ARTIST: Cities In Dust
TITLE: Night Creatures
LABEL: Paper Bag Records
GENRE: Indie
BITRATE: 215kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 0h 30m total
RELEASE DATE: 2006-06-06
RIP DATE: 2006-05-05
Track List
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1. TV 1:12
2. Beautiful 2:31
3. Got The Clap 3:01
4. Chop Chop You're Dead 3:41
5. If You're Jealous, I'm Happy 2:34
6. Save The Last Dance 4:01
7. My Secret 3:13
8. Emergency 2:08
9. Some Of My Best Friends Are 3:12
Cheaters
10. Zimbabwe Politics 2:56
11. All The Girls 2:26
Release Notes:
The creation of music is a process of power and mystery. Not that rock bands are
mysterious anymore by now, anyone can imagine four lads in a basement, throwing
ideas back and forth at one another, sharing guitar licks and steadying
arrangements. Theres little mystery in that. The mystery lies in a deeper part
of the process, the part we cannot see. Here is the point at which notes,
chords, lyrics, sounds and even mistakes gel, and a song comes forward out of
the chaos. At this point, music still seems a form of alchemy.
The process can be so inexplicable that even those involved may not know where
the music comes from. Cities in Dust know the elements, the ingredients, that go
into their music but the outcome cannot be broken back down into those elements
and traced back to the source. In other words, when the four members of Cities
in Dust write a song, it comes out sounding like Cities in Dust but exactly how
and why is beyond their ken.
Vocalist Zach Frank met guitarist Simon Toye and the other band members
separately, and eventually coaxed them all to form a band. When they first met
in bassist Craig Nordemanns basement, it was a first-time meeting for Nordemann,
Toye and drummer Matt Winters. Four near-strangers in a basement with
instruments, ideas and opinionsnaturally, it could have gone badly. Simply put,
it did not.
Cities in Dust found some common ground in dance punk and dance rock, sharing an
appreciation for the likes of Le Tigre and The Rapture; yet each individual fed
their own flavours into this already murky cocktail of influence. The music grew
quicker, choppier, and more kinetic. Drummer Matt Winters and bassist Craig
Nordemann establish a solid and thunderous bottom end that acts as ballast for
Simon Toyes wiry guitar that crisscrosses above; meanwhile, Zach Franks tightly
wound vocal springs like an elastic band, threatening to snap should it stretch
any further.
The energy of the music and the performance began to draw interest from Hamilton
audiences almost immediately. Key Management impresario Dan Brooks took notice
the first time he saw them, and soon had the band aboard. Brooks involvement
only intensified the hype that swells around the band.
Shortly afterward, Cities in Dust struck up a friendship with uber-indie label
Paper Bag Records, playing shows with Paper Bag artists such as
Controller.Controller, Uncut and Magneta Lane, all of whom have become Cities in
Dust fans and supporters. As he had coaxed the band members together, Frank
charmed label employees such as Leila Hebden before any of them had seen the
band play. Once they had, however after co-owner Trevor Larocque secretly
slipped into a Hamilton performance it wasnt long before the label agreed to
support the recording of a debut Cities in Dust album.
That album, Night Creatures, captures every electron volt of energy generated at
a Cities in Dust show, and focuses that energy into a Tyson-like belt across the
jaw. The album was recorded with Jon Drew of Uncut at Signal to Noise in
downtown Toronto, and from the bass-heavy bounce of Chop Chop to the melodic
Some of My Best Friends are Cheaters, this is the sound of Cities in Dust.
Hype isnt really what Cities in Dust have received, though; buzz is closer to
appropriate. Hype connotes an overstatement, while buzz merely the chatter of
the crowd. For Cities in Dust, that crowd grows steadily, with every gig that
passes. After May 29th, the release date for Night Creatures, that crowd will
explode. Take to the streets. Riot. And leave our citiesah, you know where this
is going, but lets go there anyway.