Thursday, March 6, 2008

The Golden Hands Before God are coming... no, that isn't a death threat

(Photo by Stephen Nilsson)

I've been bouncing some messages back and forth with Jamie from the Golden Hands Before God for a couple of weeks now, and here's what I can tell you about him/them:

1/ Jamie (second from the left) is way cooler than I am. By a lot. Although, this is probably not a really formidable task. That said, he's probably cooler than you are too. Sorry, I didn't mean to insult you, only to make myself feel better.

2/ They have an 7 song EP coming out sometime later this spring called Here, which is being produced by Jace Lasek (the Besnard Lakes) and mastered by Harris Newman (Wolf Parade).

3/The GHBG play the type of '60's classic rock inspired music that a band like Black Mountain should play, but to me, they seem devoid of any type of soul. If this review of a December show in TO is any indication, the GHBG play like they mean it. If I'm to draw a sports analogy, Black Mountain is Gilbert Arenas. Arenas is great, good stats, a lot of attention, but is never going to win a title, not a real winner. The GHBG are like UCLA Freshman Kevin Love, coming out of a good school, great intangibles, looks good, but somebody has got to put him into the right system and give him a chance.

4/Unfortunately I can't post it, yet (but maybe later I hope?) but the GHBG have produced what is hands down, without a question, my favourite song of the year 'Blood of November'. If I tried to described it, I'd ruin it, so I won't.

However, this is also very, very, good.
[mp3]The Golden Hands Before God - Interlude

The Golden Hands Before God will be opening for Mahogany Frog in London on Wednesday, April 9 and in Hamilton at the Casbah on the 8th.

2 comments:

ack said...

I wonder if Black Mountain is Gilbert Arenas or maybe more like Dirk. While Gilbert is a shoot first PG who will never win, he is original and is usually cash in crunch time.

Black Mountain and Dirk both seem more forced to me, trying to do things they think superstars should do. The heavy riffs are the same as Dirk's "scowl". I don't believe either.

I was actually going to post on GHBG today too.. oops.

The R.O.B. said...

You're probably right... I smell another post... if basketball players were bands...