From the trenches of Toronto's pycho-punk periphery comes Blue Mercury Coupe, the self-proclaimed Band of the Future. Trashy, Loud, Wry and Greasy, this six-piece combo manages to combine the best of the bad, bringing together four decades of Americas most marginalized music. They deliver a sound that is at once recognizable as it is impossible to place in any specific way. You hear hints of 40s jump, 50s rockabilly, 60s garage and 70s punk. These are the sounds that were rejected as too severe in their own time, but ended up becoming more influential on the future of music then any of the concurrent top ten pop hits of their respective eras.
By being deliberately derivative, loud, sloppy and cheap, the Coupe pokes big fun at the sorry state of todays rock. They insist that they are the future of music, and that the future looks pretty fucking bleak.
"This culture has run out of ideas, and people have become blind consumers, with nothing to buy except whatever is cheap and available," says Bassist/Designer Steve Good, the chief architect of the bands distinctive style. "Thats us. We are cheap and available. In the future, all bands will sound like Blue Mercury Coupe."
The line up of players is actually impressive and everyone clearly knows their history. Steve has recruited Paul Newman on drums, who played with Montreals internationally acclaimed punk phenomenon, the Doughboys in the 1990s. And singing lead is none other then Torontos notorious swing punk, Big Rude Jake, whose own popularity in the 90s also led to successes in Europe and in New York. The sound is rounded off by lots of guitar muscle and, oddly enough, two saxophones.
The tunes themselves are infectious and fun. Although all the songs are original, the band claims that they dont create music so much as pilfer it. They claim to exploit outright the sentiment and ideas of the past, and then mangle them for the express purpose of acquiring money, beer and sex. The lyrics are all about fast cars and loose women, and the band looks more like a posse of renegade hot-rod mechanics then they do musicians. If you like your rock loud and trashy, with a sense of catharsis and a flippant wit, the Coupe will gladly take your money and lead you on into the future.
I didn't find a separate MySpace for Tennessee Voodoo Coupe, so I guess this is the place to tell you that I really enjoyed the show Saturday night down at the Dominion.
I've uploaded an original video of you guys doing the Jim carroll cover of "People Who Died"... aresome to hear a rockabilly version!
Online Now!
