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The Miniatures have already demonstrated a sure hand at blending the rhythms of dance music with the energy of power pop on their stellar last album, Coma Kid. Now they've gone a step better on the furiously catchy Dead Flowers. Every number is a winner.
- ANDREW CARVER The Sunday/Ottawa Sun 4.5/5
But this isnt simple dance music. Part Bowie, part Muse, bursting with soul and energy, *Dead Flowers* truly is the total package. Its real fucking rock n roll!
- Patrick Finch
This is a band that writes and performs catchy, radio-friendly rock songs better than many of their competitors.The opening track, "Any Day Now," gets right to the point -- great guitar, great vocals, excellent chorus.
- Twowaymonologues
The title track and Any Day Now both hit their sexed-up dance rock marks, with a Duran Duran influence serving them well.
- Now Magazine
The Miniatures may be from Kitchener, Ont., but their musical hearts lie in the United Kingdom.
- Mary Dickie Toronto Sun
THE MINIATURES
DEAD FLOWERS
Dead Flowers speaks volumes about where weve been and what weve accomplished. Nick Skalkos, drummer of Kitchener, Ontarios long-cherished soldiers of rock, The Miniatures, has hit the nail on the head. Dead flowers, the fragile remnants of ultimate beauty - Its a powerful image, conjuring at once sorrow, celebration, love, war, and, of course, a loving nod to the Brits. The Miniatures have, after over a decade of honing their considerable talents, painted their masterpiece and its a rich call-to-arms, championing all of these classic, unfaltering themes.
Singer/songwriter/guitarist Ian Smith, drummer Nick Skalkos, bassist Ryan Allen, and keyboardist/guitarist Kevin Hundt found themselves in a changed band after the release of their debut album, Coma Kid, in 2004. To expand his inspirations, Smith took several sojourns to Britain to refine his muse and explore the brains of like-minded collaborators. He found the yin to his yang in producer Scott Shields, (Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros). I met Scott during the Canada Comes A-Calling tour with Pilate, Lowest Of The Low, The Marble Index, and Hunter Eves we did a few years back and there was an instant connection, says Smith. There werent any other options after I met him.
The songs that Smith would pen in Britain became the blueprint for Dead Flowers, which was recorded by Shields and Dan Achen (Junkhouse), at Catherine North Studios in Hamilton, and the Townhouse in London. The end result is a rolling, pulsing, ambitious tour through Smiths poetic musings on the human condition. Lead-off single Dead Flowers bursts at the seams with Smiths soaring falsetto, Hundts creeping, lurching synths, and the tourniquet-tight funk of the Allen/Skalkos rhythm section. A Life I Had In Mind finds Smith questioning the miles hes walked in his own shoes, but ultimately quelling his own fears by the sheer, uplifting conviction in the music. Sleaze Radio is an explosive indictment of the failings of commercial rock n roll, anchored by Smiths vicious guitar leads and battle-cry chorus. Positively shimmering with desperate, hopeful, and instantly memorable melodies, The Miniatures takes Bowies attitude, Lennons melodic simplicity, and the bombast of Muse and perfectly distills them into Dead Flowers.
The dichotomy of the life inherent in death; the joy in pain; the love in hate - that is what good music is about. Music, if executed with passion and conviction, will stick in the hearts and ears of listeners and achieve an almost supernatural quality of lifting the human spirit. This is music to believe in. The Miniatures believe in rock n roll, and with Dead Flowers, you will again too.
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