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More go
than ever

Paul Gott of the Ripcordz looks back on the year punk broke (people's windshields)

by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

It's well over two decades now that Paul Gott and his band have been pounding out what they call "kidnoise," meaning fierce but fun punk rock that borrows bits from hardcore, rockabilly and no-frills rock 'n' roll. Balancing contemporary political bite with the timeless topics of beer and girls, the Ripcordz have produced a fine batch of albums (the latest, What If They Held a Revolution and Nobody Came?, is on Stomp's street-punk offshoot Mayday, rather than Gott's longstanding EnGuard imprint) and clocked countless hours, days, weeks touring our fine nation.

In the coming year, Gott's hoping to finally spread the live punk-rock gospel to the Yukon, but first the Ripcordz will be using the Café Chaos New Year's party to launch the long-awaited CD version of their first album, 1988's Ripcordz Are Go, with a bunch of cool bonus tracks. Recent daddy Gott, always armed with sharp and controversial insights, dubious puns and the wickedest grin in town, took a few minutes to give the Mirror a piece of his mind.

Mirror: Looking back over 2003, what would you say were some highlights - or lowlights - for the punk scene in Montreal?

Paul Gott: Well, I guess the one everybody will think about is the riot on Ste-Catherine Street. It's interesting, CBC phoned me up after that and asked what I thought about it. I said it was funny that there are all these punk rockers out there doing things all year long - whether you're talking politics, because a lot of them are politically involved, or social issues, because there are so many homeless kids, or music, because there are so many great shows going on - you have to have a riot before punk's in the news. You know what? It's nothing I'd do, it's nothing I'd encourage, but whenever punk gets in the news, it seems to turn out good in the end. Squeegee punks were discovered when there was a riot on St-Laurent. Nobody knew what a squeegee punk was until some punks get frustrated and break a few windows, the riot cops get called out, and now people know about squeegee punks, about homeless kids and Dans la Rue. Any publicity is good publicity, so I'll take it.

M: Anything else?

PG: The other thing was Good Charlotte and all that stuff. I never begrudge bands making it big, and I'd much rather be listening to Good Charlotte than most of the crap that's on MuchMusic or the radio. It's not quite punk but it's not as bad as the other stuff. It's funny, there was Offspring before Good Charlotte, and Billy Idol before that. Punk seems to be bubbling up into the pop charts every once in a while. Maybe it'll turn a couple of people on to punk, CÉGEP or high-school kids who are into rave music or the Rolling Stones or something like that. They'll go, huh, this is cool - Good Charlotte might lead them to some old-school punk.

Institutionalized

M: So you see it as cyclical?

PG: It's funny, watching this going on again and again. I think punk is the only music that really has a good, solid base under the mainstream. There are kids doing shows in every town - we had our best tour ever this year. Great shows everywhere. I was surprised.

M: How do you define "best tour ever?"

PG: Pretty much every town we went to, we had a huge show. We turned up in Edmonton and we were in the mainstream newspaper. We got to the hall, this Rialto-type hall - we'd played that city so many times and most times, we got 50 people out. We were like, "What the hell are we doing here?" But it filled up, and that happened everywhere. In many cities, it was the best show we'd ever had there - we actually got paid! It was the first time I ever felt like I was a famous person, outside of Montreal.

M: I want to use the term "institution" -

PG: Ha! Institutionalized! It's one of those funny things, though. Most of the places we play, we don't get older fans, the 30-year-olds. Most of the places we play are all-ages shows, and everybody's 16 or 17 - they don't know our old songs! Being an institution helps in certain ways in certain towns, but most of the places we play, we're just a punk rock band.

With Random Killing, Ab Irato, Manic Manon and Barricade Mentale at Café Chaos on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 9pm, $10