By Samuel Swanson
Dozens of pressed caps of ecstasy litter the art on a CD titled Strange Memories on this Nervous Night. “For every cap, there’s a strange memory that comes with it,” remarked Jonathan Broeska, front man of The Nods, who will be hosting a reunion / CD release show with Alverstone on Friday May 29, at The Cavern. “If we can track some of those [caps] down that would be pretty cool,” suggested Micah Braun, former Nods lead guitarist, now at the helm of local pop rock sweetheart, Jicah.
Ecstasy is harder to come by than it used to be. Sure, it might be easier for you (not the writer) to find the active MDMA chemical in capsules, but the days of ‘pressed cap’ ecstasy (usually some combination of MDMA, crystal meth, household cleaners and adhesive) are thankfully behind us. With the nostalgia of the drugs allegedly taken come the strange memories of the music it accompanied. The twos and fros that left us dizzy. The memories we made. Those with whom we shared. What we forgot, and what we dare admit we remember. After all, it has been a while.
The two bands used to regularly play on the same bill but The Nods haven’t been active since 2009, and Alverstone since 2010. So why an album release? And of perhaps equal importance, why the ecstasy tablets? “It’s a chance to reconnect with really great, albeit drug-induced, friendships that still endure today. With or without the drugs,” said Braun. I hope I properly interpreted that we were leaning more toward ‘with’.
The split EP includes three tracks from both acts of Manitoba music yesteryear. “Those days were really fun. And we’re not trying to be a bunch of geezers trying to relive our youth, because we’re still fairly young,” said Braun. “We’re doing the throwback reunion show before we get to the geezer period,” Broeska clarified.
Normally, album releases come from active acts trying their best to proliferate their productions amongst local show-goers in the hope that word travels outside the immediate ecosystem of bard they frequent, seeking opportunities abroad.
What’s atypical about this release, aside from the illicit image album art, is that the promotional purpose serves not so much the bands themselves, but rather the musicians behind them. Braun and former Nods drummer Jeff Bruce wrote the earliest Jicah content, while Alverstone singer Kevin Desjarlais and drummer Chris Aquin now perform in Hana Lu Lu, a synth-centric dance band receiving positive reviews in Winnipeg.
“It’s easy to write for every instrument and create something with a full sound, without anybody around,” Desjarlais says of the multimodal draw of electronic music, and explains “I could complete entire songs on my own.” Desjarlais stopped short of calling their music EDM. “It’s just dance music. We have a live drummer and there’s a lot more of a live element to our shows.”
Former Alverstone lead guitarist, Bobby Desjarlais, who is much of the force behind the popular Winnipeg indie band Attica Riots, was an addition to the brothers of Inward Eye, yet another Winnipeg rock band of the early/mid ’00s.
“In Attica Riots I’m putting together some the pieces that I learned then,” Bobby Desjarlais said. “Everything in Alverstone was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and I was reinventing a brand new wheel for myself.”
“When we started, it was the garage rock scene,” Braun explained, providing context to the general shift from garage sounds to indie pop rock. “You had bands like The Strokes and The Hives, and that’s what we listened to,” Broeska said, “and then along came The Killers, which was a fusion of those two musics. I think most indie rock is still using The Killers’ drum beats.”
Another difference between music then and now is promotion. “We only had MySpace,” Braun said. “I remember checking how many listens we’d get each day.” Now, with online services for musicians such as SoundCloud and CD Baby, there is more opportunity to distribute material, but Broeska urges caution. “Bands are a lot more business-oriented than they once were. They try to come up with a business model right from the get go, and it precedes the quality of their music. It was good that we got to cut our teeth on these projects.”
It may be ‘in with the new’ now that the innocence and naivety of youth is in partial retrospect, but for a night we let the waves of nostalgia crash the shore, where strange memories wash up. Long nights and purple pills. Nervous energy. Beware pressed caps. Especially the yellows. Allegedly.
Catch The Nods and Alverstone for their throwback / reunion / CD release / possibly last tango (who knows) at The Cavern, May 29. $10 cover includes a free album.