Stupider than thou

>> Brutal Knights stump braindead punks
with classic hardcore and cutting humour

BAND IS PUNK: Brutal Knights

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

I am sitting on the patio of a chic eatery in Toronto’s Little Italy with Brutal Knights singer Nick Flanagan and guitarist Jon Sharron, and they tend to stick out amongst the beautiful patrons like Rip Taylor at an NRA meeting. Of course, Flanagan and Sharron couldn’t feel more at home as Brutal Knights tend to stick out amongst the cookie-cutter punk rock bands by daring to inject humour into the stale hardcore world that remains stuck in an angst rut. While completely ignoring metal pyrotechnics with thrashers that have everything to do with the glory days of Reagan-era hardcore, Brutal Knights’ live shows are utterly blistering. The Mirror let the boys pick up the beer tab as they hipped us to the burgeoning Toronto hardcore scene as well as their intentionally badly written lyrics.

Mirror: With Toronto bands like Fucked Up, Career Suicide and Terminal State, there seems to be an explosion of hardcore bands in Toronto right now. Why are people suddenly concentrating so much on Toronto’s punk scene?

Jon Sharron: I don’t really know because there are kids who are doing really cool hardcore bands in fucking Sudbury now. I mean, just look at Montreal, there are such great bands coming out of that, like CPC Gangbangs, Inepsy, Contempt or Born Dead Icons, and bands before them like Ire. I think because Fucked Up, Career Suicide, Terminal State and us are on Deranged Records, it looks more like a scene. Montreal is just as much of a scene, it’s just that it’s a bit more all over the place.

M: Nick, you’re a stand-up comedian as well as a singer in a band. Are there any similarities?

Nick Flanagan: I guess so, because the lyrics are usually about whatever makes me laugh or bothers me, and I guess the stand-up is kind of the same thing.

M: Can you explain the inspiration behind “Burlesque Is Horseshit”?

NF: It was just a reaction to those things. It’s kind of like saying, ‘Hey, don’t put your self-esteem on me.’ They think burlesque is this shiny interesting thing, but it’s just not. Toronto is just full of goths and burlesque dancers and these bizarre subcultures and they tend to just take over everything. I guess it’s cool or whatever, but when they try and shove this pasty-covered nipple down your throat and tell you to get something from it, you just can’t.

M: Has the sarcasm in lines like “my attitude is mosh” or the intentionally broken English in “Government Is Asshole” gone over the heads of most dyed in the wool, humourless punks?

NF: I guess the lyrics have been generally accepted, but there are people who’ve sworn off the band just because of them.

JS: Yeah, I think it’s cool being in a band some people hate, and if it’s because of our lyrics, I can only hope they will get stupider.

NF: Yeah, some bands write these message songs or whatever and make it so easy for people to like them, but we go about it the hardest way possible and just try and impress people with the most mediocre and unmemorable punk they are ever going to hear.

With CPC Gangbangs and AIDS
Wolf at Club Lambi on Saturday,
Aug. 18, 8 p.m., $10