519 Revue, 2005 In Review

WELCOMING 2006

Well, 2005 has passed, and it was a pretty decent year for the 519. Some great records were released, and some great shows were played. Old bands were laid to rest and new bands rose in their stead. The rock owned by this city has remained vibrant throughout. Here are some highlights, some unfortunate passings, and some hopes for this bright, beautiful, wide-open 2006.

K-W experimental popsters Humshuttle ushered in 2005 with their second EP of a planned trilogy. By expanding on the blueprint of their 2004 debut, they crafted a moodier, more pensive work, rich with Ben Lee’s hushed poetics and the epic, rolling rhythms of How It Feels To Be Something On-era Sunny Day Real Estate. Though they played sporadically in 2005, Humshuttle did manage to get over to Ireland, where they became men and alcoholics, almost immediately.

Humshuttle weren’t the only locals to birth great music in 2005. A Failure For Every Season left their emo peers in the dust with their debut CD; Hibakusha, after ten long years of toil released their debut to almost unanimous praise as the record of the year; Tony Salomone finally came into his own with his umpteenth project, the Haunches, whose Recording Session Ends In Tragedy EP has owned the CKMS charts ever since. The Vermicious Knid released their finest work, and lamentably, their swan-song, with Smalltown Devotion/Hometown Compulsion, and helped keep their friends in the Sourkeys on the map with a split 7”.

Yes, the births were glorious and many, but the Vermicious Knid weren’t the only ones to lay down their arms last year. Several local stalwarts bid tearful goodbyes, but the cyclical nature of rock ‘n’ roll has given us as much as it’s taken away.

The Babyshakers, after three years of volume and mayhem, played their last show in May, destroying the crowd at Fiddler’s Green before the headliners, Teenage Head, had a chance to. Not one to rest on his laurels, guitarist Tommy Smokes was quick to bounce back with his new project, The Saigon Hookers.

“We are aiming to release a five song EP by spring,” says Smokes, “and hopefully a full-length by fall. We’ll be focusing on playing shows around Ontario and Quebec. We are going to play a lot and bang a lot of heads. It’s gonna be a good year for us.”

Post-rockers the Everyday Faces played their last show in 2005 and left singer/guitarist Rick Andrade free to return to his drum-kit behind the Machines. Their Jam-inspired boogie-pop has made them fast-favourites all across Ontario, and 2006 could easily be the year that they take over.

“We’ll be completing our as-yet-unnamed debut album and slaying audiences coast to coast with our raucous live show,” says Andrade. “We may also throw in a bake sale for good measure.”

In Transit released one of the records of the year with their debut, Morning Watch, built by members of a couple of bands who are no longer with us, (Malaprop, Detrimentals). Their careful balance of Coldplay ambience and fist-pumping anthemics keeps them high on the list of bands to look out for this year.

So we’ve lost a few, gained a few, and with albums on the horizon from The Miniatures, Shannon Lyon, Saigon Hookers, The Machines, The Sourkeys, (and the impending, official reunion of Lucid), 2006 looks bright. It’s nice to be in a town where the rock is always changing, and always great. We’ll see how she goes…

(originally published December 2005. Echo Weekly. Kitchener.)