in your hands...you
gotta open up your mind and let EVERYTHING come through ....." plus I'm
really looking forward to listen to The Ride Theory and Clydesdale ..I dig
those groups... Outta Sight, Deep Inside www.thehoahoas.com
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