Sandman Viper Command
When most kids their age were riffling through college textbooks and figuring out the path of least resistance towards some sort of stable income, these small town boys were riffling through their parents record collections, studying the messy emotion-fuelled rock of Pavement and the fuzzy post-rock discography of Sonic Youth, dreaming of ways they could marry it all together. So far it hasn’t worn off, being the average age of 21, they still have their collective sights set on a future a little bit more shaky and unstable than the rest of their peers.
In the beginning, the four best friends who make up the ambitiously named outfit (Rob Janson, Aaron Harvey, Dan Reardon, Matt Meyer) locked themselves up for days in their parents’ basements practicing and refining demos, only emerging when they had stumbled upon the most perfect blend of garage pop/guitar fuzz rock this side of the border has heard in a long time. It’s this obsessive compulsiveness in their music that pays off huge on their independently released debut, Everybody See This. In the same way the Strokes released a sonically moving debut album, it is apparent that this is much more than an average first run from a bunch of college dropouts. This is a band with a future. Everybody See This is ripe and bubbling with the type of youthful rage you can’t fake. It’s delicate and fragile in all the right places and thoroughly captivating from start to finish. In the same way they originally honed their sound, Sandman Viper Command isolated themselves for six months in a barn on the outskirts of Hamilton, Ontario with producer Dave King, recording intensely to make sure Everybody See Thiscaptured the raw, frenetic qualities of the band, and achieving that lofty childhood goal of creating a sound they can call their own.
Everybody See This has lots of variety, yet never sacrifices the consistency of the full release. Lead single “Strawberry Quick” is like a parasite, vague enough for any heartless teenager to fill in the gaps with their own lost stories of lust-filled nights. “Oh Yeah, It’s Fusion” is a right proper sing-a-long while balancing on the edge of being nerdy art rock and an angular ambient guitar jam.
And like any good band, a great album is followed up by a great live show. Young as they may be, put these four handsome musicians on stage and you have a band with a cohesive attitude. Their tight performance chops earned them opening spots for the likes of Holy Fuck, The Arkells, The Rural Alberta Advantage, and more.
It didn’t take their hometown of Burlington, Ontario and the surrounding cities long to pick up on this truly great find. Hamilton’s View magazine scribed, “Sandman Viper Command conjures up references to Sloan – but in away that is still fresh… for a debut recording, this is a standout on so many levels… the band to watch in 2010″ and the Hamilton Spectator was quick to state, “Everyone ‘gets’ Sandman Viper Command.” In an unconventional twist the band’s song “Yo Bobcat” debuted on the Fan590′s “Prime Time Sports” with Bob McCown, in what the band can only refer to as the “collapsing of a quantum waveform” presenting them with national coverage and since then SVC have even been referred to as the “house band” of the show, by Bob himself!
Session Tracklist
1. The Metal I've Spent
2. Strawberry Quick
3. Oh Yeah, It's Fusion
4. Yo Bobcat
5. Best Of Plans
6. Clean Inside
7. Feel Is Good
8. Back Of Brains
9. Sunday Driver
Hometown
Burlington, Ontario
Visit the band’s website
For our friends who live in countries where YouTube is blocked, watch the session on Vimeo.