Magick and mayhem

>> Chaos is the prime principle for Montreal’s CPC Gangbangs, whose debut album Mutilation Nation takes drug-charged punk rock in daring and dangerous new directions

HIGHLY FLAMMABLE: CPC Gangbangs

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

The debut record from local delinquents CPC Gangbangs, Mutilation Nation, is pure rock ’n’ roll fury, sure to turn the punk-rock puritans on their ears. The band sidesteps the stubbed-toe angst of the current punk parade and the political tub-thumping of the Bush-whackers with Marshall stacks, while never losing the plot by straying too far from their rock ’n’ roll roots.

The usual suspects, proto-punk explorers like MC5, Stooges and Rocket From the Tombs, get the nod on songs like “Gone Black” and “Coke Blues,” but CPC Gangbangs bring a new sense of heaviosity that tips the scales with Hawkwind-styled oscillations, obscure psychedelic references and even a nod to Goth gods Sister of Mercy on the unlikely album opener, “Jeff Starship.”

“After the first time we played together,” says CPC guitarist/singer De Polzac (aka Paul Spence of FUBAR fame), “I had this high-falutin’ notion that we were going to change music and do something that’s never been done before.”

Although doing “something that’s never been done before” may have been a wee bit ambitious, CPC Gangbangs have succeeded in throwing out the punk-rock road map and steered the sound on a new course. The band’s line-up boasts a serious Montreal garage-punk pedigree, with members of the Spaceshits, les Sexareenos, the Daylight Lovers, Grime and others, but CPC burrow into places far deeper and darker than any of their previous bands ever could.

Guitarist Choyce had gone through particularly dark times, including a stint in a detox centre three years ago. When he came out on the other side, he had a new mission firmly in place—and just needed a band to apply it to.

“I had been given all this A.A. Christian propaganda, and it just wasn’t working for me,” says guitarist/singer Choyce. “I was reading a lot of [acclaimed occultist and Alistair Crowley associate] Austin Osman Spare at the time, and texts on chaos magick, and used that as a guideline for the Commanding Principles of Chaos. After detox, I wanted to start a band I could apply those philosophies to as well as my personal lifestyle.”

To get an idea what those Commanding Principles might be, take a gander at the sidebar on this page (it’s shorter than The Secret, and probably more reliable in application).

Going postal on the posters

With a misanthropic manifesto firmly in place, the band soon put their chaos into action and quickly earned themselves a fan base sick of the tastemaker-approved local bands that were hogging the Montreal spotlight, and sick of the bloated and neutered rock ’n’ roller poseurs too.

“We’re definitely the black sheep in the Montreal scene,” says bassist Skitsos. “I don’t think we will change people’s opinions, and I really don’t care. You don’t start a band so 14-year-olds can talk about you on message boards.”

“But we’re one in a million black sheep of the Montreal music scene,” continues De Polzac “There’s a million amazing metal bands, for example, that have come out in the past 10 years, who all have a really big following, and it’s not like they are going to get on the cover of the Mirror.”

While the band was bringing the chaos to the unwashed masses at U.S. basement shows and at local venues, they caught the ear of the San Diego-based Swami label, headed by indie idol John Reis, and their new CD now bears the Swami imprint (the vinyl version is being handled by the local label Alien8). The band were indeed in good company, as Reis is considered a legend in some circles due to practically inventing math-punk with Drive Like Jehu, bringing swagger to indie rock with Rocket From the Crypt, and then letting those two sounds collide in the highly influential Hot Snakes.

“It’s funny because all these kids just think John Reis is God and his word is the rule,” says Skitsos. “All these kids on the Internet now are posting about how they can’t wait to hear the CPC record just because he’s associated with it. I mean, these kids get tattoos of his bands, so they’re pretty serious. It’s kind of weird.”

Bathroom break

Half of Mutilation Nation was recorded in San Diego with Reis, and the other half in Montreal at the famed Mom & Pop Sounds studio, with Howard Bilerman. As good as it is, though, it still can’t hold a candle to the pandemonium that is a CPC Gangbangs show. They have earned a reputation for being one of the best local live acts, due largely to their nihilistic and unpredictable approach, a chaotic melee that tends to spill over from the stage into the audience. They’ve also been banned from certain clubs for Choyce’s penchant for setting himself on fire.

“I can kind of understand that one, though, because you can’t even smoke in bars, let alone set yourself on fire,” says De Polzac, but a particularly debaucherous show that Choyce managed to pull off at Casa del Popolo on New Year’s Eve still stands out. After getting his festivities started earlier that day with numerous substances, Choyce ended up smashing into a wall, going to the hospital—and then directly to the show.

“I guess I was pretty fucked up,” says Choyce. “I went to the hospital and it ends up I broke my cheek and my ribs, but they kind of overlooked my arms for some reason. I thought I had just sprained them, so I started to play guitar in the first song, but found I couldn’t do that, so I just sang and crowd-surfed the whole night. I later found out I actually had two broken arms.”

De Polzac picks up the story from there. “It was going okay until Choyce tried standing on the bathroom ceiling at Casa, which at that time was just made of some light, paper-like material. Just before he reached the ceiling a bartender grabbed his foot and guided him back into the crowd—not because they were worried about damages but because he would’ve fallen 15 feet through the ceiling of the washroom.”

Other shows, such as the time they were dressed up as Smurfs, hardly endeared CPC Gangbangs to the crusty-punk crowd they were playing for, and they’ll fully admit that the chaos will occasionally get the better of them, but insist this is all just part of their master plan. “People like to go to shows that are unpredictable. It’s one thing to go to see a really good country band or a really good rock band, but it’s another thing to go to a punk show and not know what’s going to happen.”

Without blinking an eye, Skitsos picks up De Polzac’s baton. “Isn’t that really what punk rock is supposed to be about?”

With Simply Saucer and Plastic Crimewave
Sound at la Sala Rossa tonight,
Thursday, June 14, 9 p.m., $15

Whole lotta whole-of-the-law

The Commanding Principles of Chaos,
according to CPC Gangbangs

1. We must admit that we are powerless against the random action of life and thus abandon our human perception of consciousness and morality.
2. We must believe that a force superior to us, the force of life itself in the form of nature, the beast, and chaos, can give us reason.
3. We must believe in indulgence over abstinence, but avoid the path `of obsession.
4. Love and do good to those who help and love you. Love is universal and a positive force in the context of willful action.
5. We must act upon those who harm us with vengeance and fury.
6. We must not drown in or hide from our suffering, but live it and draw strength and inspiration from it.
7. We must thrive to destroy laws of human creation, whether political, scientific or moral, and defy the institutions that uphold them.
8. Only through anarchy of state, chaos of mind and random action can we achieve true personal freedom.
9. We can improve our spiritual contact with the beast (as we conceive it to be), through intense emotional stimuli, random action and the use of mind-altering substances.
10. We must then, through our actions and propaganda, transmit this message and apply these principles in every aspect of our lives