Champion
1. Silk Purse Review – Montreal Mirror 2004
Champion, Alberta, The Silk Purse (Roast Records)
Lovers of bleak rock and brisk pop, open your hearts to Champion, Alberta, an Edmonton trio grappling with the same indie and new wave influences as so many of their peers, and pinning their sound down with finesse. Inspired by New Order, My Bloody Valentine, the Zombies, Pavement and the Clientele (their own list), Rob Wood, Jason Stronciski and Tim Rechner fuse driving riffs, mimicking synths, breezy vocals and tight rhythm, wrapping each of their five songs in gorgeous melody with a strong pulse.
8/10
Lorraine Carpenter
Montreal Mirror, August 5 -11/ 2004
2. Silk Purse Review – Unpopular Blog 2004
Terms of reference
Okay, so what’s been playing all morning? Why it’s the Silk Purse Ep by Champion, Alberta. Actually this three piece come from Edmonton, Alberta, and are another to join my list of Canada’s greatest bands ever. This is a sublime five track CDR that conjures a variety of connections to things are as varied and marvelous as the Sea And Cake, Seefeel and a variety of sweet Soft Pop. At moments they also make me think of Appliance meeting The June Brides in a rainy rooftop parking lot. Or The Playwrights slinking down dark alleys with the Popinjays. They sound magnificent, and if I had my way (actually, if I had the money) I would be drawing straws to see which two cuts would make an Unpopular piece of vinyl and I’d be writing that cheque and mailing away the master tomorrow. As it is, I’ve got my fingers crossed that they’ll allow these five tracks to wish they were unpopular…
Unpopular
Blog
July 10, 2004
3. Interview with Discorder Magazine 2004
By Parmida Zarinkamar, aka Parmida Z. / Photo Aaron Pedersen and Eugene Uhuad (3tenphoto)
Deciding on a phone interview, after about twenty minutes of fiddling, testing and failed attempts until I speak with two out of the three members of Champion, Alberta in their native Edmonton. It’s a pipin’ hot day in drummer Tim Rechner’s apartment, and the sound of heat–stricken breathing is heavy in the background as I converse with him and Rob Wood (guitar, vocals). Jason Stronciski (keyboard, synth, trumpet) sadly couldn’t be there. Their debut album The Silk Purse is indeed an alt–rock gem, but it’s their live show that seduces and sinks you in. I saw them as part of CJSR’s Smilin’ Jay’s Canada Day Party in Edmonton, and I stole the first question from Jay’s interview:
DiSCORDER: I’ve heard Champion, Alberta be described
as “a real place, a way of life, and a belief.”
It’s a little town south of Calgary right?
Tim Rechner: Yeah, I think it’s close of Vulcan.
Rob Wood: Yeah, it’s in the county of Vulcan, actually.
How is it a way of life?
Rob: It isn’t, really. I think that was just something
Smilin’ Jay invented; it’s not a way of life at
all.
Even so, what’s the belief system, the philosophy of
the band?
[Long pause] Tim: Well, we like to play exciting music that’s
somewhat challenging and innovative and not stuff that’s
been hashed out a thousand times before…you wanna add
something to that, Rob?
Rob: Holy shit, it’s really hot here. We’re not
in the best interview mode today. Actually, I dunno. Our belief
system is that we believe in what we do, we work really, really
hard at it, and put in a lot of hours. That’s our form
of…uh…I dunno what. All I can hear is Tim breathing!
No, we enjoy what we do. We’ve all seen enough bands and
heard enough; we know that there’s a lot of crap out there.
We’re trying not to add to that glut of music… that
probably wasn’t the answer you were looking for.
You could have just told me that you were Buddhist or something.
Rob: No, there’s nothing like that in the band at all.
Tim: No, we’re not Buddhist.
Don’t believe in karma?
Rob: No, I believe in karma. I think individually we do…I
think it’s a little harder to believe in karma when you’re
from Edmonton than when you’re from Vancouver. There’s
a different system out here, a different metaphysical system.
You used to be called The Tom Cruise Missile, but I heard you
changed it cause you thought he’d come down on you like
the hand of God. What’s the reference in the name?
Rob: Um, it was from a lawsuit. I’m very liable to be
misquoting here, but it’s a catch phrase that was applied
to the lawsuit. There was a fellow named Keith Henson in the
states who was an anti–scientology activist. He posted
some jokes on a scientology newsgroup, that was like, “I
think all Scientologists should be blown up with a Tom Cruise
Missile” [Tom Cruise is a huge Scientologist]. So they
filed a lawsuit against him saying that he was making terrorist
threats — this was years ago, mind you, before terrorism
became what it is today, which is fear–mongering —
but it turns out he was a Vietnam vet who had an encyclopedic
knowledge of how to construct explosive devises.
So they said that on the grounds that he actually could construct
a missile, he is genuinely threatening. Because they’re
all really good lawyers, he didn’t have the money to defend
himself. So he fled the country and sought political asylum
in Canada. So that’s basically where the name came from.
I thought it was funny: why not try to get sued by the most
litigious people on the planet? Tom Cruise is, well, pretty
lawsuit happy.
Now, Tim, you knew Luke Meat [CiTR Music Director, host of
Anoize] from back in the day. And he tells me that you used
to drink pure syrup Big Gulps! Pure syrup! Defend yourself!
Tim: I gotta say that’s not true! See, Luke knew my brother
Chris, they were at school together in junior high and, I think,
high school. He might be thinking of my other brother, who was
a big Big Gulp fanatic. So that could be it. I never really
knew Luke in school, I just knew of him, cause my older brother
was kind of my hero so I knew all his friends. I never really
liked Big Gulps…
Luke and your brother used to be in a theatre sports team together
called “Gary,” and they were Alberta champions!
Rob: Really?
Tim: Yeah, I’m sure that’s true, cause they’re
both pretty dramatic guys. My friend Curtis kept telling me
that he kept running into Luke, so I knew he was out there,
and I think I saw him in the Kingsgate Mall about a year and
a half ago. I didn’t actually meet him until we played
at The Cobalt on May 1st. It was quite a coincidence that he
was pumping up our band to a lot of DJs out there, ‘cause
he didn’t know us.
He was! He turned me on to you guys. He told me that you sounded
like The Smiths, which was totally untrue!
[they laugh] Tim: We don’t sound like The Smiths at all!
Yeah, but he knew that that would make me listen to you …
Tim: Ha, right. Well, CiTR has now done more promotion and publicity
and has given us a lot more help than anybody in Edmonton, so
we definitely appreciate it.
Good, we can take the lead. Than you can give us props when
you’re big!
Tim: Yeah, definitely…
Rob: Yeah, when…
You’re live show is really quite entertaining. When I
saw you guys play, you were wearing matching plastic protection
suits and films in the background, is this a regular thing?
Tim: That was the first time we’ve worn the suits, but
we do have a tradition (we’ve been playing shows for about
two years) of using different visual artists to project things.
But they keep moving away, as it happens with a lot of creative
people in Alberta. We strive to provide an extra visual dimension
to our show. Not to distract people from the quality of the
show or anything, but to make a more complete experience.
So these artists are just friends of yours?
Tim: Yeah, in general, they’re friends of ours, and they’re
also very talented local artists.
Rob: It’s a good way of helping them, they don’t
have a lot of avenues to get their art out into the community.
Because in Edmonton, everybody’s in a band and it’s
the art form here, but there’s lots of people working
hard in lots of different disciplines.
Tim: The music scene is thriving here, it’s a good city
for theatre. I’m a painter and I’m quite serious
about it. It’s not the best place for visual artists,
there are not enough venues. There’s a small, tight–knit
film community but it’s nothing like Vancouver.
The isolation is good for the scene, isn’t it? What else
is there to do but go see a show.
Rob: The funny thing is that it spoils you a little bit. In
Edmonton, there’s so many people going to shows all the
time…well, it’s not mandatory attendance, but everyone
sort of has to go support it. But Edmonton is getting big enough
that there can be more than one show on one night, and it didn’t
used to be like that.
Tim: Way better quality, too.
OK, if I can get a bit cheesy to end off here, I’d like
you to “champion Alberta” and tell me what you love
and hate about the province.
Tim: I hate the general political consensus. Rob: Yeah, that’s
the worst part.
Tim: The whole west has this problem, but I find it totally
embarrassing that all but two seats federally elected are Conservative,
a party that has no platform for the arts.
Rob: I hate just how suburban Alberta is. I mean, Edmonton is
a disgusting, disgusting mess of a city. It’s gross. Someone
went crazy with the light industrial zoning, and that’s
what we’ve got. The architecture is the second worst thing
here, along with the suburban mentality. I’d say the third
most disgusting thing is the weather. So it goes political,
architectural, meteorological, in that order.
Um, well, there’s the nice sunsets.
Tim: Yeah, totally, on the positive side, there are nice sunsets.
And as far as “the big fish in a small sea” thing,
there are benefits to that as a visual artist. Getting funding
from the government or publicity, or whatever. You can kind
of shine here. Whereas, if you’re in New York, there’s
a thousand bands and a thousand artists, so good luck getting
attention.
Rob: Yeah, this is a nice place to live. I’m comfortable
here, it doesn’t take a long time to get to work, and
it’s an excellent place for musicians to live. It’s
gonna get better, when you think that Edmonton’s only
a hundred years old, there’s no culture. It’ll get
better.
