Roots radicals

>> Down with industry, say Crazy Rhythm Daddies

by LORRAINE CARPENTER

If you've got a hankerin' for some live jivin', Montreal's own roots rock reps the Crazy Rhythm Daddies are back with How 'bout It?, an album of covers and original songs in the time-tested styles of Western swing, bluegrass and straight up rock 'n' roll. When he's not the national director of the Independent Film and Video Alliance or the drummer for the Howlin' Hound Dogs, Peter Sandmark sings and plays the six-string for CRD, and the Mirror tracked him down for a chat about returning to roots and rejecting all things modern.



Mirror: So this is your first album in five years, but you've been playing regularly at le Swimming this whole time.

Peter Sandmark: That's been our home base, and we don't have to put so much work into promoting the gigs, so it's given us a chance to work on music more. I was able to write songs, bring in new covers and even change our sound a bit with more '50s R&B.

M: Music aside, how did you guys get into the whole retro lifestyle?

PS: Did you see that ReSearch book about the swing trend? V. Vale wrote something really good--he was saying that a lot of these rockabillies and retro people were punks before, and that's what we were. I was a punk in the early '80s, and it's a kind of a do-it-yourself culture, you know, old punks die hard.

M: And your wife will be selling vintage clothes at the show, so I guess you guys don't shop at the Gap much.

PS: Yeah, that Gap ad with the swing theme was really ironic because the whole point is that you buy old clothes or you make your own clothes. The way Vale writes about it is kinda interesting. The choice today is either modern, whether it's hip hop or metal or whatever, or you make your own style, which ends up being one of a variety of retro styles. So it does have something to do with rejecting modern culture as being empty and shallow, you can quote me on that.

M: And modern music is part of that too?

PS: I'm not against new music, I guess. I can respect people who do good stuff with tapes and sequencers and computers. I've gone to some of those events, you know--I guess they call it techno. But pop music is more of a barrier, pop dictates certain trends and styles. This is the battle against the industry approach, whether it's Nashville or Britney Spears. You know the story with that Coen brothers movie O Brother Where Art Thou? The CD is not at all like Nashville country, it's traditional country, and it got no commercial support, but it got on the charts anyway and it's kinda stirring things up. That's our trip, live music, and it's the same for the other bands--I hope you mention Notre Dame de Grass and Bloodshot Bill. We're trying to bring the different scenes together because there's this interest from the public in live roots music, and we're here to offer that.

With Notre Dame de Grass and Bloodshot Bill & the Guiloteens at la Sala Rossa on Friday, Dec. 14, 9pm, $7, and with the Howlin' Hound Dogs at the Jupiter Room on New Year's Eve