Tacoma Hellfarm Tragedy

Exclaim Review By Vish Khanna December 11, 2006 This latest effort by Guelph’s Tacoma Hellfarm Tragedy is a fantastic country rock record that grabs the listener by the collar and never lets go. Burgeoning contemporaries of the Sadies that have picked up on a trail left behind by the Flying Burrito Brothers, Tacoma Hellfarm Tragedy have got grit and grooves to spare and they flex their muscles on this fascinatingly musical album. “True Love Killed My True Love’s Love for Me” is rootsy pop at its finest, with hazy, hangdog vocals floating in between some compelling pedal steel work by Jesse Whiteside. “Sad Song” is a dark frontier number that recalls the Unintended, while “More to Dying” possesses the mystical traits of a Greg Keelor meditation but with an indie rock flavoured soundtrack. By “Coastal Town,” the monotone vocals and lo-fi production are as familiar as old friends, but the gang vocals on the Califone-esque “I Am So” mark a shift on this multi-layered record. The sweeter sounds of the Byrds are conjured up on “Darling Girl,” while the spacey, experimental “Bandit” oozes danger. With skills to pay the bills, Tacoma Hellfarm Tragedy have fearlessly sent a bit of genius out into the world with Orchards. - Exclaim

Guelph’s Tacoma Hellfarm Tragedy got the penultimate slot of the night though that turned into an extended engagement as The Sadies still hadn’t shown up. So the Tacomas had to fill up time which they did handily with their hard-edged country rock. Armed with a shit-hot guitarist who certainly liked to play as much as possibly while staying on the right side of tasteful, they tore it up. - Chromewaves

Dark nights of tragedy

There’s something overwhelmingly beautiful about a band that manages to convey darkness as well as Tacoma Hellfarm Tragedy. Truly, is it a good band that can make you feel happier listening to a melancholic song than any happy song. This band manages to achieve that.

There’s a good vibe about this album. The vocals are fantastic throughout the album, and there is something slightly haunting about them. At times it seems as if they are nonchalantly sung, yet they fit perfectly into the sadness of the songs. ‘Bandit’ is a well-built song – all instruments and vocals add power to song at the right times, effortlessly emphasising key areas of the song. ‘Sad Song’ again has a raw power to it. The guitar work is spot-on, and the backing vocals are used in all the right places.

A fine piece of work, and a reminder of the changing times of what was once called ‘country’.
- Americana UK

By Patrick Finch

Maybe I’m just getting old, but I will forever associate the town of Guelph with the first Royal City record, At Rush Hour The Cars. Due in part, I’m sure, to the band being named after their hometown, but whenever I think of Guelph, I think of that stark, sad record. Like the town itself, the album was gritty, but beautiful because of it, and greater than the sum of its parts. When Brad Giefert dropped his band’s new album off for me, I was immediately struck by how much the album reminded me of the Royal City, (both the band and town). His group is the Tacoma Hellfarm Tragedy, and even though they’re also from Guelph and his reedy, lilting voice takes me back to my first R.C. show, he thinks the similarities are more accidental.
“I think that when we were recording the demos, I was really digging the lo-fi crooners, like Bill Callahan, (Smog), and Howie Gelb,” Giefert explains. “Lately I have been listening to a lot of older vinyl; Gordon Lightfoot, Bruce Springsteen. We don’t really feel like descendents of Royal City, although we have always been fans and would be flattered by any such comparison.”
Essentially a project for friends and musical compatriots Giefert, (guitars/vocals), and Darryl Stevenson, (drums/vocals), the ranks occasionally swell with the likes of singer-songwriter Kat Burns, and a smattering of other friends from Guelph’s bubbling and star-studded independent music scene.
“We really lucked out with the line-up for this album,” Giefert gushes. “Andrew Collins, (of The Sad Clowns and the Faceless Lazers), plays bass and keys, and he engineered the album. Jesse Whiteside, (of the Merkies), plays pedal steel and lead guitars. As soon as we started rehearsing the songs with Andrew and Jesse, Darryl and I knew this was the right line-up and arrangement for the new songs.
“I think we will probably work with Kat again in the future,” he continues, “but for this record, we were going for a bit of a darker feel. We wanted to keep the backing vocals very subtle on a lot of the songs. Throwing a female vocal into the mix does change the dynamics quite a bit. It almost changes the picture the song is trying to paint. It can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you do it.”

Dubbed Orchard Songs, the new record is a little darker than their debut, (2005’s Dirty Water Flows), but it’s also a more coherent, full-blooded record. There’s more muscle behind the songs, like the suicidal playfulness of “More To Dying”, and the dust-bowl road anthem “Coastal Town”, which owns a depth that betrays the simplicity of its arrangement. Rich with rolling, brushed snares, bouncing, percussive acoustic guitars, and the sad/hopeful evocations of Giefert, (“I’ll miss my friends, and I’ll miss my family, but the land beyond holds something for me”). The masterful, mournful pedal steel work of Whiteside, and Giefert and Stevenson’s silky-subtle harmonies do much to buoy the songs, but the greater attention paid to the album’s production definitely paid off as well.
“Orchard Songs was recorded at Pipe Street Studio in Guelph. James Gordon’s Studio,” says Giefert. “It was produced and engineered by Evan Gordon and Andrew Collins and mastered by Andy Magoffin, (coincidentally, the miracle-man behind Royal City’s catalogue). Working with Evan and Andrew was great. We gave them demos early on in the summer and they were instantly excited about the project. Darryl and I four-tracked all the songs in the spring and realized very early on that we wanted a very minimalist, organic sound for the record. Pipe Street was perfect. We feel good about how the record turned out.”
So now, with a new record to add to Guelph’s already rich history of excellent, adventurous, classic music, the Tacoma Hellfarm Tragedy are ready to give Orchard Songs its public birth at the Ebar on November 16th. They’ll be joined by the equally talented, (and somewhat spiritual/musical brethren), Ox. Despite high expectations and critical laudings, Giefert’s goals are typically modest for the future of Guelph’s next great band.
“We will be booking as many shows as we can and just sending the record out to campus radio. Our show will feature much nudity, fake blood, cops, tears, smiles, and applause.”
- Echo Magazine