Toronto based Crash Karma may be a newish band on the scene, but if you haven’t heard the band’s new singles “Awake,” and “Fight” on the radio, you have definitely heard of the individual members’ bands on the radio.
That’s  because Crash Karma consists of I Mother Earth lead singer Edwin, Our Lady Peace guitarist Mike Turner and Tea Party drummer Jeff Burrows plus bassist Amir Epstein who brought them all together in a curious six degrees of Amir story. But they aren’t just a supergroup.

They are in the middle of a  Canadian  tour which will bring them to Lethbridge, Nov. 22 to Essies with Desperate Union.
“So far,  really good, being a Canadian touring artist one of the big concerns is the weather  and so far it’s been fantastic, so the are always good and the roads have been fine and that’s about as good as it gets,” said guitarist Mike Turner last week, before the snow hit, adding they just returned from spending Thanksgiving week in Afghanistan.
 The band all met a couple years ago through Amir Epstein, who recorded an Ep and an album for his band Zygote at Turner’s Toronto studio “Pocket Studio.”

“Obviously I’d known Jeff and Ed over the years from touring together and you can’t have been in Canadian music in the ’90s and not met one of our bands because well we were everywhere, all the time. So that was an easy connection,” he said adding Epstein’s infectious energy captured the interest of the band members and even won over Edwin, who was reluctant to join the band at first.

But Crash Karma isn‘t just a supergroup, they made it to radio play on the merits of their first independently recorded and released single “Awake.”

“Fast forward a few months  and we’re half way through a record and people started getting excited when they hear the finished tracks. We didn’t really have any expectations of it beyond ‘we're going to make some songs and see how it feels. If it’s fun if it feels like something good, we’ll pursue it further and at each turn it forced us to take it more seriously, not that we weren’t taking it seriously like our career path, our current career trajectory will be blah, blah. Oh let’s make some songs and see if they’re good,” he said.

 “Oh Ralph James wants to be our agent, oh he’s with the biggest agency in the country.  Oh, I guess we’d better get the live band together and figure out how to play these songs live. Then Jake Gold came to the table in a managerial position when we played at the Horseshoe last summer and things just sort of started falling into place. We keep picking them up when they land in our lap,” Turner continued.

“We’re on our third single and this one is top 40 and climbing, the other two went top 20 and the first one went top 5. So we’re consistently getting the support of radio which is really gratifying.

“And I will say, our own little ego behooves me to let you know we launched the first single on our own. We did it completely independently. We hired the radio promoter, which is what everyone does, a guy named Dale Peters. He didn’t tell people who we are when he pitched the song,” Turner said.

If you are in the mood for some cowboy metal, or for that matter want to know what cowboy metal is, or if you like bands like Big Sugar and Govt. Mule, then you will not want to miss Grady. The Austin, Texas based power trio visit Average Joes, Nov. 23.


Vocalist/ guitarist Gordie Johnson, best known for being frontman for Canadian rock juggernaut Big Sugar, doesn’t even know how to describe the band’s sound.


“I’m not in the describing business, I’m in the music making business,” laughed Johnson over the phone, beginning press for the band’s new live CD/DVD “Calling All My Demons.”


“ Though a few years ago we were playing South By South West and a bunch of British journalists booked us to play a  a showcase because they wanted to hear some Texas music. And they called us ‘cowboy metal,’ So cool, I guess we’re cowboy metal,” Johnson continued adding he is looking forward to returning to Lethbridge as he has played here many times though he couldn’t  remember if he had been here with Grady or not.


“I guess we’ll be playing some cowboy metal there. We’ll be combining things like blistering punk, rock and roll, metal, old cowboy songs and old one chord blues, all in the same show, sometimes in the same song,” he said.


“It all seems normal to us,” he continued adding there isn’t a set list for the upcoming tour.


“We don’t believe in setlists, that’s no way to play a show,” he said adding he expects the band will play selections  from all three of the band’s albums.


“If you’ve seen us live, then you know the live CD and DVD set,” he said adding the band hadn’t originally planned on releasing a live DVD and CD from their show at the Pyramid in Winnipeg last year.


The Lethbridge Community Gold band is remembering their founder and good friend Robert Cook by playing a special  tribute concert  to him featuring all of his favourite pieces, Nov. 13 at the College Drive Community Church.
Cook, who played clarinet and conducted the band, passed away in August. He  began the band in 1987 with the goal of “ creating not only a band, but an excellent concert ensemble,” which was achieved six years later when  they performed at  a western music festival in Red Deer with 170 other bands  from western Canada and the northwestern United States, and took all five of the top honours.

“I don’t have a specific memory of him. I remember how he made me feel. You weren’t just part of the band, you were a friend,” said bass clarinetist  Jo Ann Whitehead adding the almost two hour long concert will include some of Cook’s favourite pieces of music, chosen with care by his widow Beth and conductor Ken Rogers, include “Incantation and Dance, ” “Liberty” Fair and ”A Trumpeter’s Lullaby,” to name a few. There will be a reception following the concert.

  The LCI Singers will be the special guests at the concert, which will be directed by Karen Hudson and feature pianist Barbara Hignell.

“It’s just basically a tribute to him because after he conducted us for 10 years, we  felt we’d like to honour him,” she continued.
“There were 16 founding members and some of them still play with us,” she continued  adding she has a lot of fond memories of Bob Cook. Cook was known for  his organizational skills and insistence on structure, progress and vision. Because of his hard work,  the band has had several superb conductors and guest collaborations with  Allan Vizzutti and international trumpet virtuoso Jens Lindemann as well as  the late John Griffiths, the Mantini Sisters and howard Cable, plus many commissions and premieres of new works.

_{For something completely different, The Slice had a late starting Sunday show, Nov. 7, beginning with local psychobilly/ punk trio, the Phantom Creeps, who played another strong set of upbeat crowd favourites.}

 _{Then, Montreal’s Hypnophonics took a devil of a long time to set up. Then, adorned with 3-D glasses combined elements of freaky ’60s psychedelic tinged garage rock with The Damned’s humour and  the Dead Kennedy’s punk intensity into a sound that was interesting , to say the least.}

 _{One girl at the front of the stage unbuttoned the manic lead singer’s shirt,  as he leaped all over the crowd and yelled into their faces, grinning all the while, and then returned  to the stage with a demonic glint in his eye.}

_{The stand up bassist straddled his instrument and cut loose, backed by frenetic drumming and Danelectro ’60s garage rock riffs.}

_{The Brains closed the show, but I  didn’t have the energy to stay around for what I am sure was an intense set of psychobilly.}