Threat From Outer Space
(East Vancouver, 1947)
Late one night, as the rats scurried in the alleys and the missus was sleeping deeply, I heard a noise down the hallway that woke me with a start. I slipped on my robe and followed the noise down the hall, into the study. The air was smoky and the clic clac of an old electric typewriter echoed amongst the oak shelves and old books. There, in my creaky chair, sat Tameem B, brilliant scholar and cultural auteur. Writing a manifesto of the imminent threat that faced our nation, and in fact, the entire world. “What is it?”, I asked.
“There’s no time to explain,” he said. “Take this to the mimeograph, press 10,000 copies, and hit the streets running. The people must know!”
With that, he ripped the paper from the teeth of the typewriter, handed it to me, and slid off slickly into the night. Oh, I tried to tell them…but they just weren’t ready.
Threat From Outer Space, a Vancouver-based 5 piece has evolved over 10 years into being one of Vancouver’s most hyped and unwavering live outfits, playing in every venue in its hometown, and crushing the Canadian hinterland with legendary nights to remember. Having criss-crossed the country more than Terry Fox, TFOS have got the grass roots infected like zombies. Their live show is a barn burning dance floor graveyard, the style mash up so groove-ridden, so Friday Night Lights, that there is actually no room for benchwarming. Its game time, baby, and those that sit, get hit.
A decade deep, with music that has always straddled the genre divide, these boys bring the noise with a heavy blurring of hip hop, rock, jazz and funk. Its rock’n’roll with a melodic horn section, rugged breakbeats, razor lyrics and room shaking grooves.
With a past body of work that has always pushed a consciousness and a message based approach, TFOS has refined its handiwork and brought forth their strongest songwriting to date. Threat from Outer Space is real, and it's warbling out of my AM radio speakers even as we speak.
