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>> Leftfield Montreal punkers the
Dirty Tricks, outside and outta sight

ODD MEN OUT: The Dirty Tricks

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

The local band Dirty Tricks hardly came bursting out of the gate when they started out four years ago. Taking baby steps, first they self-released the EP Bloody Breakfast four years ago, and followed that up with another EP, Demerits, which featured Malajube’s Julien Mineau on bass. While these calling cards flexed a punk rock muscle, they stopped shy of greatness, capturing the band still fumbling for a signature sound. On their first full-length, Sauve qui peut!, on the in-house label of local promoters Blue Skies Turn Black, the band’s approach is now fully realized, and although it’s assuredly punk, with a fierce, down-stroked guitar leading the way, they sidestep convention and have finally found their once elusive centre.

“The first EP was actually recorded before the band had even done any shows,” explains guitarist Lucas Rupnik. “On the new record, we took our time with the songs and just let them breathe. I think the real difference now is that we had the time to gel as a band.”

Being a longtime fan of Dirty Tricks, Rupnik started off recording pre-production sessions for the new record a year ago, but soon found himself on the other side of the mixing desk when he joined singer/guitarist Jonathan Beauregard, drummer Alexandre D’Anjou, bassist David Laplante and keyboardist Patrick Michon in the band.

Along with the fairly recent inclusion of Rupnik, other glaring differences from their humble beginnings can be attributed to the leaps and bounds made in the songwriting department by Beauregard, who does double duty, proving quite the knob-twirler with his imaginative production work.

What really makes Sauve qui peut! stand up and demand notice amid the glut of recent punk releases is their unlikely and arguably un-punk use of keyboards. “The keyboards were always used kind of in the background to just flesh things out,” says Rupnik, “but now they’ve become a driving force in the band. With the use of keyboards, it really allowed us to escape our immediate influences and explore other things, open other doors.”

Many of underground rock ’n’ roll’s greatest reccurring offences could be attributed to its arrested development and creative stagnation. More often than not, punk bands get snared in cheap imitation, while on the other side of the coin, punk’s second cousins, noise and weird punk, can often overshoot their intentions. The Dirty Tricks perform a perfect balancing act through their use of varied dynamics, refusal to set songs in safety-net tempos and rejection of hollow angst, and at the same time, never grinding their gears by putting all of their stock in innovation.

“I think it’s easy for bands to fall into a trap and not try to get out of their little box. We’re lucky that we got to play shows with disparate bands like Malajube and then the Sainte Catherines, and they both work. Even in Montreal, our sound could be considered the odd man out. It can be hard to get noticed that way, but that’s just fine with us. We’re not really social butterflies, so we’re pretty comfortable being outsiders.”

CD launch with The Nymphets at Quai des
Brumes on Tuesday, Aug. 7, 9 p.m., $7