{"id":8160,"date":"2013-12-19T16:45:12","date_gmt":"2013-12-19T16:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=8160"},"modified":"2013-12-19T16:45:12","modified_gmt":"2013-12-19T16:45:12","slug":"the-party-dress-local-swamp-rockers-get-spooky-scary-on-new-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2013\/12\/19\/the-party-dress-local-swamp-rockers-get-spooky-scary-on-new-7\/","title":{"rendered":"The Party Dress :: Local swamp-rockers get spooky, scary on new 7\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Attachment-1\"<\/a>
photo by Chris Friesen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

by Matt Williams<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s just past five o\u2019clock in The Party Dress jamspace on a chilly November Sunday, and Reuben Todd (guitar\/vocals), Stefan Kroeker (drums), and Hart Koepke (bass) are relaxing beside a coffee table scattered with a colorful array of dead soldiers and full ashtrays. The walls are plastered with posters: a jolly roger, a velvet tiger, and my personal favourite, a cheap printout of a half-naked Brigitte Bardot. An old Budweiser pool table lamp hangs in the far side of the room. The heater is cranked up and it smells like the air is burning. Koepke just woke up.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou go to those regular hot dog stands and they\u2019ve just got ketchup, mustard and relish,\u201d says Koepke. \u201cBut then you go to another one, and on the side you see he\u2019s got four different types of hot sauce, sauerkraut, banana peppers, jalapenos\u2026 it\u2019s like walking into God\u2019s mind. We\u2019re like the perfect hot dog stand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Koepke was the last ingredient (the best guess is nacho cheese) in that hot dog stand, joining the band later this year. Todd and Kroeker already had an established musical relationship with The Mystics. The Party Dress was birthed from an uncomfortable stagnancy which found the two of them hankering to get something done on their own.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of waiting to see if the Mystics would ever keep going, we just decided, well, fuck that,\u201d says Kroeker. \u201cWe\u2019re just gonna write our own stuff in-between, and call it something totally different.\u201d<\/p>\n

That need for immediacy, to not hang on to songs too long before getting them on tape has translated to a ferocious, devil-may-care three-song single they\u2019ll be releasing sometime in February.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just didn\u2019t wanna sit on the songs until they were really stale, and then record them,\u201d says Todd. \u201cIt was more like, if we\u2019re excited about it, record it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The You\u2019re Dead<\/em> 7\u201d single is the polar opposite of pretentious, featuring blistering, grimy swamp-rock full of fast-and-hard drums, thrashy, overdriven guitar riffs, and bass lines that drive them all toward a dark-but-dancy oblivion. There aren\u2019t a lot of bands in Winnipeg making waves with a similar aesthetic, and that refreshing take on graveyard rock \u2018n\u2019 roll can likely be credited to the separate influences of each member.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like we\u2019re trying to pull off any particular style,\u201d says Kroeker. \u201cIt\u2019s like, let\u2019s just write stuff we like and that\u2019s what comes out. We\u2019re always trying to make it kinda spooky. That\u2019s a question that comes up all the time: \u2018how can we make that spookier?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The band had the inklings of an intention to put these songs out on a record, but Kevin Strang, drummer for local noise-wizards Pop Crimes, expedited the process. You\u2019re Dead<\/em> will be the first release on his brand new label, Bonzer Records.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt all very much fell into place, like Hart kinda fell into place and the 7\u201d fell into place,\u201d says Todd. \u201cIt\u2019s almost intimidating \u2018cause now we\u2019ve kinda got our work cut out for us.<\/p>\n

Strang walks in near the end of our interview and offers his first signings a hoot of the devil\u2019s lettuce. Now that Koepke has recovered sufficiently from his nap, it\u2019s almost time for practice. But he\u2019s yet to be in on a writing session with Todd and Kroeker.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually we just do a lot of cocaine, get really worked up into a state of trance, and then just let it flow from there,\u201d laughs Todd.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll never find that in another hot dog stand.<\/p>\n

The Party Dress will be playing the Big Fun launch party at Union Sound Hall on Dec. 23 with SMRT TYPE and DJs Wolf Boy, Schelly Handsome, and Burglar, with a 7″ release party to come in February. Check them out at<\/em> thepartydress.bandcamp.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Matt Williams It\u2019s just past five o\u2019clock in The Party Dress jamspace on a chilly November Sunday, and Reuben Todd (guitar\/vocals), Stefan Kroeker (drums), and Hart Koepke (bass) are relaxing beside a coffee table scattered with a colorful array of dead soldiers and full ashtrays. The walls are plastered with posters: a jolly roger, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[563,716],"class_list":["post-8160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-local","tag-party-dress"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}