It will be a feast for the ears for serious rock and roll fans and rock and roll nerds alike when Toronto’s rock behemoth Public Animal roars back into town, Aug, 23 with Calgary rock and roll band Napalmpom and local alternative rock trio the Supervoid.
Napalmpom and Public Animal will be supporting a brand new split CD they have released together.
“It’s humbling. We all grew up listening to the bands (Public Animal frontman) Ian Blurton and those guys were in like C’mon, Change of Heart and Tricky Woo,” said self proclaimed music nerd and Napalmpom guitarist Shawn Petsch.
“I don’t envy the dates we have to play after them. They’re loud and we’re going to sound like an acoustic band when we follow them,” he said.
Napalmpom incudes several Calgary music scene veterans including vocalist P.J Lavergne, guitarist Craig Evans, bassist Ian Baker and drummer Matthew Bayliff.
They have toured extensively around Western Canada from Victoria to Saskatoon and have been nominated for a Western Canadian Music Award. Meanwhile Public Animal includes some of Southern Ontario's finest rockers.
“ I think it was two new years ago. We went to the Broken City, a club in Calgary, because we wanted to bring in Public Animal because we wanted a rocking New Year’s Eve show, so we started talking about it then, but I didn’t think anything would come of it,” he said.
“Then a couple months ago they sent us a message saying ‘ we’re in the studio, are we doing this or what.’ A lot of e-mails went back an forth,” he said.
They recorded their part of the EP in Calgary with Lorrie Matheson while Public Animal recorded their part in Toronto.
“ We were going to do odd ’70s covers then Australian rock covers but nothing felt right,” he said.
So each band decided to record a song by one of their favourite artists from their neck of the woods
So Public Animal recorded a cover of Living Proof’s “ Don’t Let Me.” Napalmpom went for a cover of Edmonton’s Jr. Gone Wild’s “Cosmos.”
“ I have a long personal history with Jr. Gone Wild because my aunt, who was like an older sister to me was really into them. She was always into them and I started listening to them because I wanted to be one of the cool kids,” he continued.
Producer Lorrie Matheson also helped them decide what to record.
“ When we were recording with him, he was playing the Jr. Gone Wild album and telling us they were a proto Napapompom. We ended up learning ‘Cosmos’ and performed it for him as a gift,” he said, adding it was s a natural choice to add to this recording.
Public Animal
Napalmpom, Public Animal and the Supervoid play the Slice, Sunday, Aug. 23 at 9 p.m.
