Born Ruffians

I've been on a bit of a roll lately getting reacquainted with some great Ontario bands. What can I say? We have some great talent in this province. One of those talents, Midland Ontario's Born Ruffians, somehow landed on Warp Records who released their debut EP in 2006. This blows my mind because Warp is the home for zany and left-field artists (primarily in the electronic field) like Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Autechre, and Boards of Canada. The association just does not make sense, at least at first. Then you hear the band's debut EP and realize they approach indie-rock in a similar unorthodox manner. Drummer Steve Hamelin can't seem to play one straightforward beat, often opting to string together short rolls on the toms, lots of rests, and the occasional crash. Bassist Mitch DeRosier plays unlikely basslines with a snappy energy that is fairly unmatched. And Luke Lalonde... the band's eccentric nature stems heavily from his insane vocal performances.

Just listen to the opening track This Sentence Will Ruin / Save Your Life. Lalonde performs so many vocal acrobatics, a couple blood curdling shrieks, and overall pushes out so much air through his mouth that you can audibly hear him gasping for breath. His vocal here is essentially performance art. The vocal on Merry Little Fancy Things is slightly more structured but just as feverishly delivered. On I'm One of Those Girls, Lalonde sings in the character of, you guessed it, 'one of those girls' (what ever that may mean), over a set of bass guitars; one of which plays a plucky lead melody. The commitment to delivering these not-so-sexy lines in a mockingly alluring inflection is comical to say the very least. And lastly, on 7th Son, Lalonde attempts a soulful gospel performance that piles on so much distortion and still can't quite hit the notes. I can imagine Lalonde's face visibly straining as he is trying to belt and it just puts a smile on my face.

What I'm getting at is Born Ruffians is just plain fun. They exhibit an adolescent sense of humour and don't appear to take themselves all that seriously. Instrumentally, it very much sounds like they are just playing around; not experimenting, but trying not to overthink every little facet of their sound. It's silly and perhaps overly rambunctious, however, I find it to be incredibly endearing, energetic, and light-hearted. For those that don't know, indie-rock is a genre I'm not well versed or interested in, but Born Ruffians certainly sticks out to me as being one of the most unique bands in that pool. This EP should be plenty of proof to support that.