The Repossessors

by Nathan Pike
photo: tiina liimu

The Repossessors are one of those bands that seem determined to lay waste to the aggressive rock landscape or die trying. Together for only a year and a half, guitarist/vocalist C.J. Brabant and drummer Kyle Valade have a raw and ready delivery that’ll strip the weak hairs from your head and leave you feeling like you’ve just spent a month straight sitting in the blistering sun. Fuelled by coffee, beer, anger and determination, this garage punk rock duo is catching a steady buzz that soon will be hard to miss.

Their sound is fly off the handle loose, like a runaway race car held together with duct tape and twine and it is said that when they play they put 130 per cent into it, rarely taking time to rest on their laurels.

“This kind of music is about questioning things, looking inside, and pushing it to the limit. That’s what activists do and that’s what thinkers do, they push something they believe in and it doesn’t matter whether they’re successful or not. That’s not the point. You might die tomorrow so don’t waste time. Don’t sleep, don’t take a nap, just keep going. Move!” Says Brabant, and with his careful and studied yet intense delivery of both word and lyric it is clear that this ideal is likely a way of life for him.

Their upcoming release, All Fixed Up, is crazy like a rabid goat. With high end guitar that thrashes madly and drumming that’ll crinkle your tie, you’d think these cats have been at it several years longer than the short time that they have. But such is the magic that happens when the right forces come together.

Recorded in just 12 hours under the influence of a lot of booze and smokes, then later mastered by sound engineer extraordinaire Jesse Gander, All Fixed Up explores themes surrounding failed relationships and getting over them, being broke, fear of going insane and the eventual rising above it all. “The title of the album kind of represents where I’m at now, and where I’d like to be.” Brabant shares. “We just pushed so hard during the recording process. 12 hours straight! I felt pretty dizzy after the whole thing was over but what we produced felt cathartic. And Jesse worked magic on the recording. We were really lucky to have worked with him.”

With simple and down-to-earth rock tactics and a seriously forward moving drive, the Repossessors have something immediate and awesome that is damned near impossible to deny.

All Fixed Up vinyl will be available by mid-January through fine local independent record stores. Catch them live February 1 at Pat’s Pub with guests for their record release! - The Skinny / Beatroute

ALL FIXED UP – SELF-RELEASED

OK, so, clearly, the drugs aren’t workin’ on these ding-dong daddies, ‘cuz they ain’t sedated, they is medicated on mashin’ the livin’ muck outta their instruments on this debut platter! Clearly cuttin’ loose was the name of the game and not givin’ a you-know-what is the prescription for their addiction to crazed combos, like The Revelators, Bantam Rooster and The Drags, to name-drop a few who make similarly-styled ’50s R’n’R raunch stuffed into an amped-up garage punk pipe-bomb. These guys make everything blow up real good and have a damn good time doing it, as C.J. Brabant strangles every last livin’ note from his guitar while Kyle Valade takes two big sticks and bashes the daylights out his kit on these nine knockout tracks, played at maximum volume and with minimal studio trickery. In fact I hazard to guess that Jesse Gander simply pushed the levels to 11, pressed “Record” and the rest, they say, is history. Or, in your case, a reason to see these dudes tear the roof off the next juke-joint with tracks like “Better Man,” “Let’s Dance” and “Room 403” with a big grin on your face and a doctor’s note in hand, ‘cuz something tells me you’ll be callin’ in sick and poppin’ pills like candy after being exposed to this raucous racket of a record, guaranteed.

By Bryce Dunn - Beatroute

People like to throw the term "angular" around a lot to describe guitar playing. That said, angular just doesn't quite cut it for All Fixed Up, the debut full-length from Vancouver garage-rock duo, the Repossessors. On the opener "Homecoming," wily frontman/ax-slinger, CJ Brabant explodes from the starting gate with a buzzsaw guitar onslaught packed with enough petulance to shred up more than a few speaker cones. As soon as the manic drumming of Kyle Valade joins the fracas, the Repossessors set off on an escalating death race of venomous punk-sass that drains all its fuel in 34 minutes before crashing to a sudden halt.

Brabant's lyrics are often sung so close to an all-out wail that it seems he's either competing with the fervor of Valade's drum storm or just getting some kind of masochistic zeal from tearing his throat apart. It makes me wonder if "Let's Dance" is really about dancing or something more sinister - especially since it follows the doomy prisoner's story of "Room 403." The Repossessors are also more than thrilled to grind punkabilly down to its most abraded state in "Living In The City" and "My Section 8 Home."

One could say All Fixed Up is a straight-up guitar/vocals/drums album, but it's really more of an anti-bass album. The mix's distinct lack of low-end frequencies first draws the listener's attention to the thrashy riffage of the guitar, then to the unsettling void at the album's core. The Repossessors launch all their aggression around this vortex without thinking twice. This is a refreshing turn from many two-piece garage-rock artists who often round out the form with the wall-of-sound and amps approach. The stark production also seems fitting for a band featuring prominent imagery of a lobotomy on its album cover, with terrifying focus on something subtracted.

- Max Wainwright - Discorder