On the heels of my Jim Cuddy
review comes two more Canadian bands, although these ones are not quite as
likely to have the same influence on the future of music.
Disc 505 is… Are U Ready “(sheesh – you
spelled ‘are’ – you can’t spell ‘you’ while you’re at it?)
Artist: D.O.A. and Thor
Year of Release: 2003
What’s up with the Cover? Presumably the two bands dug out some old photos and
put them on the cover. D.O.A. look like
they are ready for a hockey riot and Thor looks like the God of Thunder, which
is pretty much his thing.
How I Came To Know It: I don’t remember.
I think I was digging around the bargain bin at some record shop and
when I saw this I couldn’t resist buying it, even though I knew it was not
going to be very good.
How It Stacks Up: Shockingly, this is the only pairing of D.O.A. and
Thor I have in my collection. Of my
three Thor albums, this one is probably in the middle, but it is my only D.O.A.
album of any kind.
Rating: 2 stars because I’m feeling charitable
As I
mentioned in the “How I Came To Know It Section” I knew when I paid some of my
hard-earned money for this album that it wasn’t going to overwhelm me
artistically. D.O.A. is a fun Canadian
punk act, and Thor is one of my metal favourites from adolescence but the main
draw here is the weird amalgam of the two of them on a single album.
Marketed
right on the CD case as “incredible sporting tunes!” this was apparently an
album meant to inspire you to think of the music you hear between plays at a
hockey game. Of course, it presupposes
that sports stadiums don’t shill out a bit of money to play actual hits for the
crowd which – even at local WHL games – they thankfully do.
Still,
if they were to play these D.O.A. and Thor songs instead I don’t think I’d mind
terribly. Do we really need to hear “Cotton Eyed Joe” and ACDC’s “Thunderstruck” one more time when we
could get some truly Canadian kitsch instead?
The twelve
songs on “Are U Ready” are evenly divided between Thor and D.O.A. although most
of the Thor songs have D.O.A. playing with his band. They may both be ‘incredible sporting tunes!’
but they approach the challenge very differently.
The
D.O.A. tracks made me really appreciate these guys, who are like the poor,
northerly cousins of the Dropkick Murphys.
Based on this record, I prefer the boys from Boston (The Murphys 2003
album was the amazing “Blackout” but in D.O.A.’s defence they’ve been doing
this stuff a lot longer and still sound pretty good).
Anyway,
the songs are a mix of punk and Canadian rock, and are mostly about playing
rough hockey. Titles like “Give ‘Em the Lumber” and “Beat ‘Em, Bust ‘Em” pretty much sum up
the experience. One (“Overtime”) even features a sample of the
Hockey Night in Canada anthem. These
songs are not great but they put a smile on my face and made me appreciate my
country’s national sport that much more. The best line, from “Beat ‘Em, Bust ‘Em,” is “drop
the gloves, pop ‘em in the beak.” I’m
pretty sure popping someone in the beak is a uniquely Canadian expression – and
a damned fine one at that.
Beyond
giving me a laugh and a good time, I didn’t love the D.O.A. tracks but it did
make me want to hear more of their early stuff, which I have a suspicion I’m
going to like.
Before I
comment on the Thor songs, I should mention that I absolutely loved this guy
back in the eighties. The albums “Keep
the Dogs Away” (1977) and “Only the Strong” (1985) were staples in the music
rotation (my brother has both on vinyl).
“Only the Strong” is still a guilty pleasure.
With
that admission out of the way, I have to say the Thor songs on “Are U Ready”
are not great. They are not even about
hockey – with 2003 seeing him still mired in his ‘create a new mythology’
phase.
One of
the songs, “Triumphant” is a repeat
from his solo album of the same name (reviewed way back at Disc 218) and
is passable enough, with a pretty good knuckle-dragging metal riff, but a lot
of this stuff is derivative of his work twenty years earlier.
In fact another
track, “The Challenge” sounds largely
like a repeat of one of his mid-eighties songs “Rock the City.” This is made worse by the fact that he puts a live
version of “Rock the City” right on “Are
U Ready” just in case it might have slipped by you. Both the new song and the live remake sound
like they are recorded in a tin can.
I’m
probably harder on the Thor songs because after so many years of remembering
him kindly I wanted him to be better, whereas D.O.A. was kind of new to me but
the truth is this album was never intended to be great art, it was intended to
be a good time. By advertising itself as
the kind of music you’ll hear in arenas, it sets the bar for success pretty low
but at least it delivers as promised.
Most of
all I got the sense that these two Vancouver bands had a genuinely good time
putting this together and that counts for something. It is mindless, but it is mindless fun, and
although it warrants being sold, I’m keeping it on that basis.
Best tracks: Are U Ready, Beat ‘Em Bust ‘Em, I Am Canadian
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