by JOHNSON CUMMINS

Vancouver is definitely going through somewhat of an explosion right now, largely due to the success of the New Pornographers, Black Mountain and their offshoots Blood Meridian and Pink Mountaintops, and up-and-comers like Pride Tiger. With the recent release of their self-titled debut on hipster label Jagjaguwar, and echoes of the Band and Neil Young in their sound, Vancouver’s Ladyhawk could prove to be the next sensation coming out from the left coast. The Mirror talked with guitarist Darcy Hancock during a tour stop in Milwaukee.

Mirror: Your label rejected the first version of the record, and you had to re-record it. Was that disheartening?

Darcy Hancock: Not really, because we kind of agreed with them, and thought there was kind of an element of sameness to it. We got to just rent stuff and brought down a 16-track board and just do it in our jam space. We’re a lot happier with the final record now. The problem now is that we have most of the next record written already, so now we’re playing about half of the set with new songs.

M: There seems to be a bit of an explosion of great bands coming out of Vancouver right now. Why?

DH: I’m not sure, but maybe it’s because there really aren’t that many small places to play that Vancouver bands work a little harder to break out of their local scene. It was already hard to find venues to play in Vancouver, and now it just seems to be getting harder and harder. They’re trying to push all of the bars down to Granville St., but most of those are still kind of dance bars, and then there are places like the Commodore, but it’s a really big place, usually reserved for touring bands. There was a bunch of warehouse parties happening for shows, but they generally get shut down really quick.

M: Has the tour been going good?

DH: Yeah, so far so good. The best place we’ve played is in Fargo, North Dakota. We played next door to [jam band] Twisted Roots and met all of these weird and, by Canadian standards, clean-cut hippies. Everybody there was just such a freak, we couldn’t believe it. I think Fargo has to be the weirdest place on earth. I already can’t wait until we can go back.

With Sunset Rubdown and Miracle Fortress at la Sala Rossa tonight, Thursday, July 20, 9 p.m., $10

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