Lighthearted Walrus has some serious range
Walrus consistently sounds like a gang of free spirits who’d very likely make for a good hang, which — as anyone who’s heard, say, Keith Moon’s Two Sides of the Moon— doesn’t necessarily translate into recordings you’d want to listen to more but, in their case, fortunately does.
This Halifax quartet’s shaggy psych takes on so many forms — Church-y jangle, Dandy Warhols snark, Who-like bluster and Beatlesque whimsy of, yes, the “I Am the Walrus” variety — that more than one crack at all of the band’s studio output is actually advised.
Walrus offers a lot to take in, all of it rather fun. On Family Hangover, its forthcoming full-length for Dan Mangan’s Arts & Crafts-affiliated Madic Records label, there’s even a track called “Free Again” that sounds like early, primitive Aphex Twin slamming into The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. That kind of stylistic loosey-goosiness takes a lot of confidence to pull off, but in Walrus’s hands it also involves a tremendous amount of serious musicianship that one might overlook due to the group’s lighthearted touch.
But just because Walrus doesn’t seem to take itself terribly seriously doesn’t mean Walrus shouldn’t be taken seriously. These lads can do pretty much anything. Family Hangover is out on June 9.
Sum up what you do in a few simple sentences. “We are five friends just doing what we love: We play rock ’n’ roll for the people. We have fun, on or off the clock. Your parents’ music for their kids. For everyone. Peace and love. Harsh and clean.”
What’s a song I need to hear right now? “In Timely Fashion.” On this matter, we defer to Walrus, since the band supplied its own commentary: “It’s a song of ours that shows our rhythm section at its finest, vocals that shine and everything else in between. Our finest hour to date.”
If pressed, however, we might add that we are also partial to last year’s rangy “Feels,” which is also pretty rad.
Where can I see them play? At the Field Trip festival at Fort York on June 3, with Broken Social Scene, A Tribe Called Red, the Pharcyde, Cloud Nothings, Overcoats and many more.