Edmontonians bring gritty guitar attack to Gallery Connexion

While Fredericton quietly snaps fingers to our folk-and-indie-heavy scene, western Canada clubs are being ripped open by louder, faster and greasier rock and roll bands.

The Famines are a noisy, sweaty and obtrusive garage-rawk-n-roll group whose sound is obnoxious and arresting. And on Nov. 11 they bring their reckless candor to Fredericton’s Gallery Connexion.

The two-piece have no bass, but you can still feel the sound barrel out from the stage, crawl up your legs, pound on your chest and bust through your ear drums.

The Montreal-by-way-of-Edmonton band operate despite the limitations imposed on two-piece groups. Like Japandroids and Death From Above 1979 they reject any notion they are any less noisy than bands three times their size. These bands teach you there’s no emptiness that can’t be filled by a distorted guitar and militant drumming.

“We’re a band that can be perceived in a lot of ways,” said vocalist and guitarist Raymond Biesinger. “Are we a noise act? A garage act? A power duo? An art band? Every national tour we piece together, we’re stitching together a lot of different small musical scenes across the country.”

Biesinger focuses on the band’s visual end. For most bands, that would extend to stage set-up and maybe wardrobe, but the Famines are keen to extend their image beyond Biesinger and drummer Garrett Kruger’s stage presence.

“We put out something called A Visual History of the Famines, and that’s a 50-page book documenting the shirts, posters, album covers, etc. of the band,” Biesinger said.

Biesinger released the book, which is on its fourth edition, on his own semi-active publishing house, the Belgravian Press. They also published a seven-song live cassette with a 320-page liner note book that sold out earlier this tour.

Thanks to backing and releases solely from independent labels, the Famines have maintained involvement in every release and related product. These are the sorts of projects Biesinger doesn’t think major labels have the flexibility to release.

“We have a way of making them happen,” Biesinger said. “That’s just a reality for bands that haven’t the benefit of Pitchfork buzz and have to make things happen by sweat, hard labor, and improvising.”

The band was recently separated by Biesinger’s move to Montreal for work.

“On this tour we flew Garrett in, practiced for two days, then left for the Halifax Pop Explosion date and the 19 other shows.”

Though the band has never lived together, they feel like they do. They’ve toured two months solid for every year since they formed in 2008. This is their fourth time through the Maritimes, though they haven’t brought this particular set through Fredericton before.

Their show descriptions read more like a warning than an invitation.

“Noise, sweat. Loud minimalism,” Biesinger pauses. “Purposeful songs that approach pop in some ways, but are obviously not.”

The band are playing with Sheer Heart Attack at Gallery Connexion, Thurs. Nov. 11. The doors open at 9 pm and it’s open to all ages with a wet/dry bar.