Animal Names

After a successful run as the guitarist for a number of local bands (The Buzzing Bees, Slow Kids Playing Fast, The Day After Tomorrow Band), Chris vanderLaan packed his amps and moved to Vancouver. Now that he’s gathered a musical caravan sizable enough to unleash a sonic storm upon the country, vanderLaan is bringing Animal Names and Baby Control to Calgary for a pair of shows this weekend.

Fast Forward: How does it feel to return to your hometown after moving west?

vanderLaan: I’ve spent the last three years working, eating pizza, drinking Slurpees and playing music. Is that what the Prodigal Son spent his time doing? I can’t recall the story that well.

Both of your bands have new albums, and the differences between the two seem enormous. Baby Control’s Best War sounds like lo-fi early ’90s grunge rock, whereas Animal Names’ Ballet Bones has more of a modern pop sound. Do the bands share any similarities?

Both bands write pop songs; we just come at the music in different ways. I think obnoxiously loud sounds can be just as appealing as quiet ones. I don’t differentiate between playing a xylophone and banging a guitar against an amp, as long as the result sounds good. Both bands use similar dynamics, too — to different degrees.

Can you describe how you crafted Best War? Were you listening to old grunge rock at the time?

I don’t know what everyone else was using for reference, but, for me, it was (Nirvana’s) In Utero and Fairy God Fighters by Party of Helicopters, arguably two of the best records ever. Some of the songs on our album are actually quite old — Dann Tompkins, Zoë Verkuylen and I started playing together almost three years ago. It was a really slow process because Zoë was always away with work, and our neighbours kept calling the police every time we tried to practise. Things started to click when Mark Colavecchia joined the band and we found a space where the cops stopped interrupting us. It’s by far the most co-operative songwriting process I’ve ever been a part of. Our songs are quite calculated. They sound exactly the way we want them to.

Is this different from your songwriting process in Animal Names?

Animal Names now makes up songs in much the same way that Baby Control does. At first, though, I had a number of songs that I’d been working on by myself after moving to Vancouver. I spent about a year recruiting new people to perfect them and record enough other songs to make an album. I’m very glad to see that what started as a vanity project for me has turned into a functioning band. I recommend it for anyone that wants to be in a band with their most talented friends but is too shy to ask. Just ask them to help with an album you’re working on and then cast spells on them so that they show up once or twice a week to start working on new songs.

What are you looking forward to most about returning home?

It is exciting to be coming to Calgary to play. I’ve never actually been to the Hifi Club or EMMEDIA. I would feel more nostalgic if the shows were at the Night Gallery or Carpenters Union Hall, but it will be fun to drive down the same streets in a different junky van. I’m looking forward to going to Buddha’s Veggie and Veggie House before the shows. Afterwards, I predict I’ll sit in my parents’ basement with my bandmates and make them watch the video of the time my sister and I were on that old game show Kidstreet.

-Charles Gunn - FFWD Weekly, August 30 2007

Animal Names' name was bred from a misunderstanding ("What should our name be?" frontman Chris VanderLaan asked a friend, who replied, "I like animal names."), but there's no confusion when it comes to their brand of hook-laden indie pop. The Vancouver quintet, who share two members with The Got To Get Got, combine jangly guitars, catchy melodies and multiple-part vocal harmonies with entertaining song titles like "Something And The Infinite Gladness" and "Very 1994" on this debut album. Many of the band members sing in unison with VanderLaan, a la The Ghost Is Dancing, but it's the great complement of his and keyboardist Melissa Gregerson's vocals on "Kurt Cobain Road" that really stand out. While the lyrics and vocals are sometimes too emo-twinged for my liking, "We Mean Big," "Skyline Teeth" and "Plastic Castles" make up for it in the end. Jen White - Chart Attack

BENJAMIN BOLES
Vancouver’s Animal Names mine that wistful, sunny mood that brings up memories of certain elements of 90s indie pop, albeit with more modern tones and instrumentation. While they might be from opposite shores, early Sloan isn’t a bad comparison, just with much less guitar noise and a wider range of textures.

They’ve got a good ear for a catchy hook and know enough not to cover it up with overproduction. Unfortunately, their attempts at lyrical wit often come across as a bit goofy, treading an uncomfortable line between earnestness and novelty. A promising debut, but they’d do well to spend more time listening to contemporary pop and to reconsider whether their songs actually need to be sprinkled with cutesy jokes. - NOW Magazine (Toronto)

Vancouver-based indie rock that reminds me of SLOAN. Catchy choruses, vocal harmonies, and all that other good stuff. Features at least one member who also plays with the amazing THE GOT TO GET GOT. - CJAM Blog

By Josiah Hughes

Led by Chris vanderLaan, a former member of Calgary melodic punk band the Buzzing Bees, Vancouver-based quartet Animal Names feature the sort of melodic but melancholy harmonies and mid-tempo, guitar-based rock songs that can only come from kids raised on Braid or the Get Up Kids. But, as demonstrated on their debut album, Ballet Bones, that’s far from a bad thing. Opener “Something and the Infinite Gladness” builds a slow navel gazer from vanderLaan’s matter-of-fact singing and playful guitar. Elsewhere, as on “Grinder Deluxxx,” the album kicks up the pace for some summery sing-alongs. “Plastic Castles,” the album’s centrepiece ballad, is a quiet acoustic track in the vein of Kind of Like Spitting. If you grew up with all-ages shows and early Smallman Records, you’ll find Animal Names’ fantastic debut especially exciting. (Citystarfleet) - Exclaim! Sept 2008