by Haley Cullingham
If Black Hat Brigade had their way, they would re-form with their heroes, David Bowie, Neil Young, and Gord Downey, as the greatest glam-rock country band Canada has ever seen. Over beers at Free Times Cafe, guitarist Bryan turns to bandmate Rob. “Would you play keyboards for Neil Young?”
“If he would let me, yes.” Rob replies. “It would be more like grand piano.”
Bryan turns to Justin, their bassist. “Who would you want to play with?”
Without pause, Justin responds. “Wu Tang Clan.”
“And Adam,” Bryan finishes, gesturing to the corner, where their lead guitarist is destroying a basket of hot wings, “Adam would want to play with Cyndi Lauper.” Laughter all around.
It would be quite the show. However. For the time being, Black Hat Brigade are busy, playing shows and recording EPs as one of the most exciting independent rock n roll outfits in the city. The band’s identity is truly a collaboration of the varied personalities within, and influences without. “Rob stole our name from a Kurt Vonnegut book.” Bryan says. Playing in NXNE this year, the band, which formed a year and a half ago, have been playing shows in and around the GTA, with a sound that is at once familiar and unique. “We all switch instruments a lot,” Bryan says, speaking to the sprawling collaborative quality in their songs. “That’s my favourite part,” he continues, “the…eclecticness of the creation.” Rob laughs. The guys had their first show at The Horseshoe, and it’s still one of their favourite venues, along with The Boat (“A great spot. The stage is the perfect size.”) and Rancho Relaxo, where they’ve had some memorable performances.
“There’s this one sound guy at Rancho Relaxo, everyone just calls him Spock.” says Bryan, “I don’t know if that’s his real name, but I hope it is. He sound-checked everything with a flute. And so the next time we went to play, we asked him if he wanted to come up and play on one of our songs. We have this one instrumental song, so we told him ‘you can play whatever you want’, and he came up, and it was the best. That was a really cool night. ” When they’re not playing you’ll find them drinking cheap PBR at Baby Huey’s, where Justin works, or at Sweaty Betty’s, around the corner from their downtown jam space. The boys obviously have a love for the city. “We’ve had a great experience, people have been very helpful. We’ve had a couple of great promoters get behind us and help us out,” says Bryan of the Toronto music community, but also mentioning Canadian blogs like Hero Hill, and festivals like Canadian Music Week and NXNE. “So far we’ve been on pretty solid bills. We’ve had a great Toronto experience.” Some other Toronto bands that get the guys excited about the scene are Oh No Forest Fires, who played their EP release party, and Golden Hands Before God, “I like that [in music today] people can just make whatever song they want. Go listen to Frog Eyes. That there is the most ridiculous, yelping, seven minute song you’ve ever heard and it’s incredible.” Bryan says. “I think what I dig most,” says Rob, “is that there are some really good bands out there who are getting some really good recognition and pretty much none of it involves any air play on any major radio stations.” Their enthusiasm for music in the city, and music in general, is contagious, and so is the genuine excitement about their own creative efforts. This is clearly a band that loves making music, and is going to keep going about that in their own unique way.
Black Hat Brigade plays Rancho Relaxo on July 11, and plays in Ottawa with The Handsome Furs in August
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