Preview
AGRICULTURE CLUB
Friday, March 4
Broken City
"My heart is starting to polarize," admits Agriculture Club guitarist-singer The Rubber Duck. "Part of my heart just loves country music, but the other part only loves heavy shit. I’m either writing pure country or heavy, heavy-metal shit. I think this is the closest we’ve come to fusing the two together – pure cowboy metal."
He’s speaking about Agriculture Club’s third full-length effort The Horse Always Gets It First. An album unrivalled in its power and immediacy, one is instantly entranced, bewildered and just plain engrossed with even a cursory listen.
Recorded in a paltry six days this winter, it is inspiring and frustrating to think of how this tertiary melding of such dichotomous genres as rock, country and heavy metal could culminate into such a pleasurably jarring experience.
Let’s put it this way: after years of fending off ludicrous comparisons and asinine accusations about their esthetics, The Horse Always Gets It First will be the album to thrust Agriculture Club past any and all limitations previously heaped upon them. Its impact is far too monumental to be ignored….
…Even if the band doesn’t think so yet. Blending the brute force and uncompromised attitude of metal with the sincerity, take-no-bullshit mentality and relentless drive of country, The Horse Always Gets It First is fascinatingly urgent – the closest this Calgary quartet (rounded out by guitarist Waylon Nelson, bassist Gordon Leadfoot and drummer Luther Chickengravy) have come to equalling their raucous live show.
"That’s exactly what we wanted," The Rubber Duck says. "We just turned the lights off and I screamed my guts out. We are making the exact kind of records we’d buy if we could find them. This is the music we like and I find it hard to locate as a record buyer. I don’t think I play note-perfect when I’m jumping around onstage, but that energy is there and that transfers to this record. That carries over live because there are few bands in Calgary delivering on that level outside of the hardcore circuit."
"(But) at the same time, we just don’t think of it," says Nelson. "When we write songs, we just do what Agriculture Club (does). Ultimately we want to entertain people. We’re a live band more than an album band – we like to get onstage and rock. Everyone should be having a great time because we’re having a great time. That’s partially why we knocked out The Horse Always Gets It First – that’s how it maintains our live feel. I mean, we did this album in six days where it took Steely Dan two weeks to find a chair to record on."
With the AC/DC-influenced drive and unstoppable backbeat of album opener "Theme From An Imaginary Agriculture Club" (which strangely evokes illusions of early Dropkick Murphys with its reel-and-jig vibe) to the decidedly Judas Priest-meets-Johnny Cash aura of the album’s namesake ("quite possibly the first bona fide country-metal song," says Nelson, beaming) and the Alberta-lovin’ chorus of "Strong and Free," it is now fact that Agriculture Club have truly carved their own niche not only in Canadian rock, but quite possibly the international span.
But to the band, that doesn’t matter. All it means for them are fewer and fewer comparisons between Agriculture Club and their less-than-loose associations with other cowboy-hat totin’ bands.
"If you’re wearing a cowboy hat, you’re instantly pegged into that scene. But it’s only the people who don’t really understand what we’re about that peg us like that," says The Rubber Duck with a grunt.
"I understand that some people are devoid of angles when they’re trying to identify something, but I’m sick of the clichés. I don’t like the term redneck. I grew up in the country with good people. White trash implies that there are trashes of other colour and I’d never say that. We’re just a rock band, but people sure love to pin you down."
Amusingly though, even Agriculture Club can’t help working that angle on a cunning-albeit-advantageous level at times.
"I find it quite amusing to look that way and be perceived that way, but then haul out a four-by-12 cabinet that’s louder than the voice of God. That, and it bugs the shit out of the alternative kids because we look like rednecks. But we’re not. We’re an indie rock band so you have to watch us and get over your stereotyping. We’re forcing people to rethink their ideas."
Regardless, it is important to point out that while Agriculture Club realizes they have formed their own niche, they sport no grandiose illusions of rewriting the book of rock ’n’ roll. As levelheaded as their own lyrics would illustrate, they are proud of their accomplishments and understandably won’t let anyone downplay them.
But neither will they fool themselves into anything more than realistic goals. They just wanna rock. Questioned as to the next steps for Agriculture Club now that The Horse Always Gets It First is ready, Nelson is decidedly blunt.
"Our goal is to keep playing as we head into our adult years. We have no illusions of being rock stars or playing full time. I think the world would be better off if people with day jobs were in good bands. It would maintain a realistic view of music," says Nelson.
"We just want to get the word out there so we can keep playing," adds The Rubber Duck. "Our bread isn’t buttered here in Calgary… we just want to keep playing across Canada. It’s a small crowd we’re playing for… but they’re rabid. They understand what we’re about and will always support us. We’re not going out of style because we’re never gonna be in style.
"That said, there’ll be 20 punk bands, 20 emo bands and 20 college-rock bands that will roll through your town before you’ll ever see another band like Agriculture Club. This is my escape hatch from adulthood. If the band is successful enough for that, we don’t need much else," he smiles, adding, "but now that I have a mortgage, free beer isn’t so bad either."
Local revolutions
With three full-lengths under their belts, we asked members of Calgary’s Agriculture Club to spill the beans on their favourite local releases.
· Faster than the Speed of Spite by The Bittermen: Back in the mid-’90s, before two-piece rock bands were all the rage, The Bittermen spit out a pair of great rock albums like a mouthful of busted teeth. The second one is the rawest – drums, one guitar and a single gargled, bloody vocal track.
· Is Beyond Possession by Beyond Possession: Raw, fast and aggressive. This album showed me that there was more to metal than fluffy hairdos and more to punk than The Sex Pistols.
· The old guard rules: Von Zippers, Forbidden Dimension etc. Good current local stuff: The Last Act, Ramblin’ Ambassadors, Cripple Creek Fairies, Tim Hus and any project with Craig Corth and Julie Kerr in it. RIP Smokin’ 45s.
· The Fist by The Cripple Creek Fairies: It's fun, it rocks and it doesn't pretend to be something it's not.
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