"don't wanna die but you sleep all day"
Wide Awake by alt rock / punk band Like A Motorcycle based out of Halifax, Nova Scotia is by all account, by all definitions a pulse pounding rocker. I purposely don't say punk because while I realize that the punk umbrella is a large one, Wide Awake feels like it rides across a whole lot of generations, that it's message and rock personna feels classic in the sense that the guitar sound is heavy but not fuzzy, the wailing vox more pristine and not washed in a shoe gazey fog and the out of breath, attack, tempo, like a runaway train feels at once post rockish, art rockish, guitar rockish and, yes, indie rockish for sure. It really could of come out in the late 70's and every decade after. The message about waking the fuck up and not letting history repeat itself, in our lives, in the framework of world events and shitty leadership is a universal one and as timeless as the song itself... oh fuck, the message is a punk one though... as punk as punk itself... so forget everything I said in terms of descriptors because I am an over-thinker but never forget the message.
Like A Motorcycle is Michelle Skelding (Drums, Vocals), Kim Carson Bass (Vocals), KT Lamond (Guitar, Vocals) and David Casey (Guitar, Vocals)..
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACT AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
Like A Motorcycle is a melee attack with a soundtrack. They deliver poignant earworms for their fellow disenfranchised rejects; working minimum wage jobs while dodging five-figure debt. With their frighteningly explosive performances, LAM are here and ready to unleash their sophomore album Dead Broke.
Since their 2016 debut High Hopes, they’ve been tested by just about every obstacle imaginable: navigating substance abuse, internal break-ups, health issues, and a former record label that nearly tanked them, while having nothing to their name except the band that’s kept them together. Overcoming this all, the band sacrificed a lot to get Dead Broke made - they even sold their long-time van (and 5th member) Herb. Packing up their things in Halifax - the band travelled across the country to Vancouver to work alongside veteran producer Howard Redekopp (Tegan and Sara, Mother Mother). The 13 track album dives into more egregious aspects of being a rock band, and humans at large - witnessing your idols abuse their positions of power, financial uncertainty, struggling with mental health/trauma, familial separation, and heartbreak… all while being dead broke.
Having opened for the likes of Against Me!, METZ and Propaghandi - Like A Motorcycle’s live show holds nothing back; Scuffles with the audience, feeding the crowd with squirt guns of whiskey, even biting each other’s clothes apart, are pretty commonplace in what is arguably as much of an assault as a performance. Yeah - Like a Motorcycle have been through some shit, but you can still hear them laughing from the next room over. Not here to take themselves too seriously, these four endlessly entertain themselves and everyone around them with their antics both onstage and online.
“They’re clever but not glib, scrappy but not hardened, and seem to know how to confront crimes of the heart without yielding to them,” perfectly summed up by writer Alison Lang (The Coast).
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