Get up on your feet
Six String Rebels bring a touch of a Sudbury Saturday night to Cowtown
MUSIC PREVIEW
SIX STRING REBELS CD release party
Saturday, September 14
The Castle
The action is hopping at the Blackfoot Truck Stop – especially the roadrunner waitresses zooming about like pink blurs. It’s a place where people of all ages are sipping coffee and passing the time on a sleepy weekend afternoon. In a far corner are the black-clad Six String Rebels, hangin’ out at their favourite diner and considering an order of Flapper Pie.
One of the most refreshing aspects of this band, aside from their straightforward personalities and deeply passionate take on punk, is that they are quite a tightly knit bunch. James Gamble, Uncle Russ, and Byron Hone are all cousins, and the fourth member, Anita Maria, is engaged to James. They’re all originally from Sudbury, Ontario, but moved west when they realized, as Russ puts it, "If you stayed in Sudbury, you’d either mine or you’d sweep floors."
They say the bleak reality of their working-class hometown is the primary inspiration behind all that they are and what they stand for. Byron states that it’s why they got into punk rock in the first place – there was nothing else to do in Sudbury but start up a band and partake in the all-ages scene.
"It’s probably been one of the biggest effects on my life... our city and the way it’s gone – strikes and layoffs and all that stuff. We grew up in the mid-90s in Ontario with (Premier) Mike Harris," sighs James. "Y’know, Ralph Klein is his idol.
"When we were teenagers, we lived in a time when everybody was on strike and everybody was being laid off. It was just a really crappy time to grow up. We never had any aspirations of school because nobody would give you money to go to school and there was no point because jobs didn’t exist. It’s just how it was."
He says the whole "no future thing" had a huge effect on their music. When the group relocated and settled in Calgary, they found that many of the bands weren’t exactly street level. While the quartet’s discussion of the scene never includes a cut-down of any specific band (in fact, they praise many of them), they feel that they have filled a conspicuous void. It’s a void that they have noticed in the larger music scene as well.
"We find it hard to relate to a lot of bands," admits James. "We’re just regular working people and we don’t have these great lifestyles. We pay bills month to month just like everybody else. It’s hard to find bands to represent what we’re about. A lot of rock bands are just about other things – drugs, booze, chicks. We go to work. We’re not up every night partying by no means. Part of what we’re doing is trying to represent young people (or) just working people in general."
Their blazing new release, the Stand Up EP, is certainly a lyrical testament to their blue-collar roots, backed with window-rattling, rawked-up punk. Tracks like "Don’t Mean Nothin’" and "Boom City" reveals that this is one of the most promising bands to set up camp in our city. Keep your fingers crossed that they stick around far longer than Klein.
E-mail Fast Forward a reason why we should give you the Six String Rebels prize pack and you could win their Stand Up EP, stickers, a patch and a band T-shirt. Mail your entries (including your name and a daytime phone number) to win@ffwd.greatwest.ca with "Streetsounds Giveaway" in the subject line. The winner will be contacted next week. Good luck! |
