Meatdraw

MeatDraw’s second release “Fin Du Monophone” was birthed in the early spring of 2008, the temperature just above freezing point, in a one-room barn on an old Vancouver Island commune. Recorded by Colin Stuart (Black Mountain, Veda Hille), this sophomore undertaking is a catchy, hand-clapping hallelujah, a worthy follow up to MeatDraw’s 2006 self-titled debut heralded as a “flamboyant expression of the musically bizarre”.



With any project the band has its dirty hands in, be it a new video or its infectious, barely keeping it on the rails live show, an underlying theme ties the whole experience together. MeatDraw’s lean, mean pop-alyptic “Fin du Monophone” is no exception.



Thematically, lyricist Marco Bozenich draws from Russel Hoban’s 1980 novel “Riddley Walker,” a story set in a post-Apocalyptic world and told through the broken language of a young boy. “The whole language is drawn from all these random books that the author decided to integrate into the story, so the language is so bizarre,” Bozenich describes. “There are little bits from the Bible and little bits from random novels that together create their own version of history.”



The record’s sense of urgency and impending attack imbues tracks with the coercive rhythm section driving “Are We Gonna Die”, “A Very Evil Villain” and the adorably infectious “Old World”. With offerings “Like A Wounded Animal”, “Voodoo Don’t Work” and “Black License Plates” the band exorcises its ghosts with spirited keys and significant vocal harmonies. Clear-cut ukulele, guitars and united melodies drive tracks “Crazy”, “In The Afterlife”, and “Roy (Bomb Shelter Romance)”. The last track emphatically answers the first with a united “We Are Not All Gonna Die” fading out with the arrestingly ominous horn section field call. All in a shit-hot album that clocks in at under 35 minutes.



“Fin du Monophone’s” MeatDraw is the Brothers Bozenich Marco and Stefan, Lily Fawn, Megan Boddy, Will Koltai, Grayson Walker and Marek Tyler with contributions from The Lusty Man-Boy Choir of Thomas Shields, Matt Skilling, Lindy Gerrard and Michael Collinge.



In the spring of 2008 on an old hippy commune on a West Coast island, dogs barked, neighbours visited, drinks were poured and the stove religiously stoked. Adorned in scarves and toques and surrounded by a romanticized setting, MeatDraw and Colin Stuart warmed their hands, stood tall and recorded a blazing self-help audio book about the end of the world.



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