Roast Records

1. FFWD Weekly : “the Best Band You’ve Never Heard”

MUSIC
by FFWD Staff
The best band you’ve never heard
Fast Forward searches Canada for the finest unsigned musical talent

Autumn is traditionally a big time for the music industry. Record labels are gearing up for the Christmas rush and since school is back in session their bands are out touring campuses. It would be easy to say that there is nothing new in the world of music, but all across Canada independent bands are proving that just isn’t true. With the help of writers nationwide, Fast Forward brings you the best bands you’ve never heard.

EDMONTON – The Last Deal

It’s just one of the casualties of the music business that so many talented, visionary bands languish in local obscurity, while some guy with a bad goatee and good marketing sense manages to sell millions of crappy records. Yeah, blame it on the industry – and usually you can – but you can also blame it on being idealistic perfectionists in the case of my favourite little-known Edmonton band.

Take the serious pre-pop-punk signposts nailed in by Samiam and The Doughboys in their earlier days, add a heavy dose of atmospheric dynamics and some aggressive technical instrumentation that runs from sweeping Seaweed-esque melodies to post-punk dissonance, and you’ll start to describe The Last Deal. The trio gained a dedicated Edmonton following a few years ago, playing with the likes of Moneen and Czech prog-punkers Uz Jsme Doma. But when drummer Steve Reid got seriously ill in 2001, rather than find a new member and continue the momentum, bassist Matt Golden and guitarist James Stewart waited almost two years for a recovery before continuing. It’s part of the same frustrating dedication that sees The Last Deal continually self-record amazing analog sessions, only to scrap them and start again with higher standards. Any of the never-released demos floating around their living room would be among the best to come out of Edmonton – if they’d ever see the light of day. Here’s hoping.

GEOFF MOYSA
(See Magazine)
Oct 23, 2003
Ffwd Weekly
Calgary

2. The Gateway Student Newspaper Interview, September 2005.

“The Last Deal returns for cross-Canada tour”

By Mike Larocque

The Last Deal
with Removal and Circle the Wagons
Friday, 30 September at 8pm
Sidetrack Café

For most local bands, getting named one of the top acts in the city and having just perfected your lineup would mean taking advantage of the momentum and playing as often as possible. For Edmonton punk-rockers The Last Deal, it meant taking a near two-year hiatus after their new drummer becoming seriously ill.

“When he became ill we kind of needed a break anyways,” says James Stewart, who, along with Matt Golden (bass) and the aforementioned drummer Steve Reid, make up the local trio, which was named the second best local group by SEE Magazine in 2001. “It really internalized the writing process a lot more. In the end, though, it all worked out for the best, I think.”

And as for their music and local popularity, it was something that they were willing to put on hold while their bandmate recovered. As Stewart tells it, writing songs for The Last Deal was a process that the whole group—not just the singer—needed to contribute to, and throughout their break the band’s sound had changed enough that any sort of musical backlog that had accumulated wouldn’t have suited their current tastes, anyhow.

“Momentum wasn’t that much of a concern of ours, frankly,” says Stewart. “Getting buzz or whatever in your own city, how far can that take you? We’re more concerned that we’re happy with what were making and our break really drove that point home to us. When he recovered, it was basically a new band—we didn’t even keep any of our old songs. We didn’t want him to learn them; we wanted him to be integral to the writing process.

“We’ve matured a lot musically. It’s a tumultuous time in any young man’s life,” jokes Stewart. “That 18-to-22 period, a lot happens. I’m glad that we’re not making the same music we were when we were 18 or 19. It wouldn’t represent us anymore.”

The process of writing songs—even the newer, more mature brand that Stewart boasts—hasn’t been a problem for the band. Having their self-titled debut EP recorded since last fall, the disc only reached shelves this July after mixing dragged out the production. Despite half-jokingly admitting that after this long they’ve gotten a little sick of the tunes, the band is looking forward to touring on the record, setting out on a cross-Canada trip next week, ending up at the Halifax Pop Explosion festival—a destination that has been somewhat difficult to reach.

After nearly missing being on the bill because of a computer glitch that prevented them from being notified of their invitation, the band scrambled to get ready to make the trip, which involved arranging shows along their journey east. Despite being about to embark on a tour and having their EP in stores, the hard work cut out for any band has only just begun. The experience of arranging for this set of shows, for example, was one that Stewart doesn’t relish.

“Booking a tour in Canada is immensely difficult,” states Stewart. “It’s insane. If you just to tour the prairies you’ll be doing eight hour drives just to play the three cities that you can have shows in. Booking this tour has been the most demoralizing, depressing experience. [I send] floods of e-mails and phone calls—like, 50, with only one response, and that will be just, ‘No thanks, buddy.’ There are good people out there, though. You just have to be patient and connect with them.”