Music
7 incredible dad bands from MyDadWasInABand.com
by Mark Teo
June 20, 2013
If you haven’t yet visited MyDadWasInABand.com, you’re missing out: Sure, it’s a site meant to promote A Band Called Death, a film documenting a Detroit proto-punk band Death, who would later have their material reissued by indie giant Drag City. But it’s also a site that called on its users to submit material their own parents had performed in bands—and while none of the names are recognizable (save for two users, whose dads played in Brit legends Hawkwind and southern rock faves The Byrds), most of the submissions are of incredible quality. We’re hoping that a few of these bands, like Death, get reissued.
Here’s seven of our favourite submissions so far. Check MyDadWasInABand for more—and ups to anyone’s who’s submitted a band. We’ve been obsessed.
SLANDER—”Walking on Main Street”
What in the hell is this? A ’77 punk act with U.K. power pop influences—and from Burlington, ON? What? “Walking on Main” street is an indisputable anthem, and we want to hear more. (Hey, Ugly Pop, get on a reissue, will you?)
SAVAGE THRUST—”The Vice”
Ridiculously competent, early ’80’s thrash whose guitar acrobatic would put plenty of their modern comparables to shame. Skip to 1:40 for a Manowar-style breakdown and, like, YR MAWSHIN.’ Hard, hard, hard stuff. Also, whatever ever happened to balding longhairs, like the dude in the above press photo?
HUNTING LODGE—”Night For Night”
Here, a ridiculously hard-edged industrial track that’d put most current darkwave revellers (or ambient-industrial experimenters) to shame. Hunting Lodge prove one thing: Cold Cave and Holy Other are excellent, but their dads were likely better.
PAL JOEY—”Az Iz”
The undeniable midi work. The sensual blasts of saxophone. The breathy (and solidly creepy) falsetto. This might as well Sean Nicholas Savage’s dad. Arbutus, are you listening?
ONE LIFE—”Water Shine”
Winnipeg: What in the heck was this? A post-Police pop-ska project, complete with tropical guitar solos, arena-ready synths, and gospel-style backups? Did the singer of this songs actually just sing the world “spleeeeef?” “Water Shine” might’ve been written in the early ’80s, but it’s our summer jam in 2013.
THE HIGH SPIRITS—”Groovin’ With the Stone Fox”
OK, this isn’t quite the modern punk-inflected garage that, say, Ottawa’s Bruised Tongue specializes in. But with a driving bluesy backbone and, as submitter Evan Husney writes, “[their evolution] into something more lo-fi and psychedelic,” you’d think the High Spirits could at least cut a 7-inch on, like, HoZac records.
JACK RUBY—”Hit and Run”
Plenty of post-punk pretenders currently cop Joy Division or Wire’s style (or, if they’re kraut-y, Neu!). Of course, many also forget that the genre was, in fact, borne of punk, and its first-wavers, like Jack Ruby, are excellent proof. “Hit and Run” boasts a wonderfully driving rhythm, but also a decent amount of snarl—check, for example, when it descends into all-out guitar noise by the track’s end. Fuck, dads rule.