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SOUNDTRACKING: Sitting And Shooting The Breeze With Local Band “Sex Church”

by Daniel Colussi | Sex Church. It’s a name that you’re probably reluctant to google. But it’s also a fitting name for a band that professes to depression, disappointment, and obviously a thick strain of black humour. Their particular style of pummeling, insistent garage rock is a marriage between the looping repetition of Krautrock and the grinding fuzz of the most vicious garage rock. And there’s a sardonic slant that runs through their music, with song titles like “Beneath The Bottom” and “Garbage In The Grass.” To be sure, theirs is a bummer trip. But it’s a bummer trip that’s a pleasure to behold. Live, the band scorches, leaving ears ringing and a bewildered sense of “What the fuck just happened?” hanging in the air. They’ve released two 7″s and two LPs to date, the most recent being the glorious Growing Over, released on the esteemed Load Records of Providence, Rhode Island. With the success of Growing Over and a hefty US tour under their belts, it feels like the right time to get to know Sex Church. I sat down with guitarists Levon and Caleb to discuss their tour, their album, and the best place to rent horror movies in Vancouver.

THE JOYS AND HORRORS OF THE USA

So you guys just got back from a pretty hefty US tour. You just got back, how was it?

Levon: We got back last week. The tour was good. We got our car broken into in New York. It ended up costing us a lot of money. We toured in a truck and the back was really secure, so none of our gear got stolen. But they got into the front and Mike and Nick’s clothes got stolen – all of their stuff – and also our GPS and an iPod. So then it cost about $450 to replace all that shit. So we went to Target and Mike and Nick got some new underwear and t-shirts.

Caleb: We didn’t get mugged or anything. It could’ve been a lot worse.

So where did you go on this tour? It started in Minneapolis?

Levon: It started in Minneapolis and then went all the way down to Memphis, across to Albuquerque and then up the West Coast.

And how were the shows? It seems like you guys got to play with some pretty good bands. You played with Pop. 1280 and also The Men.

Levon: Mostly pretty good. I dunno. It’s hard to be objective about it. Some of the shows might have been tainted by being in a dark mood, maybe. But thinking about it, we didn’t have to play to any ridiculously unenthusiastic crowds or anything.

Caleb: We only had a few stinkers and the stinkers were balanced out by goodness. There were a couple shows where there were only like, eight people there, but those eight people made it feel like there were a lot more people there. I’ve played to eight people in the past and it’s not been great. [Laughs]

Levon: We’re vaguely friends with those dudes from Pop. 1280, so that’s how we ended up playing with them. Pascal from that band, he set up a bunch of shows for us. And The Men, they’re kind of like a friend-band to us, so we played two shows with them. They’re really nice. We met them in Seattle six months ago.

With this band, The Men, the thing I always hear is that they tend to play in loft-type art spaces, that they don’t play in bars so much. It seems like that’s part of their scene.

Levon: We played with them in Providence and that show was in this crazy abandoned warehouse-factory type place.

Caleb: Artists had taken it over. I think where we played had been a rope factory at one time, but then somehow the city had sold it or something and it was being re-developed.

Levon: The place in New York was a loft. We played two shows in New York and both of them were in spaces, not bars. The kind of spaces that would never exist in Vancouver. They were both really well run. They seemed like, I dunno, they were run as businesses, basically. Super professional.

Caleb: They were high maintenance. And they were paying bands, which is unusual! [Laughs] I don’t think that’s ever happened in Vancouver.

Levon: They were running things on a really good timeline. Bands weren’t hitting the stage at four in the morning.

And Cheater Slicks – that’s pretty insane. I know you guys love the Cheater Slicks.

Caleb: That was weird. We played after Cheater Slicks.

Levon: That was super insane. Cheater Slicks played right before us, and so my favourite band ever…I’m not gonna say they opened for us!

Caleb: They didn’t.

Levon: That was in Columbus, Ohio, where they’re from.

What was Columbus, Ohio like? It’s a kind of semi-legendary rock town, isn’t it?

Levon: I think it’s a pretty rad place. So many awesome bands are from there. I dunno why…I guess it’s pretty cheap to live there.

Caleb: Yeah, you could just buy a house for fifty-grand.

Levon: I guess it’s just kind of this artsy-place? I dunno, but so many awesome bands are from there.

Caleb: It’s funny because when you drive into town, you drive in on this, like, back country road along the river…

Levon: There’s all this woodsy stuff around you and then all of a sudden there’s a this huge college football stadium.

Caleb: Food was cheap. Beer was cheap…

Levon: One of the dudes working the bar was from that band Times New Viking. The tall guitar player. It was this gnarly dive bar, but cool. It wasn’t really gnarly, actually.

Caleb: No, it wasn’t that bad. Apparently the neighbourhood was gnarly. But compared to what, I don’t know.

Levon: It didn’t seem gnarly compared to Detroit.

Caleb: Or Allentown…

So how were things looking in the Mid-West? Things must be pretty tough around there these days. I mean, I picture Allentown, Pennsylvania to be a kind of depressed ex-steel town or something.

Caleb: It’s gnarly in Allentown. When we first showed up at the place to play there was this cop serving a warrant on the house behind the warehouse that we were going to play at. All the windows were busted out. The part of town we were in … there weren’t streetlights. So it was really, really, really dark.

Levon: Yeah. And there were these dudes on the corner, kind of like slinging. Going on tour and seeing the entire US makes me realize how much I love Vancouver. I mean, that building we played at in Allentown seemed like a haunted…it seemed like the kind of place you’d take someone to murder them in or something. After going through the Mid-West and the South it was really nice to play on the West Coast. We know lots of people there. People are normal there. Once you get to San Francisco, the world seems normal.

Caleb: Yeah, the East Coast…man. It’s definitely, like, people are showing it. Just driving around and everyone’s…

Levon: Cleveland, Detroit…Port Huron, we played there. It’s this small town in Michigan. It’s like this festering wound. [Laughs]

GROWING OVER

You recorded your newest album at Otic Sound with Josh Stevenson here in town. How was that? How long did it take?

Levon: A month, kind of. Weekends and weeknights. To do the whole thing. It was cool. I liked the space.

Caleb: He’s got good ideas.

Levon: And he’s pretty much the reason why our album is getting released on Load.

So how did that come about? Did you guys have the album in the can before Load agreed to put it out?

Levon: We recorded stuff that we thought would be for a single. We recorded that with Josh last February. And then through a weird series of internet events – Josh was friends with Ben, who runs Load, on Facebook. And Ben posted something on our band. And Josh told him he knows us and had recorded us and sent it to Ben. It was weird.

Caleb: It could only happen through a 2000’s chain of events.

Levon: Facebook.

Load is a label that’s been around for a long time and has a certain cool pedigree. But I’d sort of lost track of it. There are so many noise bands on that label – it seems cool that they’re putting something out for you guys, who are more of a straight up rock band than most of what Load releases.

Levon: Well, he put out the Brainbombs, and that was like the clincher for me. I don’t know a lot of what’s come out on that label, but I kinda like being on a label that’s not a “garage rock” label. I don’t know what kind of baggage that would put on our band, know what I mean? And Ben’s a really nice guy. I don’t think we’re a lucrative project for him to take on. [Laughs]

I love the album cover for Grown Over (check it out). It looks great. Is that from someone in town?

Levon: That’s from our friend Jesse in Seattle. It’s awesome. He made t-shirts for us too. I just kind of told him a loose concept and he just went with it. He’s a talented man.

MORE HORROR

I heard that you guys are horror movie fans. What are some standout flicks? I just watched Black Christmas for the first time last week.

Levon: Oh, wow. Canadian classic.

Caleb: What I love about that Black Christmas is that it’s directed by Bob Clark, who also directed A Christmas Story! The two quintessential Christmas movies. It’s all you need.

Levon: um…Maniac. Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Caleb: We went to someone’s house on tour and they had a Tom Savini autograph. I’ll go through weird phases when I’ll watch really specific sub-genres of horror movies. I went through as many Nazi-Zombie movies as I could find.

Levon: How many are there? Shockwaves is one.

Caleb: Shockwaves is the only I can even remember. It’s based on this book that had the theory that Nazis were working on creating zombie super soldiers.

Levon: There’s this really awesome movie called I Drink Your Blood that’s about this hippie-acid cult who start fucking with people. And so someone gives them rabies and they turn bloodthirsty. It’s really, really awesome. It’s early 70s hippie-exploitation mixed with horror.

Caleb: I remember my high school media arts teacher told me to watch I Spit On Your Grave.

Levon: That’s horrible

Caleb: We had a good video store when I was a kid. They had pretty much anything. It was one of those VHS places that had a back porn room. I shouldn’t talk about this! [Laughs]

I definitely remember that kind of VHS rental store. There’d be a little curtain into a back room.
You wouldn’t even notice it until some guy creeped out from back there. That kind of place doesn’t really exist anymore.

Levon: There’s Tom’s Video, it’s out by the Renfrew Skytrain.

Caleb: Yeah the front room is like this tiny video store, it’s rad. It’s got lots of imports. But the back part with the porn is by far the vast majority of the store. It’s huge. It’s so crazy. [Laughs]

FIN

Listen and learn more about Sex Church here. (carousel image via ChippedHip)

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Zulu Records veteran and tunage aficionado Daniel Colussi is the Music Editor of Scout Magazine.