The Long Timers

The Long Timers are proud of their band baggage. At a post-practice meet in Chinatown, the five members of the Long timers - front man Johnny Nash, a recend addition to the lineup, guitarists Greg Kerr and Justin Gobeil, drummer J-P Sadek and bassist Rene Leclair - are trying to pin down their cumber. That is, the number of bands that they've played in over the past 10 years.
Twenty-five to 30 is as close as it gets, as some short-term bands, such as the three-show act Zdeno that Gobeil, Kerr, Sadek and Double Pumper Dave Martindale were involved with, are debatable in the five-piece's haphazard point scheme.
What can go down in history is time spent in King Kung (Nash), the Phantom Shifters (Kerr), Army of St. Joan (Gobeil, a current act with a CD coming in July), and the Dead City Rebels (Sadek and Leclair).
"Everyone in this band has jammed with everyone else - that's how this band came together", Sadek offers in summary.
The benefit is that they bring a lot of experiencem, resulting in a set that's air-tight, loud as hell and brings the best of their past work into a cohesive rock wallop. Their recent EP Dead End leaves you stunned after five track. It's an editing process that filters out the rock posturing and pretentious fluff and goes directly to the "essentials of classic rock", according to Sadek.
"I'm listening to the Who and old Sabbath", he offers as a reference point, while Kerr says he has "a little bit of time for Kyuss," but "nothing more modern than that.
The Long Timers open for Priestess at the Dominion Tavern, 33 York St., tonight at 9. Cover is $5. - Ottawa Citizen

Long Timers "Dead End"
I promised a new "Album of the Week" - here's No. 1. The band used some of the pictures I took of them at various gigs, so to avoid any suggestion of conflict of interest (not that any money was involved.) with a review in The Ottawa Sun, I'm singing its praises here.
Rock'n'roll veterans Long Timers have done hard rock time in a number of Ottawa outfits (Dead City Rebels, Phantom Shifters, among others) and can currently be seen in other local combos like The Fortunate Sons and Sleeping Pilot, South of 78. Their debut EP is the product several sessions with Double Pumpers/Ukrainia/Yogi and The Hill People drummer-singer-guitarist Paul "Yogi" Granger. The original foursome - Greg Kerr, guitar; Justin Gobeil, guitar and vocals; J.P. Sadek, drums; Rene leClair, bass - has just been joined by Johhny Nash on guitar and vocals; he added his stuff after the musical tracks had been laid down. I e-mailed guitarist Greg to ask who did what when. His reply:
"The sessions were done separate for this EP after two other attempts with Yogi at his studio.We put down the bass and drums first one Saturday at the end of February. Justin took a night for guitars and I did the same in March - all mostly in one or two takes. The goal was to get a "cleaner" recording so the bass and drum beds have no guitars bleeding in. And the guitars were kept to a minimum (unlike the Shifters or our previous recordings, where two rhythm guitar tracks are mixed hard left and right and the lead guitar is one track in the middle of the stereo spectrum). I was dead set against that for this recording so we used one of Justin's guitars hard left or right and one of mine hard left or right - to minimize the noise and give it a more vintage "MC5" feel -the exception is Solid Roger where my part differed from Justin's so much we actually mixed it the original way with three tracks and mine in the middle. The music was finished before Johnny joined up and Justin did vocals on (in E Major) and Old 96er - which were kept. After Johnny was comfortable with his parts he added back-up vocals to those two Justin songs and did all the lead and backing vocals on the other three.
Yogi did all the recording, mixing and mastering. We'd recorded Working Man's Woman but had mostly dropped it from the set and it wasn't going to be on the EP, Justin never had any finished lyrics for it - we'd never even shown the song to Johnny, when he was doing his vocals, he heard the track and we remembered we liked the song, so he whipped up some lyrics and recorded the song before he'd even practiced it once (or even heard it us play it). I think it's my favourite song on the EP!"
The resulting EP is a mix of early 70s heavy rock (a la Mountain, who they regularly cover in their live show), Stooges style and protopunk and Southern Rock - more of the latter live, thanks to Johnny's caterwaul and third guitar. Pick it up and check them out live (in any order you like) if you haven't already.
Andrew Carver
http://natcaprock.blogspot.com/ - natcaprock.blogspot.com

I walked in the door at 10:15, the sound of Stoogey powerhouse rock greets me as I walked up the steps to Barrymore's gilded hall and sure enough, the Longtimers are on stage and rocking out mightily. Johnny Nash, playing his second show with the band, undoubtedly added extra vocal presence (plus a spiffy armband). It was a heavyweight show from these scene veterans. I detect a new wildness in their sound...a primordial ooze that, if captured on record, would be fine indeed. - natcaprock.blogspot.com

The Long Timers still have to empty their closets of old habits, says bassist Rene Leclair.
He and his bandmates have only played a few shows in Ottawa as the Long Timers, but each member has racked up countless hours in other outfits: Leclair in the the Dead City Rebels with drummer J.P. Sadek (who does double duty in the Fortunate Sons), guitarist Greg Kerr who used to play in the Phantom Shitfters, and vocalist/guitarist Justin Gobeil who also plays in Army of Saint Joan.
The band first started as Zdeno, with Sadek, Kerr and Gobeil teaming up with the Double Pumpers’ Dave Martindale. Martindale had to leave when things with the Pumpers started picking up and that’s where Leclair came in This time around he’s hoping to use his resources to put the Long Timers — the “unpretentious rock band” — on the map.
The Dead City Rebels, during their existence, played mostly in Ottawa. Not having a van meant they had to schlep their gear in taxis. They released one album on a German indie label, which led to a few notches on college radio charts around Europe. Fans would find the band online and request that they play a date in their patch of the continent, yet the Rebels could barely afford to play in nearby cities. Still smarting from a potential shot at the big time, Leclair says he wants to pool resources. “We still don’t know exactly what we’re doing just yet,” he confesses, “but we’re trying to go about things smarter than before.”
The Long Timers and Black ball at Babylon (317 Band St.) Saturday at 9 p.m. $4.
- Ottawa Citizen