FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1997. All Rights Reserved.
Enjoying the Creature comforts of home
Moist are back - like they ever went away - with an album that's definitely nothing like their first one. Definitely
by Mike BellMoist with I Mother Earth and Mudgirl
Max Bell Arena
Wednesday, January 22Brooding Canadian superstars Moist are one of those groups that can prematurely age you. They're a band whose songs - if you're not a fan in the strictest... well okay, any sense of the word - elicit an entirely un-hip reaction: you empty your colostomy bag, open your mouth and out pops Dad's predictable grumpy-ass, wrinkly critique for any music released post the New Christie Minstrels version of "Chim-Chiminee, Chim-Chiminee, Chim Chim Charoo" - "It all sounds the same to me."
That's not necessarily an insult. It's just an observation. The band has a fairly contrived angst-rooted '90s rock sound and they appear to adhere to the formula with a reverence usually reserved for North American bingo halls ("I always dob from left to right, smoke 12 packs of Malborough extra-tar menthols and keep Muppet Baby Kermit in my left breast pocket. Can I have the third, fifteenth and eleventieth card from the top. I won $14 seven years ago and I don't want to jinx myself by changing now. And hurry up, I forgot to crack the window in the station wagon for my four year-old!") Their latest release Creature, is different from their debut Silver in the fact that... um... one is called Silver and the other... is called, um, Creature.
"Well, I guess that's the Calgary perspective, huh?" shoots Moist's guitarist Mark Makoway.
"For us there were a lot of things that made it definitely a departure from the first album. It was made in a completely different way. We took our time and toiled on different aspects of things that we had to rush through on the first record and having more time in the studio gave us a chance to try different things, try different kinds of arrangements, different kinds of instruments.
"So definitely for us this record is a step forward and hopefully the mass of people are getting that sense as well."
Apparently they are. The national masses love Moist (and Baywatch and Molson Dry and fuckin' Elmo...) and they've got the sales figures to prove it. Creature is well on its way to becoming a platinum album in Canada, and before the year is out, they should have equaled the success they achieved on their out-of-nowhere, originally indie Silver.
Their current tour with I Lady Earth Mother is selling out mid-sized arenas all across the country (tickets for the Max Bell Calgary show were gone in **** days) prompting Moist to schedule another Canadian tour that will have them back at the U of C in ******. Not surprisingly, Makoway is pleased by the Canadian public's response to their return, but points to that as an indication that Moist's fans have matured with the band.
"Tickets are selling for this tour very, very quickly. It's a good surprise for us because you never know, we've been away for a year or two between making a record and touring other parts of the world. You're coming back and you're wondering if people are going to be as receptive to you as they were the first time around.
"It's something that definitely makes us happy that people seem to be getting this record and wanting to see Moist again."
And while it's only been three months since they were last in town, opening for Neil Young at the 'Dome, the band isn't too worried about over-saturating the market to a point that people become tired of their thang. After all, their thang this time around is a definitely different thang.
"We don't do tons and tons of shows in this country," Makoway insists. "And as far as radio is concerned, if they want to play our music we're not going to complain about that now are we? And if radio wants to play it that's because people want to hear it, isn't it?"
Definitely.
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