Music

HIGH FIVES: The Flatliners

by Sam Sutherland

Every week, High Fives asks five bands five themed questions over five days. This week, we are, naturally, sitting on our hands until the deluxe edition of Beyonce’s I Am… Sasha Fierce DVD/CD arrives in the mail. To kill time, we’re discussing alter-egos in music with some other people.

Emerging from Toronto’s suburban expanse before they could drive, The Flatliners have grown into one of the tightest, hardest touring bands in the world of modern punk. The band’s evolution from snot-nosed ska-punks into sad, grizzled old dudes (you know, in their early 20s) has been chronicled with a string of full length and 7″ releases, culminating with 2010’s Cavalcade, a testament to the Flatliners’ insane technical ability, cohesion as a band, and mature approach to the songwriting that owes as much to Paul Westerberg as Fat Mike. Already popping up on year-end best-of lists, its a record that the band will be forced to best in the coming years, which we be no easy task, since it’s seriously stupidly fucking good. The band begins a ten-day run of shows in Ontario and Quebec with Fake Problems, the Menzingers, and Mockingbird Wish Me Luck this week, clearly the most fun time of year to drive between Quebec City and Ottawa overnight. Check out their website for complete dates.

Who has the greatest alter-ego in music?

Beyonce / Sasha Fierce. Absolutely no explanation needed.

Who has the worst alter-ego in music?

Garth Brooks’ “tortured soul/emo haired rock and roller” stint as Chris Gaines was just ridiculous. The man had already wreaked havoc on thousands of pairs of ears with his brand of honky-tonk kumbaya. He tried to pull an Andy Kaufman on the people who had already fallen victim to his musical crimes, and the entire stunt was to promote the overly conceptual Life of Chris Gaines record, which was also originally supposed to be a pre-cursor to a film about the same character. I wonder what ever happened to that piece of cinematic wonderment.

If you had to invent an alter-ego for yourself, who would it be?

I think I’d have to name myself Dick Schlitz. I don’t know why, and I don’t know how I would be different. But that’s the least important part. The important part is that I am the same person, but I look different and “have” a different “name”. Maybe I would have ice cream scoops for eyes and I would spit hot fire. And I could sing out of my nose. Let’s leave that as the extent of my transformation.

How much bad/strange/offensive behavior can reasonably be blamed on an alter-ego?

When you think about it, its pretty funny how people react to one’s alter-ego. As a species, we are so easily bewildered and made uncomfortable and confused. Take the Fat Mike/Cokie the Clown performance at SXSW this year. Now, I wasn’t there for it, but like many other people I heard ALL about it. Many who were present for Mike’s unusual set of acoustic songs and chilling stories didn’t believe that any of the stories they were hearing were true. They likely thought the rest of the band would hit the stage as a surprise and they would find themselves singing along to their favourite NOFX song. But that certainly didn’t happen. After reading multiple reviews of the performance (to ensure there was no bias, confusion, etc.), I began to recognize some of the stories, remembering him telling me some of them while we were on tour together. The man loves fucking with people, getting a rise out of them, and he does it well. To the point where he led so many people to believe that they had ingested his piss. And the kicker is that some were excited that they “had done so.” Honoured even. And right there he got them. These people didn’t believe his stories because he was wearing clown makeup, but they were okay with the fact that they may or may not have just had a drink of the man’s pee. People are far more concerned nowadays with the action behind shock-value, rather than the idea itself. The power of celebrity is a very funny thing, and when that celebrity is multiplied by creating an alter-ego, all bets are off. They’ve got the audience in the palm of their hand. It’s fun to laugh at ourselves as human beings.

How much do “more serious” genres / bands suffer from the lack of alternate personalities present in their scene? What’s one band you’ve played with who would benefit from some makeup and a new stage name?

This is weird that I’m admitting this, but I actually often wonder what kind of tour pranks bands like Creed (I hear they’re back maybe? Lord knows we need them now!!!) and Nickleback pull, if any. Even something as harmless and pedestrian as dressing up in a goofy costume, or wearing a goddamn wig… I find it hard to believe that this kind of thing could occur is such bands’ existence. Maybe if they showed a little sense of humor once in a while, they wouldn’t be perceived by so many as uptight and boring. And really, is it that dudes like David Bowie are ‘way out there’ and ‘innovative’ or is it that there are a lot of artists out there just too afraid to come out of their shell? Bowie is actually pretty awesome though. I’ve got that freaky bastard’s back.