by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

If you absolutely, positively need something somewhere overnight, Dead Messenger might not be the guys to call. It’s taken them a full two years to deliver their debut, self-titled disc. But they’re certainly delivered, and they’ve handled the package with care, enlisting ex-Planet Smasher Tim Doyle to record, Blinker the Star’s Jordon Zadorozny to mix and Tragically Hip associate Aaron Holmberg to master the material.

The quartet rose from the ashes of Rhythm Mercenaries, a far more hip hop-oriented unit that began to wobble in 2002, when their man on the mic, Chicu Gardiner, returned to Cape Town, South Africa. Their DJ, Maysr, soon followed Gardiner to the exit as the band swung over to the rock ’n’ roll column. “He stuck around for a while,” says guitarist/singer Roger White, “but he couldn’t really find his place in the music, and he also wanted to pursue just being a club DJ.”

The shift seemed superficially odd, given the band’s association with local art collective Kops Crew (who’ve designed the Dead Messenger CD cover, and whose Kop Shop gallery on Roy is managed by bassist/singer Sebastien Marin), but that would be selling both parties short. “It would be lazy to say that Kops is just this hip hop graffiti crew,” notes White. “It’s expanded to more than just that. It’s kind of this big, multi-headed beast, a collective of likeminded artists. I shouldn’t speak for them, but I think all of our inspirations come from the same place. Maybe our subconscious minds are connected.”

Whittled down to a four-piece and unanimous on the rougher rock edge they sought, the newly-christened Dead Messenger hit “send,” but “received” wasn’t instantaneous. “When we first decided, okay, we’re actually gonna do this, we all had the sound in our heads, but getting to it took a while. Now, in 2006, we’re there, 100 per cent.”

At this juncture in time, their message might not be so well received all around. With bits of classic hair rock and ’80s hardcore, loads of ’90s-vintage funk rock and even a dash of ska, Dead Messenger fly in the face of the emo and neo-new wave, orch-pop, electro-punk and mope rock that constitute the core of the indie sound right now.

“It’s music we enjoy and want to hear,” says guitarist/keyboardist Ted Yates, “and the kind of playing we really like. I mean, we like a lot of indie rock, and throw some elements of that in, but we wouldn’t want to be stuck in anything just because it’s fashionable right now, and we wouldn’t be afraid of doing something because it’s not.”

The same goes for the lyrics and vocals. Clever wordplay full of vicious black humour, delivered in a bold, surly, sarcastic fashion, seems an appropriately rude intrusion at a point when dear-diary mumblings and/or simplistic brat chic are the lingua franca—but cheers to Dead Messenger, especially primary lyricist Yates, for taking that path.

“I fell like a cynical, sarcastic person a lot of the time,” he says. “Not all the time, but when I sit down to write, that’s generally how I feel most comfortable. When I feel most like writing, I tend not to be in the happiest mood. When I’m happy, I’ll do something else—like go outside and enjoy the day.”

CD launch with guests Cousins of Reggae at Casa del Popolo on Friday, July 21, 10 p.m., $5

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