The Hamilton punk quartet TV Freaks is named after a song by Australian band The Victims, but "I do like TV," says bassist Kevin Bell. "Me and my girlfriend have been watching Kitchen Nightmares. It's a staged-reality kinda thing to to watch. You don't have to think about much to watch it. Kinda like our band."
TV Freaks is part of what Bell calls a "super-booming" punk scene in southern Ontario. The band's label, Schizophrenic, is run by Craig Caron out of his Hammer City record store. "In the past, it hasn't been, but since this band's around it's been really huge," says Bell of the scene. "Our band being around, other cool bands, that's how it goes–you start doing shows for yourself, find a bar you can do whatever you want at, and go from there. There was always a rad show once a month, now it's once a week."
The band has produced a half-dozen releases on various formats including cassette and seven-inch in its five-year existence (the latest seven-inch, Leeches, won't be ready in time for OBEY). Bell says the songs come quick and in big batches. "It's not really rocket science to write songs in our style," he says, chuckling. "'That's cool, do that part four times then add this weird part that doesn't make any sense.' Some of our songs are only 30 seconds long–but if we can get our point across in 30 seconds, sometimes that's all it takes."
Friday, May 23 at 10pm
Seahorse Tavern
