MOPTOPS STOP
THE POP

GRAVE RAVE-UPS: Teenbeat Takeover’s
Matt Fiorentino and Oliver Besner

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

Local garage rock fanatics Oliver Besner and Matt Fiorentino were earning their frequent-flyer points, travelling all over the U.S. for years to see their favourite bands, and were becoming increasingly frustrated when tours with garage rock’s snottiest would leave Montreal off their schedules. Like all budding promoters, this lack planted the seed, but Besner can actually pinpoint the moment when the two finally decided to shake some action rather than simply complain over beers.

“I had been writing an e-mail to a friend of mine, about how every show in Montreal is either an indie pop show or a noise show,” says Besner over a cappuccino at a local haunt. “The last thing I wrote in the e-mail was, ‘No more of this pussy rock in 2009, it’s time for a teenbeat takeover,’ and when I looked at those two words together on the screen, it just hit me. I called Matt and we started Teenbeat Takeover the very next day.”

Within the close-knit garage rock community, Teenbeat Takeover quickly generated buzz on Web forums, and by landing gigs for Magic Christian (featuring garage god Cyril Jordan of the Flamin’ Groovies and Blondie’s Clem Burke), followed quickly by power pop legend Paul Collins’ Beat, they cemented their importance in their scene.

On an international level, Montreal has always been looked upon as a garage rock hotbed, but over the past few years, the scales have tipped in indie pop’s favor. “What we’re doing is definitely just an extension of Montreal’s garage rock tradition,” says Fiorentino. “There was an amazing scene here in Quebec in the ’60s that is still known all over the world among record collectors and garage rock fans, and the second wave continued with Deja Voodoo and the Gruesomes in the ’80s.” “Internationally, the garage rock scene is small but really supportive,” adds Besner, “and it’s definitely thriving in all of these different cities, so there’s no reason it can’t happen on the same level in Montreal. I know I’m not the only person who’s sick of seeing indie pop bands in Montreal.”

With just two shows under their white patent belts, Teenbeat Takeover are turning up the heat in the upcoming months, promoting shows with second-wave garage rockers the Cynics and original ’60s relics Blue Ash, the Flakes, Muck and the Mires and more, as well as putting the finishing touches on the first issue of the Teenbeat Takeover fanzine and promoting shows featuring the best of 1950s animation.

“We knew it was going to be a lot of work and there would be a lot of sacrifice with time and money,” says Fiorentino, “but just being able to meet a legend like Cyril Jordan was enough to give us steam to run on for a long time.”

Besner quickly adds, “When we were sitting with our friends by the bar at la Sala Rossa, watching Magic Christian do their soundcheck, they went into the opening chords of ‘Shake Some Action’ and we all got goosebumps. That moment really galvanized the reason why we wanted to do this in the first place.”