"Come alive to the mock city rock / Galvanized in a hot metal shop / Breathing smoke slave to the block / Hands dirty when you twist off the top..."
The wall to wall jammy cool / full possessed proggy alt art rock wonk of "Mock City Rock" by British Columbia’s Mock Media, off their upcoming album "Rat Bastrard", is full of stunning surprises, ultra tightly wound musicality, and cross generational touchstones to iconic art punk, alt rock, new wave and post punk movements. There is so much juicy sounds to chew on that explaining the songs structure / narrative is nearly impossible and futile and I mean this in the absolutely most complementary way. I can say that I thought of a wide array of commanding artist / bands that have shaped streams of future artful iterations like Richard Hell and the Voidoids, XTC, Modest Mouse, The Clash, Dead Boys, Human Sexual Response, Bruce Woolley and the Camera Club and Talking Heads. Yeah, my halcyon days were the 70's and 80's (yes I am fucking old) so my reflections will, well, reflect that. It would be cool to hear from some 20 year olds and get their take on this amazingly diverse sound that Mock Media dare to delve into.
Look, with so many bands who wear their inspirations like a coat, where you instantly say, "hey, that band sounds like Arctic Monkeys (or Muse or Idles)", it is so amazing to hear a band that while deriving inspirations also sound exquisitely original and that is Evan Aasen (guitars/voice), Garnet Aronyk Muhammad (bass/voice), Austin Boylan (guitars/voice), and Bennett Smith (drums) as Mock Media.
"Rat Bastard" drops on Friday, July 17 via Mac’s Record Label.
OH, and the Official Video is wildly entertaining!!
-Robb Donker Curtius
LINER NOTES (excerpted / bracketed):
[Despite Rat Bastard’s more superabundant sonic left turns, Mock Media insist they’re not doing anything radically different from previous incarnations of the band. In North Okanagan’s rocky valley, if one shouts loud enough, one reckons that at some point, you stop guessing whether you’re receiving the lonely echo returning or some higher voice of the divine. What Mock Media are building, or why it should be located in such a remote and desolate place, no one could say.]
“We’re constantly trying to channel that spiritual energy, and it’s hard, especially in recordings. We feel like we’ve achieved it live before, but we want to fully lose ourselves and lock in as a group. As for any specific message: we really just care about each other, and about making music together. At the end of the day, it’s us singing and us playing together… and that’s all we really know how to do.”
“We’re constantly trying to channel that spiritual energy, and it’s hard, especially in recordings. We feel like we’ve achieved it live before, but we want to fully lose ourselves and lock in as a group. As for any specific message: we really just care about each other, and about making music together. At the end of the day, it’s us singing and us playing together… and that’s all we really know how to do.”
LYRICS
Come alive to the mock city rock
Galvanized in a hot metal shop
Breathing smoke slave to the block
Hands dirty when you twist off the top
Race to the drop
She’s got a problem
Got no pleasure
Measure for murder
Times of woe radio
Kill the man to pay the meter
Come alive to the mock city rock
What's your motivation
Acting like a hot rat on the pavement
How could you lose
Quiet for seven days
Then you're a live wire
A pair of pliers stealing
Every last cent from the pot
Since you tied the knot
What's your motivation
How could you lose
The Chicken Wheel will take you to the AP Go Fund Me- and any amount is so appreciated!
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0cwLwwiGsAf8lKDLr5GCNf
https://www.instagram.com/mockmediaband/
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/mock-media/1467991029
So what good is rebellion without a system left to aim it at? British Columbia’s Mock Media – a troupe of four childhood friends – have decided to join hands and circle around the bonfire as the surrounding scenery spirals into utter madness. The group’s newest recording chapter Rat Bastard – out Friday, July 17 via Mac’s Record Label – shatters the bondages of obedience, finding Evan Aasen (guitars/voice), Garnet Aronyk Muhammad (bass/voice), Austin Boylan (guitars/voice), and Bennett Smith (drums) gleefully astray across pastures both barren and overgrown.
“Built for Speed” (written by Aasen during one of his many stints operating the cockpit) eradicates any whiff of art school cool you may (or may not) have pegged Mock Media into, fully leaning into Judas Priest vespers with the glee of a trooper lighting a cigar with a stick of dynamite. “Mock City Rock” is quickly adopted as the group’s requisite flagship anthem, coming alive as a purebred Vernonite answer to MC5, XTC and New York Dolls.
From the junkyard of rock music’s shattered dreams, Mock Media scavenge some odd pearls with the album’s rootsy title track – bouncing to the beat of an 80s reverb snare drum and spirited chants, while the Fleetwood Mac-inspired cadence of “Crushed” adds a warmth and whimsy to all the brouhaha. The dub-inflected delirium of “Fell from The Top” and “City’s On Fire” cheeses with a mouth of blood, as fairy dust melodies beckon attuned spirits. Meanwhile, the woebegone power balladry of “Take It” adds just the right pinch of pastiche to rally it into bona fide torch song territory. “Straight Line” – despite its title – flips the script from disenchanted desert rock to a full throttle kamikaze into a glorious 90s techno funeral pyre.
Despite Rat Bastard’s more superabundant sonic left turns, Mock Media insist they’re not doing anything radically different from previous incarnations of the band. In North Okanagan’s rocky valley, if one shouts loud enough, one reckons that at some point, you stop guessing whether you’re receiving the lonely echo returning or some higher voice of the divine. What Mock Media are building, or why it should be located in such a remote and desolate place, no one could say.
“We’re constantly trying to channel that spiritual energy, and it’s hard, especially in recordings. We feel like we’ve achieved it live before, but we want to fully lose ourselves and lock in as a group. As for any specific message: we really just care about each other, and about making music together. At the end of the day, it’s us singing and us playing together… and that’s all we really know how to do.”
Breathing smoke slave to the block
Hands dirty when you twist off the top
Race to the drop
She’s got a problem
Got no pleasure
Measure for murder
Times of woe radio
Kill the man to pay the meter
Come alive to the mock city rock
What's your motivation
Acting like a hot rat on the pavement
How could you lose
Quiet for seven days
Then you're a live wire
A pair of pliers stealing
Every last cent from the pot
Since you tied the knot
What's your motivation
How could you lose
The Chicken Wheel will take you to the AP Go Fund Me- and any amount is so appreciated!
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0cwLwwiGsAf8lKDLr5GCNf
https://www.instagram.com/mockmediaband/
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/mock-media/1467991029
So what good is rebellion without a system left to aim it at? British Columbia’s Mock Media – a troupe of four childhood friends – have decided to join hands and circle around the bonfire as the surrounding scenery spirals into utter madness. The group’s newest recording chapter Rat Bastard – out Friday, July 17 via Mac’s Record Label – shatters the bondages of obedience, finding Evan Aasen (guitars/voice), Garnet Aronyk Muhammad (bass/voice), Austin Boylan (guitars/voice), and Bennett Smith (drums) gleefully astray across pastures both barren and overgrown.
“Built for Speed” (written by Aasen during one of his many stints operating the cockpit) eradicates any whiff of art school cool you may (or may not) have pegged Mock Media into, fully leaning into Judas Priest vespers with the glee of a trooper lighting a cigar with a stick of dynamite. “Mock City Rock” is quickly adopted as the group’s requisite flagship anthem, coming alive as a purebred Vernonite answer to MC5, XTC and New York Dolls.
From the junkyard of rock music’s shattered dreams, Mock Media scavenge some odd pearls with the album’s rootsy title track – bouncing to the beat of an 80s reverb snare drum and spirited chants, while the Fleetwood Mac-inspired cadence of “Crushed” adds a warmth and whimsy to all the brouhaha. The dub-inflected delirium of “Fell from The Top” and “City’s On Fire” cheeses with a mouth of blood, as fairy dust melodies beckon attuned spirits. Meanwhile, the woebegone power balladry of “Take It” adds just the right pinch of pastiche to rally it into bona fide torch song territory. “Straight Line” – despite its title – flips the script from disenchanted desert rock to a full throttle kamikaze into a glorious 90s techno funeral pyre.
Despite Rat Bastard’s more superabundant sonic left turns, Mock Media insist they’re not doing anything radically different from previous incarnations of the band. In North Okanagan’s rocky valley, if one shouts loud enough, one reckons that at some point, you stop guessing whether you’re receiving the lonely echo returning or some higher voice of the divine. What Mock Media are building, or why it should be located in such a remote and desolate place, no one could say.
“We’re constantly trying to channel that spiritual energy, and it’s hard, especially in recordings. We feel like we’ve achieved it live before, but we want to fully lose ourselves and lock in as a group. As for any specific message: we really just care about each other, and about making music together. At the end of the day, it’s us singing and us playing together… and that’s all we really know how to do.”
Mock Media, Canada, British Columbia, art punk, alt rock, indie rock, blendo rock, post punk, inventive, musically jammy, proggressive , power pop, "Mock City Rock" (Official Video), 80's new wave, new album "Rat Bastard",
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