The Racoon Wedding

At the beginning of every show The Racoon Wedding play, they annouce "hello, we're The Racoon Wedding and we're from Brantford, Ontario" For other bands, it's just a statement, but for the Racoon Wedding, they want you to KNOW where they are from. Because where they are from means everything to them. It's the reason they write songs. It's the reason they are a band.

Brantford, Ontario is home to Wayne Gretzky, the invention of the telephone, and is historically one of the most signifcant and ultimately disastrous cities in Canada.

The five members of the Racoon Wedding are the product of this history and it's only fitting that their music reflects what they live through every day.

In early 2006, the Brantford based band the Vermicious Knid played their final show. As soon as the last note rang out, two of the four members, Tim Ford (guitar/voice) and Jesse Shanks (drums) knew they wanted to continue what they had started. So throughout the following months, they gathered friends they knew from the local Brantford scene and started the skeleton of what would be The Racoon Wedding. First, Scott Willson (organ), Tim's partner in the Ford Plant, the all ages not-for-profit venue/art space they own in the bowels of the forgotten Brantford downtown, came aboard. Then trumpet player Andrew Ayerhart. And finally came Tyler Springall on bass. Together the five of them met in the basement of the Ford Plant, and fleshed out the songs that would become their first LP and companion 7" they split with friends elbow beach surf club.

Their LP "Gather Gather Bones/Rattle Rattle Truth" was released in October of 2009 on their own Ford Plant Recording Co. Songs about Brantford litter the album. For their LP they gathered in a cramped Toronto recording studio with engineer Leon Taheny (final fantasy, bruce peninsula) and recruited some of their friends to help sing, bang, beat, yelp or do whatever they pleased, including Casey Mecija (ohbijou), Neil Haverty (bruce penisula), Tim Fagan (germans) and Kat Burns (forest city lovers).

With both, the Ford Plant and the Racoon Wedding, there is a belief in community. All are welcome. The Racoon Wedding's live show is a raucous, shambolic yet authoritative set where at any moment people will come up to sing, dance, pound or clap. All are welcome.

From country stomp to punk to dylanesque lyrical prowess, The Racoon Wedding play as loud or as soft as they please. They play with confidence because they believe in their songs. They believe in their songs because they believe in Brantford.

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