The Pack A.D. isn’t afraid to throwa fewpunches
There’s amoment in the video for “Battering Ram,” one of the singles from the Pack A.D.’s new album “Do Not Engage,” in which the scene at a gritty dive-bar turns unexpectedly violent.
Maya Miller, drummer for the Vancouver-based garage-rock duo, is minding her own business when singer-guitarist Becky Black marches up from behind and whacks her in the spine with a pool cue.
It only gets worse from there. Black dragsMiller through the bar by the scruff and sets her up near a stage, savaging Miller with “Carrie”-like telekinetic skills that fling her through the air and leave her bloodied.
But this is show business, after all, so Miller can’t help but laugh when asked about the making of the video.
“To Becky’s credit, she actually did pull me across the floor and up those stairs,” said Miller, whose band headlines the Hi-Dive on April 11. “It was interesting wearing a harness and getting knocked back onto safety mats like that.”
If the “Battering Ram” video, which complements the song’s throaty vocals, bashed-out drum beats and snarling guitar, sounds too dark, just wait: The band has another one to suit your tastes.
“There’s ‘Battering Ram,’ then there are videos (for songs) like ‘Crazy,’ where we basicallymade a hip-hop video inwhichwe’re surrounded by guys in thong underwear,” Miller said. “We got all our band friends inVancouver to showup at this bar, so you’ve got 30 dudes with beer guts in their underwear wrestling in Jell-O— andwe got to stay fully clothed. Itwas very satisfying.”
The Pack A.D.’s Denver show is the last North American date on the current leg of its “Engage” tour before the duo heads overseas with shows in London, Berlin and elsewhere.
“I always look forward to playing Paris because it’s such an epic city, and we’ve actually never been to Germany,” Miller said. “But this is just a short club-date trip this time around. We’ll be going back in the fall for a longer tour.”
Founded in 2006, the Pack A.D. rapidly gained a following with a sound that critics often compared to the fuzzy, bluesy garage rock of the Black Keys and the White Stripes.
Their five full-lengths, first on Vancouver’sMint Records and nowon the eclectic Nettwork label, have taken the band to international festivals and clubs while their sound has evolved into something both meatier and more nuanced than early comparisons would imply.
“There are some musicians who only listen to the type of music they play, which is baffling to me,” Miller said. “It makes for a really narrow focus.”
Miller, who’s been known to rock an oldschool hip-hop shirt on stage, said her current musical obsessions include the moody synth instrumentals of Greek composer Vangelis, as well as indie artists St. Vincent and Death Grips.
You wouldn’t know it from the Pack A.D.’s “Do Not Engage,” which seethes and boils like a caldron full of sugary acid, recalling everything from melodic, ’90s shoegazer bands to classic Detroit garage rock.
That’s natural, given that the band worked again with famed garage produc- er Jim Diamond (the White Stripes, the Dirtbombs) to hone its superheavy sound.
“It was just the nature of these songs that we seemed to be going in a heavier direction,” Miller said. “Becky still plays live out of two amps— a bass and a guitar amp— and we have our own sound tech who travels with to recreate it live.”
And as with their onstage partnership, Miller wants fans to know her punishment in the “Battering Ram” music video belies a larger story.
“They way they cut it makes it basically look like she’s just beating me up,” she said. “What wasn’t in the video was me getting a lot of hits on Becky.”