Making a racket

>> Locals Land of Talk tour the world, re-release, re-record, miss out on the Montreal scene and let the chips fall where they may

GAME ON: Land of Talk

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

Land of Talk’s debut EP, Applause Cheer Boo Hiss, is chock full of pure songwriting craft that stretches and bends far past pop convention. Elizabeth Powell’s sultry rasp intertwines perfectly with her unorthodox guitar style, which tips its hat to the discordance of Blonde Redhead and Sonic Youth as well as the open chords of Joni Mitchell. Pity the rest of Canada hasn’t been listening.

While the band quickly earned an audience in the U.S. and Europe, who were only too eager to “Applaud” and “Cheer” for their infectious pop, Land of Talk’s home country was hardly “Booing” and “Hissing,” but Canadians weren’t exactly falling over themselves to claim them as their own.

After cutting their teeth on the local scene, Land of Talk chanced upon a New York showcase in 2005 and haven’t looked back since, with the majority of their behind-the-scenes movers and shakers possessing American passports. With all of the attention coming from south of our border, the band were only able to tour their home country once, with their Canadian label giving the EP a “soft release.”

“We aren’t really blaming anyone or pointing fingers,” says Powell, “I just think we need to tour Canada more often and prove to people that we’re able to put in the work.”

Decemberist romance

With the EP being re-released in the U.K. next month, and expanded to a full-length with the addition of three songs, Land of Talk can expect a whole heap more attention—albeit not from Canada. With stunning songs like “Speak to Me Bones” and “Magnetic Hill,” the band will surely to join the current crop of Montreal acts turning ears abroad. The only problem is that they’ve already been touring the EP for over two years, with their first legitimate full-length continually being pushed back to give Applause… its proper due.

“It can be a bit frustrating but I’d like to think that if we can stay positive, then at some point we’ll just catch up to ourselves,” Powell says. “When we play live, we sneak in the new songs and those are the songs we get the most excited about. If I felt these staggered release dates only happened to us, I would be kind of pissed. But I think it happens to a lot of bands, so we just learned to deal with it. I can’t really complain that much because I still like playing those songs.”

The EP’s re-release coincides perfectly with their U.K. and European tour as the support act for indie darlings the Decemberists. Having already won over a small but loyal audience across the pond from a previous tour with another Montreal export, the Besnard Lakes, Land of Talk are definitely primed for the pole position. Most bands would give their eyeteeth to tour with the Decemberists, but contrary to how most bands snag such prestigious slots—through backdoor dealings and other industry back-scratching—their Decemberists deal happened quite naturally.

“I was reading an interview with them and they were asked what they’d been listening to lately, and they mentioned our EP. To be honest, I had never heard the Decemberists before that point. But I just sent them an e-mail thanking them for mentioning us in a couple of interviews, and our former manager asked them if they would keep us in mind for a tour, which was a total longshot. Two weeks later, they actually called us back and we got it.”

Spare tyrant

From the period when their EP was recorded, in the fall of 2005, Powell is the only remaining band member, with bass player Chris McCarron joining soon after the recording. Given Powell’s staggeringly long list of ex-bassists, it would be only too easy to paint her as a tyrant or an indie rock diva, but Powell’s laissez faire attitude and sense of humour quickly disarm any knee-jerk misconceptions.

“Sometimes I wonder if people just think I’m impossible to work with because I have had so many people in the band,” she says. “Maybe it would be cooler if I was impossible to work with, really abusive and threw stuff at people, because it might seem more like I know what I’m doing. Maybe if I did that, I would still have the same band I had five years ago. I think I can be a little bit passive and wishy-washy and just let things play out naturally. Like, if people are going to get wasted before a show to the point where they can’t play, I’m more inclined to just let that happen and let the chips fall where they may.”

Like most bands trying to get a foot in the door, Land of Talk have garnered most of their attention from doing it the hard way—hitting the road incessantly. After recording a follow-up full-length last winter at Montreal’s Breakglass Studios, long-time drummer Bucky Wheaton grew tired of the gerbil wheel known as touring and finally confessed to Powell that he could no longer deal with the rigours of the road, preferring to return to the relatively solid ground of domestic security.

“We tour a lot and that can be really hard on people, and I think it was especially hard on Bucky,” Powell says. “You don’t make a lot of money, and it can be really hard on your state of mind. Chris and I still really love Bucky, and we’re pretty sure he still loves us, so it was hard for him to leave. But he felt like he had to do some preventative maintenance before he turned into a road tragedy, and we respected that.”

Road warriors

With the recent inclusion of drummer and self-proclaimed “road warrior” Eric Thibodeau, Powell finally has a solid band behind her. Thibodeau came in as a fan and has added new life to the old songs, and, most importantly, this young buck is more than willing to spend months on end eating his dinners from gas station microwaves. Their unreleased full-length features Wheaton on drums, so the band is chucking the record in favour of starting anew and re-recording the songs just outside Montreal this winter, with a slated release date of spring 2008.

“Bucky was great, and truthfully, when he quit, we were really bummed out. I was actually wondering if I should just try and get into teachers’ college and do something responsible with my life, but Eric came in and really breathed new life into these songs.”

With the massive amount of touring Land of Talk have already done, and with the promise of a lot more on the horizon, the band rarely have a chance to cool their heels in their hometown. Montreal quickly became Powell’s home after moving from Guelph years ago to get a music degree at Concordia, which she describes as a “harsh toke.”

“Everybody tells me the Montreal scene has never been better, but I feel like we’ve missed a lot of what’s happening because we tour so much. Whenever we come home, the first thing I do is just try and hook up with my friends, smoke a lot of hash and play Chinese checkers.

“It would be nice if Montreal included us,” she adds, “but really, it doesn’t matter where we’re playing as long as people are getting into it.”

With Cloud Cult at la Sala Rossa on
Wednesday, Sept. 5, 8:30 p.m., $12