Gamma Gamma Rays
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Gamma Gamma Rays

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada | INDIE

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada | INDIE
Band Pop Alternative

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This band has not uploaded any videos

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"Teenage pop phenoms lay groundwork for the future"

Playing upbeat, keyboard-driven pop, The Gamma Gamma Rays might just be one of the best young bands in Halifax. But most of Halifax just doesn't know it yet. Some bands may find it flattering to be considered one of the city's best kept secrets, but sometimes it can be a little frustrating to find yourself playing for the same faces.

Formed late last year, the band features brothers Mark and Scott Grundy, on bass and guitar respectively, along with Carolann Deyoung on keyboard and Jorin Caldwell on drums.

Without a single member over the age of 19, the Gamma Gamma Rays are glued to the all-ages scene for the time being. Aside from a matinee Pop Explosion showcase with Duchess Says at the Seahorse, the Gamma Gamma Rays have been limited venue-wise. Due to the lack of an expansive all-ages scene in Halifax, that means a lot of shows at the Pavilion.

Mark Grundy doesn't seem at all discouraged by the prospect. "We make the best of what we have," he says. He isn't being PollyAnna about it, he just doesn't see the band's inability to play bar shows as an obstacle—it's a challenge that forces the band to be creative.

The Gammas recently released their first EP, The World, Le Monde. Aptly, Grundy sees it as necessary for the band to play outside the city in places like Cape Breton in support of it as well as to "experience different people at our shows."

The Gamma Gamma Rays might just have one of the best names in town. When they start playing bar shows, the rest of Halifax will have face to put to that name.

Mark Black

http://www.thecoast.ca/1editorialbody.lasso?-token.folder=2006-11-16&-token.story=150050.113118&-token.subpub=
- The Coast


"Halifax Pop Explosion Festival Review"

Saturday, October 21 marked the date for the very first HPX show for the Gamma Gamma Rays but undoubtedly it will not be their last. The band are a four-piece still in high school that have only been playing shows since February but they are quickly becoming a live favourite. They play experimental/indie rock with a noticeable feel-good vibe and lots of hooks. Their Pop Explosion show was an excellent example of the band’s talents overall and individually, as they played a nearly flawless set to a receiving and open audience.

Simon Outhit
http://www.exclaim.ca/musicreviews/generalreview.aspx?csid1=86&csid2=887&fid1=24482 - Exclaim!


"ECMA NO CASES"

“A solid! A liquid! A solid! A liquid!” scream Mark Grundy and Carolann Deyoung of Gamma Gamma Rays over a pulsating drum beat before launching full-tilt into their new song “Science”. Full of youthful exuberance and teenage earnestness, the band’s poppy melodies have the all-ages crowd at the packed One World Café smiling and singing along. Playing alongside Play Guitar and Scribbler on February 17 as part of the East Coast Unauthorized No Cases, the band perfectly exemplifies the sound of Halifax’s independent music scene. This sound is one that tends to go unnoticed by anyone whose only exposure to the scene is through the East Coast Music Awards.
Grundy won’t say that the ECMAs are without merit, but feels that they “overlook a lot of more deserving individuals or bands and focus on more of the radio when there’s a lot of diversity and originality in the city.” His band, who released a seven-song EP in 2006 and has shared stages with likes of the Most Serene Republic and We Are Wolves, played two shows at this year’s No Cases. In addition to their One World performance, the underage band played their first bar show at Gus’ Pub the night before. Though liquor regulations only allowed his band to stay inside for the duration of their set, Grundy feels positive about the experience.
“We got to play for audiences we normally wouldn’t be able to play for,” he says. “I think [the No Cases are] a really good idea because it’s giving bands who normally wouldn’t have a chance to be showcased in the ECMA showcases a spotlight.”
The No Cases are an annual series of shows that take place in the city where the ECMAs happen to be that year. They were conceived in 1994, originally by artists responding to not being chosen to perform in the Halifax Pop Explosion. That festival, which has become one of Canada’s most important indie music events, is ironically enough now run by Waye Mason, one the No Cases’ original founders.
Mason describes the No Cases as “a celebration of independent music from the region, the quirky and the weird, the stuff that doesn't fit a mainstream or industry definition of what it is all about at the ECMA.” The promoter put on two No Case shows at the Bus Stop Theater this year, but most of the shows took place at Gus’ Pub and were put together by Mark Black and Stephan MacLeod.
Black, a charming freelance journalist kind enough to let underage bands play Guitar Hero at his house before their sets, says he doesn’t want to No Cases to feast off the overflow of the ECMAs. “We’re not trying to get anyone signed,” he says, “but it’s good that there are already people in town. It’s awesome that people from out of town can see really great bands.”
Black feels that some of the ECMA’s choices for nominations are questionable. “I don’t really understand what the alternative rock category is an alternative to,” he says, implying that the artists chosen differ little from those in the pop category and do not give a thorough representation of the local independent music scene. “There’s bands that I feel just don’t get acknowledged and I don’t know why that is,” he says. “North of America can draw 500 people in Calgary but they’ve never been nominated for an ECMA.”
That now defunct band, who in their heyday released albums on prominent New York label Level Plane Records and toured the continent they derived their name from, may have never been nominated because the ECMA requires bands to apply themselves. Michael Catano, the band’s drummer, says they never bothered to and that he never will.
“Honestly, I just don't have any interest in them,” he says. “Whatever the ostensible goal of the ECMA awards might be, I don't get the sense that it's particularly applicable to me, my life, or the community of which I am a part.”
“I think artists are somewhat modest or don’t want to play an industry game, so they don’t submit,” says Black. He feels submitting music towards the governing body that is the ECMA is silly. “They should be looking for these bands and looking for releases that deserve to be nominated.”
Mason somewhat disagrees, saying that “the ECMA’s job isn’t to be bleeding-edge, ‘cool cool cool’”. He feels that it’s not the job of the ECMA to give artists their first big break in the industry. “It’s part of your progression through your career as a musician if you choose to go the route where the ECMA would have value for you,” he says. “Most of the bands that play the No Cases will never go that route and it will never be important to them.”
Stephan MacLeod, who organized the Gus’ Pub shows with Black, feels that for what the ECMAs are, they have improved in the past six years. “They have done more to promote Halifax bands, good indie bands,” he says. Though far from the most cutting edge artists in the city, at least the likes of Joel Plaskett and Buck 65 are being nominated and MacLeod sees this as good thing. “People that I respect are getting nominated and recognized, so they’re - The Watch (King's)


Discography

- The World, Le Monde (EP) (2006)

- Beeps (August 2010)
Tracklist:
Running Room
Growth & Health
Roam
Focus
Banks
Wildfire
Blame
Great Sons
Dog Dreams
Here Here, There There
Alive

Photos

Bio

2006 - 4 friends write music together, records and release an ep
2007 - a lot of shows
2008 - lineup changes
2009 - new songs, shows
2010 - new and first full-length release