Today's music fan is a conundrum.
While they want instant gratification, they also expect lasting results. Yet with the diminishing returns so many flavour-of-the-month bands provide, most music has bred a lack of faith on the listener's part. The overall climate has shifted from blind support of artists to discerning, sometimes ruthless selectiveness. When faced with so many fleeting options, a band's package better be stunning or it's game over.
Goodbye Beatdown's Mark Luongo defines it as the Age Of The Compilation: a time when iPods have turned music collections into endless shuffling; a disparate showcase of preferred songs from various artists as opposed to completists hoarding albums and catalogues thin on hits/weighed down by filler.
With their diverse complexity propelled by straightforward groove, unyielding intent on getting your primal, pelvic essence oscillating and enjoying the ride, Goodbye Beatdown is the epitome of that compilation—in one solitary band.
But how do they do it?
"Fusion is key," declares Luongo, revealing how in an ephemeral year-and-a-half, this Vancouver-based quintet spawned from the ashes of previous endeavours has overtaken Canadian music. With their amalgam of rock, reggae and hip-hop that transforms the slinky virulence of Sublime with the unforgettable power of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and shapes it into a unique, irresistibly anthemic sound all unto itself, Goodbye Beatdown is incredibly intermixed.
"Our sound is the refined chemistry of the five musicians who craft it," he continues, revealing the group's precise alchemy. "None of us could write a Goodbye Beatdown song on our own. You can't remove any one element from the equation. We're a battle rapper-cum-vocalist whose lyrical wizardry and hook writing prowess set the stylistic tone, a seasoned DJ/arrangement guru who leads the ongoing negotiation between rock, reggae and hip hop and a guitar phenom who has explored everything from blues and country to heavy metal. We're also a bombastic metal drummer with lightning quick hands and punishing double kick chops who juggles reggae, ska and hip hop beats with matchless pizzazz and a funky-ass bass playing keyboardist who's versed in production and spent years studying classical and jazz forms."
Distilling that distinctive, contagiously primeval essence into a recording, Goodbye Beatdown issued their debut independent EP Whatchagwando late last year. Featuring lead track "The Grudge" mixed by legendary engineer Mike Fraser (AC/DC, Metallica, Bryan Adams), it's an effort that has commanded both critical and fan adulation for blending reggae with urban hip-hop and driving the whole ordeal via an underlying rock/pop motif. To that extent, one can see how Whatchagwando ties many divergent paths together, impelling virtually everyone to sway to the Goodbye Beatdown sound.
"People can't help but move. There's something about it that excites positive energy and it starts with our uncanny synergy", Luongo continues. "We each bring such wildly different influences to the band that it's impossible to come up with anything but these schizophrenic, genre bending arrangements. The bottom line is that our music is unique yet universal and allows us to stand out in a crowd, which is our hallmark in this highly saturated, internet driven scene."
Regardless, the formula is clearly working wonders. From their summertime in a bottle single Whatchagwando being featured on Shaun White's multi-million selling Skateboarding video game to being selected to perform as a part of the 2010 Winter Olympics, arena shows and festival dates with diverse artists including Finger Eleven, Sean Kingston and Sam Roberts and feature rotation on over 20 national radio stations, Goodbye Beatdown is taking over the world of Canadian rock with their uniquely varied, engaging and inimitable sound.
Moreover, the band was awarded the prestigious Platinum prize at CFOX Vancouver Seeds in 2009, an honour that saw them surpass a host of competing bands through four rigorous stages—online voting, adjudication, live performances and a finalist round—to become the overall champions. Suffice it to say that such relentless drive obviously extends to the live show where they rile crowds with spirit and vitality that matches Whatchagwando's sheer might.
"Goodbye Beatdown isn't just about firing off simple party tunes but our music is intended as a soundtrack to good times. We aim to be uplifting and leave an air of positivity everywhere we play. There's a free flow of energy between the stage and the audience that stems from modelling our set after the way a DJ would play a dance party. The songs flow from one to another and it's all done on purpose from tempos to keys and audience interaction. It hooks people through perpetual motion," Luongo notes, concluding that the Goodbye Beatdown assault is honed and meticulous but more importantly, it's genuine.
"Every member feels like this is his calling. Not only do we get along personally and musically but we all have the same vision for what we want as people. We don't just know what the music should sound like. We know how it should be delivered, where it should be heard and how our lives should look working to those ends. This is what we're meant to do."
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