Sadly Scene and Heard will be missing out on the ECMAs this year. Instead your humble narrator will spend the weekend as she usually does, talking about herself in the third person, watching Walker Texas Ranger and drinking Wildcat until she cries. She was really looking forward to all these mini-festivals and “No-Cases” for up-and-coming bands from all over the Maritimes.
One of the biggest of these is East Coast Uprising, a fest that’s hosting a veritable smorgasbord of groups at Govenor’s Pub all weekend. Stop Motion Massacre will be taking the stage on Thursday night at 1:15am. The boys shared some thoughts on their auspicious Sydney debut in an email. “I have no idea where I’m sleeping. Maybe I’ll go on a three-day spirit quest,” says Brian Dodge. His bandmates Alfred Remo and Derrick Hiltz have played other ECMA showcases in various other band incarnations. Hiltz says the best fun is “sneaking into proper ECMA events and drinking drinks that weren’t meant for us.”
As an ECMA newbie, Dodge says the festival gig has allowed his dreams to spiral out of control.
“I have this fantasy that after we play our show a guy’s going to come up to us in a white suit and mirrored sunglasses,” says Dodge. “And he’ll be all like ‘You three are the second coming of the doomsday machine and I’m going to give you an Olympic-sized pool full of barbecued red meat as a reward. Oh, and here are some skateboards you can thrash with when you’re done eating.'”
- Stop Motion Massacre: Dream, baby, dream.
When they’re not drinking or playing, the boys plan to play a lot of video games, maybe see Bad Vibrations and indulge in Napoli Pizza. “If I were strictly an observer, I’d seek out whatever bands were the boldest, weirdest and most ridiculous—stardom and career-advancement be damned,” says Hiltz. “I want to see bands that shoot their careers in the foot with a bazooka.”
Remo has more straightforward ambitions: “This whole thing is just an excuse for musicians to get together, play some music, and get shitfaced,” he says. “The awards? None of us give a fuck about the awards. We all just want to know where the hotel room party with the free beer is at 3 o’clock in the morning.”
You can download Stop Motion Massacre’s first release for free here.
In addition to the happenings at Governor’s, you lucky bastards might also want to check out the aforementioned Ec’ze’ma No Case at the Upstairs Club on March 6 with Myles Deck and the Fuzz, Bloodhouse, Bad Vibrations, The Strawmen, Liquid Vapours and Cousins. Or perhaps the NSCC Showcase on the same evening at Savoury’s Day’s Inn will tickle your fancy, with the delightful Tupperware Remix Party, The Grass (who are everywhere this weekend, it seems) Gamma Gamma Rays and others. You’ll figure it out one way or another, I’m sure. Move along, cowboy!
This article appears in Mar 4-10, 2010.
I find it funny that he uses the word “career” several times. Most of the bands playing at this sort of thing are one step up from garage band, and still living with their parents. Wait until you meet the real world, boys. She’s an ugly bitch.
For the sake of clarity, NL: When they mention careers, they’re talking about other bands, and it’s in kind of a jokey way. I don’t think they’re all douchey like that – they’re pretty upfront that they don’t care about the awards and are just looking to have fun. I like that!