>>PREVIEW
GOMEZ
Thursday, October 19
MacEwan Hall (U of C)
It’s not exactly on the scale of Noah’s 40 days and 40 nights, but the Gomez touring schedule boasts its own biblical proportions. The boys on the ark – er, bus – are in the middle of a whirlwind 29-date tour through North America.
Fully expecting a tired and road-weary voice when Fast Forward caught up with him in Milwaukee, bass player Paul Blackburn exudes a surprisingly buoyant disposition.
"Hallo, how’s it goin’ sir?" the Liverpudlian chirps from his hotel room phone.
Judging by his casual tone, Blackburn and the rest of the band are well adept at enduring the frenzied touring tangent where the band darts in and out of cities and venues like marathon runners. At such a pace, one wonders whether the band ever loses track of which city they are in at a given time. Blackburn chuckles, "It’s when you wake up first thing in the morning and you think, ‘So, where are we again?’"
But fans of this quintet certainly aren’t confused. Its dedicated followers have been waiting for a stop along the continuum ever since the band blew Calgary audiences away this time two years ago. In fact, through relentless touring, the band continues to make impressions and connections with its fans from all across the globe. Keeping a diverse crowd and the players themselves engaged at each and every gig is paramount to the band’s continued success.
"We try to mix around the sets. You don’t want to stagnate within the band. It’s a funny thing, really, because you’re trying to keep everybody involved as much as possible. We don’t want to be regurgitating the same song each time. We’ll mix in some old tunes with as many off the new album as possible."
The new album, How We Operate,, that Blackburn proudly speaks of integrating into the live set, showcases the band at its creative and cohesive best.
"There’s more of a continuity running throughout," Blackburn explains. "It feels like a whole album. Even though the songs are different stylistically, it feels like the same band running through the album. There’s a bit more of an identity of the band."
As anyone who’s followed Gomez from its inception in the late ’90s can tell you, the band’s identity is not easy to categorize. Gomez originally gained attention for marrying skuzzy electronic noise and rhythms with roots and blues music – something very few bands were doing at the time. The combination won praise from the music industry and the band earned the prestigious U.K. Mercury Prize for 1998’s band of the year. When Gomez began to experiment with genres, the sound grew apart from the roots-sensibilities of 1999’s Liquid Skin album. Suddenly, the media grew suspicious and the band was criticized for abandoning its post. Undeterred, Gomez actively cultivated a new fan base outside the U.K. The band toured North America and Australia relentlessly. The tours’ momentum eventually shifted into the recording process, as 2004’s off-the-session floor rehearsal and recording of Split the Difference became something raw, rejuvenating and more accessible to a wider audience.
After the label switch to ATO records, the band invited producer Gil Norton (The Pixies, Foo Fighters) to further refine their approach. Norton took over the reins and carefully guided the quality of each song as an integral piece of How We Operate. The process was uncharacteristically consistent for Gomez. Blackburn agrees.
"It seems a little bit more in shape. On previous records we’d record everything in completely different ways."
In keeping with the band’s "different ways," this week’s release of Five Men in a Hut reveals a more eclectic catalogue of tunes than what is evident on the band’s most recent studio efforts. A-sides, B-sides and Rarities: 1998-2004 is a collection of songs boasting U.K. singles and more obscure sonic-twists under the auspices of Virgin Records. Blackburn insists the quality is no different than any other Gomez record.
"Anytime we record an album, it might end up that there’s 12, 13 songs on it, but in order to get to that we’d probably record 20 to 25 songs. A B-side is not necessarily a lesser song, it just might not have quite reached the evolution to make it on a full-length album." |
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