Preview
SHIKASTA
Wednesday, May 19
Liberty Lounge
The members of Shikasta are no strangers to good press. The band's website is littered with rave reviews. Unfortunately, every article has the same bittersweet message: This homegrown talent is being so blatantly overlooked by the music industry that it's starting to border on criminal negligence. Granted, it's an old rant, one that music writers try to avoid because they knows it's futile. But once in a while, the injustice is too great to ignore and this is one of those cases.
After a few listens to their impeccably timed, perfectly executed 2001 release, Gold, signing this act to a recording deal seems like a no-brainer. The album was the quintessential blues explosion, making Jon Spencer seem tired – and he's the one who resurrected the genre. Shikasta’s live show is nothing short of legendary. You would think that label reps would have been wooing the Toronto trio with Crystal, coke and limber geisha girls. Not so. The offers have been few and far between.
"We did a tour with the Bellrays and the closest we came to having something was TVT Records wanted to sign us the day of (seeing us), but it just dwindled," says lead singer-vocalist, Russell Fernandes. "It was just a lot of hot air."
But before the Shikasta and the record company parted ways, the execs were thoughtful enough to explain why they bailed.
"TVT nailed it," Fernandes says. "They said, 'You're one of those cool pet projects. But we're not gonna make any money off you and this is exactly how we see it.'"
As long as Fernandes has music in his soul, he's going to keep plugging away. The new plan is to try cracking a new market.
"Now we’re looking for Europe because I think that we work out a little bit better there," he says. "I just feel that there's a lot less cynicism over there. I've seen audiences there and it just feels that people are more free."
Now I know what you're thinking – isn't the blues explosion thing, like, so three years ago? Not to worry. Fernandes's talent is endless and very adaptable to the changing times.
"We wanted to put more emphasis on the groove," he says about the band's sophomore effort, The Weight of the Sun. "We wanted to have something a little bit different from Gold. Gold was straight-up. There was no restraint. Here we actually wanted to get some sort of a pocket going and make it more dancey. I wanted to make more of a sex record than anything."
And he succeeded in doing so. Now record labels don't have any excuses left. After all, they can't argue that sex doesn't sell. |
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