From the very first notes of Anomie, the opening track on what was to be a surprise new album from the blues-tinged stoner-rock outfit, we were exclaiming: “That sounds like cr…!
Then, as we listened to the album, my fifties – whose teenage years were glorified by Led Zep and other 1970s legends – found themselves remembering that, after all, this band led by Olivier Langevin and featuring ingenious keyboardist François Lafontaine (Karkwa), 4-string desperado Fred Fortin, drummer (and tinkerer) Pierre Fortin (Les Dales Hawerchuk) and the excellent Karine Pion (Belle et Bum) on vocals and percussion, had nothing to envy from the international bands of yesterday and today.
Well, we’re not going to talk about the lyrics, which aren’t really the focus here, but rather about the raw, hypnotic energy that reminds us of the good old days of the smoky bars when Galaxie 500 was born in 2002, its first name until 2010, in tribute to the famous Ford car of the same name.
From punk to Hendrixian influences, and sometimes to those of the Beatles, Dylan or ZZ Top (the captivating Le Spleen de Montréal), this live-energy studio album is “an explosion of many songs, not a single bullet fired”, we might say, paraphrasing Jack White.
Fortunately for fans of big thrash rock and controlled sonic skids, drummer Pierre Fortin urged Langevin, who hadn’t touched a guitar during the pandemic, into the studio to wring his guts and see what would come out.
The result, solid and convincing, offered the band’s merry men a fine excuse to once again criss-cross the circuit of Quebec bars that play alternative music. Who said rock was dead?
