For the past 25 years, every March hundreds of bands and musicians from all over the world from big names like Bruce Springsteen to up and coming baby bands flock to Austin, Texas, to play shows, meet new friends and maybe, just maybe, get discovered by new fans, record labels and agents at South By South West.
This year, Lethbridge garage rock/punk/ psychedelic trio the Ketamines will be playing eight shows at the renown music festival.
“I’m really excited about it,” said guitarist/ vocalist Paul Lawton. Bassist Martine Menard and drummer Ryan Grieve round out the trio.
The band originally included guitarist Evan Van Reekum and keyboardist Jane Edmundson who have since left the band respectively due to a move to Calgary and just not wanting to tour anymore.
“The Myelin Sheaths (one of Lawton’s other bands) were booked to play it last year, but the band broke up right before it,” Lawton observed.
The Ketamines already have eight shows booked for South by Southwest between March 13 and 17 including two big showcases for both Hozac Records and their booking agent, Annie Southworth plus several unusual shows including a house party.
“One show we’re booked to play at 4 a.m. I don’t know if anyone will be there, but we’re going to give it our all,” Lawton said.
“ Most of my friends are in bands all over the country, so it will be great to see them all in one location and get to hang out with my pals for a week,” Lawton said.
He noted there a two different South By South Wests - the main corporate industry event and the underground event featuring more unusual bands like the Ketamines, which play house concerts and other out of the way venues.
“ That featured a lot of lo fi, punk garage rock and psychedelic bands. They are more our style of band,” Lawton continued.
“I have seven inches singles from these bands but have never seen them live, because they’re from places like Florida don’t tour up here, so I’m looking forward to being able to see them all,” he said.
South by South West is a music geek’s mecca, albeit an expensive one. Hundreds of bands of all styles of music from all over the world play all over the city every night for a week, barbecues plus there is a trade show as well as popular seminars about the music business. This year’s highlights include keynote speaker Bruce Springsteen.
Fortunately The Ketamines caught a break by having a half a riff of their song “Line By Line” used in a commercial for Target earlier this year.
“It was on our Hozac (Chicago based garage/ punk focussed record label) seven inch single. They only used half a bar of it and the commercial only ran in the United States for one week in January to promote a sale,” he said adding they used the money to fund their trip to South By Southwest, buy a new van and got to work on obtaining official American work visas so they can tour in support of their brand new CD “Spaced Out.”
“ I’ve played music for five or six years without making any money and after we’ve spent this money, we’ll probably go back to not making any money,” Lawton said.
“When I was young and big into the punk scene, I was down on bands I thought were selling out, but I’m not worried about it, because what they used was, I guess, meaningless,” he said adding they never met the ad person who pitched their song for the commercial.
“Our agency is in Portland, Oregon and we played there last year, so it must have been somebody who likes and wants to support bands like ours,” he said.
The roots of the Ketamines lie in several Lethbridge garage rock/ punk/ psychedelic bands, however Lawton noted the touring Ketamines are a slightly different animal.
Long time collaborator James Leroy and Lawton write the music and the words.
“He doesn’t really like to tour. But we’ve been working together since 1996,” Lawton said.
“We have a really great rapport with each other,” he said.
Putting the touring trio together was simple.
“ I recruited Martine from the Myelin Sheaths. She’s a really great bass player and Ryan played in Endangered Ape and Fist City, so that was a no-brainer,” he continued.
“We mix a lot of elements of ’60s garage rock, punk and psychedelic rock. So there is a lot of spacey echo, but there is also more poppy power pop like ‘Teenage Rebellion Time’ and “Midnight Dawn,’” he said.
The first got together in August 2010 and have since released several seven inch singles through Lawton’s Lethbridge record label Mammoth Cave as well as Hozac out of Chicago.
After South by Southwest they will be playing a big underground festival in Calgary called NTT which includes a couple of shows with German electronic-rock icon Damos Suzuki.
Mammoth Cave has a good year ahead of them as they will be re-releasing Shadowy Men From a Shadowy Planet’s debut CD an, which will feature the music from the hit Canadian Comedy Kids In The Hall plus music from their first EPs.
They will also be releasing the new CD from Needles and Pins, who Lawton described as sounding similar to early Teenage Head as well as new music from BA Johnston.
A version of this story appears in the March 7, 2012 edition of the Lethbridge Sun Times.
