If one glances into the “Whatever Happened To?” file locked up in the vaults of Canadian rock, you'll notice there were many great bands in the Nineties but an incredible number of players that jumped ship from those bands at some point. Some of those bands continue to make music today but someone will inevitably ask, “Hey – there was another guy in that band wasn't there? Whatever happened to him?” There are actually more of those than you'd think. Here are a couple of samples:
Mike Turner – former guitarist with Our Lady Peace, a.k.a. “The guy that got out before OLP became incredibly formulaic songwriters.”
Jeff Burrows – former drummer for The Tea Party, a.k.a. “The guy that called it a day when he got sick of placating singer Jeff Martin's ego.”
Edwin Ghazal – former singer with I Mother Earth (known simply as Edwin), a.k.a. "The guy singularly responsible for IME's greatest successes and greatest trials through the Nineties.”
So whatever happened to them? They eventually became members of Crash Karma and there's no mistaking that fact in listening to the band's debut. After the static lead-in that opens “Like A Wave,” all of the sonic elements that Turner, Edwin and Burrows brought to their former bands and which helped them break through back when – the tense and textural guitar licks from Naveed and Clumsy, the bombastic beats of The Edges Of Twilight and the ecstatic, gravity-defying vocals of Scenery And Fish – reappear renewed here and cause a heavy sigh of satisfaction to escape from those that missed them. They do not appear as cliches to appease or pander to the over-thirty set, they appear because they are integral elements of each player's individual style – as natural as breathing – and what makes this record incredible is how easily all of those pieces fall together. In songs like “Awake,” “Fight,” “On My Own” and “Not About Anger,” the band members work in tandem to produce complete, solid and fully-formed songs rather than gunning for any big, 'return rejoice' solo shot that might present itself (although Edwin does ruminate that he needs to stand on his own a bit in “On My Own”) or trying to steal a little spotlight for themselves. It's a unified front presented here and those that remember the “good old days” will take some comfort in that as they stand up and cheer.
Of course, the obvious question will become, “Will it last?” Crash Karma is a fantastic return to arms and proof that the players involved were touchstone figures in the success of their previous bands, but that only goes so far. Time will be the only thing that tells if Crash Karma has any kind of future beyond the novel nostalgia trip, and there isn't one member that hasn't been vilified by Canadian pop culture a little. Will that play a factor in whether Crash Karma lives or dies? That remains undecided, but it's impossible not to have a little hope that it works; these songs are strong, respectable offerings, and manage to capitalize on fades glories as well as updating them to work in the present. It'll be interesting to see what comes next.
Artist:
www.crashkarma.com/
www.myspace.com/crashkarma
Album:
Crash Karma comes out via E1 Entertainment/Phantom Sound & Vision on March 30, 2010. Pre-order it here on Amazon .
