Underground Music in Rain City

UPTOWN RIOT Interview w/ Paymon – Vocalist/Guitarist & Conrad – Bassist By: Denis Maile Uptown Riot has been kickin’ it around the Vancouver scene off and on for over two years now, and have shared stages with the UK Subs, Snfu, Mad Sin, and The Briggs. The solid frontline of Paymon and Conrad have had a string of drummers (5 in all) and are now back with drummer numero uno, coming full circle and feeling confident with the line-up they have locked in. I met up with them at an undisclosed location that sold cheap jugs of beer and meat on a stick. Paymon had won big on the black jack table the night before so the beers flowed freely. Before we got too smashed we discussed some important things like bowling, the lack of toilet paper in Edmonton and more bowling. dm: How’d you come up with the band name? Conrad: I hated it at first. We had a huge list of band names, and that was one of them. Right away I was like, nope that’s a horrible name, NEXT! I don’t know how it came abou...

Congress plays the Grand Opening of The Waldorf tonight (how many grand openings is that place going to have?) with Nu Sensae. Here is a review I did for their demo that ran in the pages of Absolute Underground. CONGRESS – Demo Independent Congress is made up of ex-members of 3 Inches of Blood, Pride Tiger and Jaws, but may not really hold any of those bands as an influence. The opening track ‘H-Bomb’ starts with a funky drumbeat, distorted bass and crunchy guitar, then the deathly vocals of Jamie Hooper (former singer of 3IOB) kick in with fierce intensity. It’s good to hear him back behind the microphone and with songs titles like ‘Sybian Fuck Unit 7X’ and ‘Rotten Snake Corpse’ you know he doesn’t disappoint in the lyrical department either. The music may be metal at heart, but has rock drumming that keeps it honest. The lack of double bass or blast beats doesn’t steal any of the evil tendencies this music still portrays. And the tempo is all over the map, slow, fast AND mid, ...

Here is an old show review from Dec 08 that was posted in The Skinny Magazine. Be sure to catch Raised By Apes and Slush performing live @ Funky Winkerbeans this Friday Nov. 12th!  Raised By Apes, Cambridge, Slush, and The Remedials  The Cobalt, Fri Dec. 12th After pouring rain all day, the clouds parted, and made way for an unstoppable evening of punk rock. It was the Canadian release show for the Punk Rock Concoction Vol. 3 compilation CD, which features both Raised by Apes and Cambridge as the lone Canadian bands on the disc. There was a free copy for everyone in the bar, and who doesn’t like party favours? As always the sound at The Cobalt was good no matter where you stood, and all the bands brought a festive cheer that would have even had Ebenezer Scrooge downing some rum and eggnogs. With feet planted firmly on stage the evening began with The Remedials shooting through their two minute punk blasts in the vein of a Ramonesesque, or Schreeching Weasely sound. They ...