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Nutsak is indeed a mixed bag of nuts: a francophone, an anglophone, an arab and a jew coming together to make music like a microcosm of a utopian society. Nutsak played its first show in 1996 but its members have been (and continue to be) extremely active in Montréal's music scene since the early 80's. The band's wide variety of original songs dips into the realms of be-bop, klezmer, punk, jazz, balladry, metal, country, blues, Motown, classic rock, improv, surf, and noise but always comes out in the distinctive Nutsak style.
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Nutsak has also taken on a number of covers for concerts, parties, vernissages, and even a Jewish wedding where it performed some traditional Jewish music. Some of the artists the band has Nutsakified include Alice Cooper, The Bar-kays, Bo Diddley, James Brown, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, The Commodores, Miles Davis, Willie Dixon, Lee Dorsey, Duke Ellington, ESG, Maggie Gee, Jimi Hendrix, Joy Division, KC and the Sunshine Band, The Lounge Lizards, Love, The Meters, Thelonious Monk, The Music Machine, Elvis Presley, Professor Longhair, The Remains, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter, Frank Sinatra, The Soft Boys, The Sonics, The Stooges, Donna Summer, Sun Ra, Survivor, Them, The Troggs, Ike Turner, and Warsaw.
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Nutsak's debut single (out in October 2008 on Signed by Force records) contains two original compositions that illustrate the band's more balls out rockin' qualities. The A side, "You Are Going to Prison", is a Sam Shalabi instrumental that is fairly indicative of much of the Nutsak sound: it is a highly energetic, frantic, kinetic and somewhat manic number that has the players all biting into it with wild abandonment while keeping to a tight arrangement that includes a completely improvised free section thrown in for good measure. The b-side is the Chris Burns penned "Last Train to Nutsak, New Jersey". While its title pays hommage to The Monkees, the music is more of a wink to Motorhead, particularly in the bridge where Shalabi lets loose some unbelievably scorching solos. It is difficult to resist the invitation of all four Nutsak members calling out "Get on board"!
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"Failed Musician" is the exciting, electric and eclectic debut album by Montréal quartet Nutsak. It is the result of four extremely talented, creative and versatile musicians with over 25 years of experience in a wide range of projects who have enjoyed getting together to play as Nutsak for nearly 15 years. It is a unique and vibrant mix of genre blending and bending, irreverent humor, musical chops not interfering with total abandon, and a healthy dose of disregard for current trends. It is informed by avant garde elements and contains a fair amount of improvisation and experimentation, but it rocks like a motherfucker!
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The bulk of the record is comprised of 5 original instrumental tunes composed by guitarist Sam Shalabi: the Al Green inspired, toe tapping, smile inducing opener "Baby Drools Diamonds", the klezmer/thrash "Cossak", the Mingusian "May/September Blur Blues", the be-bop beyond rock "Balzac", and the off the rails, pummelling A side of the band's first single "You Are Going to Prison". Two more originals are provided by guitarist and singer Chris Burns: the bossa nova punker (that revels in rock and roll as a euphemism for fornication) "Innuendo Shminnuendo", and the B-side to the aforementioned single, the Motorhead and Shoulders tinged "Last Train to Nutsak, New Jersey", which features the entire band plus Jace Lacek (Besnard Lakes) on backing vocals. Drummer and singer Howard Chackowicz offers the filthy "They Fucked Good Tonight" (a solid rocker about a live sex show) and the misanthropic negative creep with a Tony Bennett wink slow swinger "I Hate Everything". Bassist André Asselin is responsible for the album's most laid back moment, the jazzy, psychedelic tinged wonky pop ballad "Filets D'Harengs Fumés". The rest is rounded out by two covers: the Willie Dixon penned "Hidden Charms" that has Chris Burns delivering an inappropriately aggressive vocal, and the Rodgers and Hammerstein nugget from The Sound of Music, "My Favorite Things", which one listener described as "John Coltrane meets Sonic Youth".
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André Asselin (American Devices, Swamp Circuit, Sam Shalabi's Land of Kush) on bass and back-ups
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.Chris Burns (Ratchet Orchestra, Crackpot, Terminal Sunglasses) on guitar and vocals
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Howard Chackowicz (CBC radio's Wiretap, American Devices, Blowhard) on drums and vocals
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Sam Shalabi (Shalabi Effect, Detention, Ballet Mécanique) on guitar and back-ups
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The album was recorded by Jace Lacek at Breakglass Studios in Montréal in the summer of 2007 and was mastered by Harris Newman at Grey Market.
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