Back in the Garage with Teenanger, Mark Sultan and Demon’s Claws
Teenanger and Mark Sultan play Double Double Land tonight (March 26)
We make no secret of our love of garage rock here at Resonancity, but we’re not so solipsistic as to suggest Toronto’s burgeoning garage scene has reached the level of our neighbours down the 401 in Montreal. This weekend, Toronto and Montreal unite to blast some good ol’ fashioned dirty rock n’ blues into the Big Smoke and suggest there may not even be much of a boundary.
Mark Sultan (a.k.a. BBQ) may not be the nicest fellow in the world (here’s some proof), but he’s a big fixture of Montreal’s garage scene, collaborating with everyone from King Khan to Bloodshoot Bill to Red Mass. On record, the most striking thing about Sultan is his reverence of the 1950’s, mixing Doo Wop and gospel into the regular loud, riffy garage formula, but it’s live where he really shines, acting as a one man bad and playing every instrument (including drums) himself.
Sultan takes the stage tonight (Friday, March 26) at a sold out Double Double Land, but it wouldn’t surprise us to see the local support steal the show. Toronto’s Teenanger has been capturing people’s attention for a few years now, but somehow it’s taken until 2010 for the band to record its first full-length record, Give Me Pink, and tonight’s show marks the official release (although if you have trouble getting in, they’re playing at Rancho Relaxo on Monday with our old friends The Bitters).
Band member Jon (one of the heads of Toronto’s awesome Telephone Explosion label) tells us the band took more time writing the songs on the album, but recorded it over a short two day period to “avoid getting all Brian Wilson on it” and match the punk energy of their live performance. As you can tell from “MDMA Jam” streaming below, it seems to have worked. Don’t let the name fool you – this is a straight-up boozely, bloozy blast of stripped-down rock, reverbed to all hell, but still raw and immediate.
Demon's Claws play "Black Lips Rock Weekend" at the Horseshoe on Saturday, March 27 and Sunday, March 28
Saturday and Sunday have been declared “Black Lips Rock Weekend” at the Horseshoe by virtue of the Atlanta flower punks’ first visit to Toronto since NXNE 2009’s toned-down Yonge-Dundas Square show. But again, you’d be wise to visit the undercard for Montreal’s own hillbilly garage punks and occasional Teenanger label-mates, Demon’s Claws. Good friends and frequent touring partners of the Black Lips and King Khan, it’s strange the guys aren’t better known outside of La Belle Province.
Leader Jeff Clarke was kind enough to share an exclusive track off Demon’s Claws’ next release, The Defrosting of Walt Disney (yes, that’s really the name), out on In The Red in June 2010. Check out “Navajo” streaming below.
And just to wrap everything up in a nice little package, here’s a live video of the first ever performance (also at last summer’s NXNE in Toronto) from The Almighty Defenders, a collaboration between the Black Lips, King Khan, and Mark Sultan.
- Richard Trapunski
