RED CITY

After the National Top 50 and college radio success enjoyed by Cambridge, Ontario’s The Candidates and their 2003 endeavour Fame, Fortune and Free Drinks, the band parted ways almost as much as one could imagine possible. The Adam Thompson and The Vincent Wardell contingent (aka Man Love Central Distribution) wanted to develop something new, something fresh, something with an eight o’clock shadow.

The Paulo Moreira, ex-band mate of both Wardello (in the still cultishly-followed Live Sex Show), and former Candidate Steve Parkinson (in the short-lived project Veronica) joined in to create the power trio known as "Red City". For many months and nearly years in a blue-collar city studio, the three created and developed songs based around Adam’s elementally new, intrepid vocal styling and piano/Hammond combination, Paulo’s moving bass lines and Vince’s down-with-walls beat work. It was soon apparent that while being melodically straightforward, the songs presented a lack of uniformity, redundancy and “pap” ability.

Now, despite this veracity, there was still something missing in the Red City state, and that was the accomplished guitar brandishing of one Brendan Currie. Formerly of Jacob’s Organ and Fabi Republic, “Scootsy” also hangs three years of teaching on his musical tool belt. He’s been around long enough to know Vince back in high school, which, coincidentally at one point also involved a tool belt, but I’m ambling.

Together in this melting pot of man magma, the foursome sounds like musicians fully engaged and truthful to their instruments and talents. The music is like mercury; skirting and rolling along the edge of the vacuum left behind by our time’s absent hearts, minds, and souls. They feign nothing while honouring their influences like John Lennon, Bob Marley and Elvis Costello, with generous smatterings of everything from Sixties’ soul to Eighties’ hair bands, metal and otherwise. I’d be remiss if I neglected to mention the equal dashes of sweater-vested Ralph-and-Potsie earnestness and fatigue-sporting, cigar-smoking romanticism, which also accounts for their indecision when it comes to sporting facial hair. Red City has opened a handful of shows for bands like "Mat Mays and El Torpedo" and "The Marble Index" in their hometown of Cambridge, and has ventured on to the rock towns of Hamilton and Toronto, making their audiences debate the purpose of sticking around much long after their small yet hard working asses have exited the stage. It’s been a long time in the running my friends, but worth every can of beer, silk-screened t-shirt design and myspace page visit. Relish.