FIFTH HOUR HERO JAPAN 06
THIS IS US IN JAPAN!!! THE BACKGROUND MUSIC IS BY TOM WAITS. RESPECT M.WAITS HE'S A GENIUS. "Big In Japan" Tom Waits: Mule Variations ANTI 1999
Canadas Fifth Hour Heros second full-length, Not Revenge Just a Vicious Crush play music like its their lives. The good. The tragic. Ugliness and pain. The beautiful and delicate. Grit. All together. The best music is cartography of the heart. Its a treasure map to pure awe. Music, when played purely, is an unashamed celebration. It covers all speeds. It doesnt have one sound, but a soul. Quebecs four-piece Fifth Hour Hero play driving-spirit, often-tragic punk melodies that are so big, they seem to be scratching the sky. Catchy but not poppy. Anthemic, yet personal.
Not Revenge isnt just the result of band going into a studio, hastily hammering out a batch of songs, and rolling out on an endless tour. Its a story about a band thats seen its share of van transmissions failing at the worst possible times, about eating peanut butter sandwiches three meals a day in order to afford gas to the next show, about duct-taped sneakers up on the dash of a cracked windshield after a border crossing and watching the sun rise. Its about a band that hasnt forgotten any of the anxietyand fun and tendernessof being a group of DIY musicians, and forging that experience into their best record yet. Its about shaping and smoothing songslike rocks to gemstonesto their highest luster without betraying their initial beauty. Not Revenge was recorded by Ronny Cates (of the Rec Room) and Derron Nuhfer (bass player of Gunmoll and saxophone player of Less Than Jake) and refined at a friends studio (Beaudet of The Sainte Catherines).
Fifth Hour Hero started under a different name in 1997. Over five musicians filtered through lineups, the name was adopted, and positions in the band were moved around. Like the first day of school, fumbling with a locker, it took time to find the right combination; to open it up and get down to business.
Geneviéve Tremblay, who you may already know from her backups on Against Mes Searching for a Former Clarity, has a strident, beautiful voice. Its the most striking first impression of Fifth Hour Hero. But were not talking solely about an angel with backup. Were talking about a band. Olivier Maguire shares vocal duties while Dave Chamberland and Mathieu Guilbault all make equal contributions to the expansive plains to Not Revenge The songs sound they all have barbed wire at the edges. Songs that play like drives through long-distance vistas: equal parts tough, pretty, and rough.
Fifth Hour Hero have won awards from important tastemakers, gone on plenty of shitty tours and a couple of good ones, and have a lot of friends who are more than willing to help them out because theyre downright nice and super-talented Canadians.
If you like the following bands, chances are youll like Fifth Hour Hero: Discount, Against Me, Strike Anywhere, Hot Water Music, Allergic to Bullshit, Leatherface, X, Cowboy Junkies, Weakerthans, Soviettes.
Todd Taylor
Razorcake / Gorsky Press, Inc
