C'Mon Can't Help But Keep It Raw

Lead by 20 year veteran of the Canadian music scene and Rawk God Ian Blurton, Toronto’s C’mon are currently blazing a trail across the east coast of our beautiful country in preparation of a cross-country trek coming up in March and took time to speak to Tangible Sounds about their recent trip to New Orleans, upcoming plans, and the state of Canadian Rawk.

Consisting of the aforementioned Blurton on vocals and guitar, Katie Lynn Campbell,¬ ex-Nashville Pussy and Famous Monsters, and long-time Blurton co-conspirator Randy Gurnew (ex-Blurtonia), C’mon are Canada’s leader of the Rawk revolution; an undeclared war against the over-hyped indie-rock sensibilities of certain bands and scenes that will remain nameless.

Like many of (t)his generation he has rediscovered his roots: “I grew up on great Detroit rock; my sister would go down to Detroit and bring me back records like the MC5 and the Stooges…I got (The Stooges) Raw Power for my birthday!” Citing the “honesty and immediacy” of the music of the time Blurton is quick to point out “my other sister would get me into early Bob Seger, like the Mongrel album, my taste runs to both sides of Detroit rock.”

Blurton also cites the shared ideal of the otherwise diametrically opposed punk and hippie cultures of “cultural exchange” as key to the live experience, “I don’t want to be in one of those bands that doesn’t want to talk to the people that come to the shows, I want to do everything I can to be accessible…when people come to see us play I want to do everything I can so that they can take something home with them that night, talking to other musicians is how you learn.” This philosophy extends to Blurton’s renowned production work as well (which is “winding down a bit” to coincide with his upcoming commitments with C’mon), which this grizzled veteran sees as an ongoing opportunity to learn and see how other bands operate.

Part of Rocker’s Against Technology, Blurton asserts with great pride that he “just got a computer this year,” but “it has more to do with our music, everything is recorded in analogue” with decades old guitars “there’s no Pro-Tools here.” Although he does admit that the advent of technology has made it easier to get their music into the hands of fans as far away as “Hong Kong, Japan, China and Germany.” Like many Canadian artists, C’mon’s fan base has been cultivated through relentless touring, thus their remaining songs are road-tested rockers “you won’t hear any of the light stuff, we just toss those right out the window.”

When the topic switches to the band’s recent trip to New Orleans, one can sense an underlying resistance as the subject hits very close to home (Katie Lynn still lives there and Ian spends much of his time in the area); “you have to understand, what once was a vibrant city has been devastated…it changed overnight from a large metropolitan city of 450,000 to a city the size of Guelph (80,000). It just looks like (a) bombed up (city).” C’mon played a series of Defend NOLA benefit shows in mid-November of last year to help aid the city raising money to help rebuild the Spellcaster Lodge, run by the legendary Quintron and Pussycat, who’s basement and bar area had been flooded like so many others, ensuring their efforts would “go directly to any an individual who they knew needed it” as opposed to getting “lost in some faceless corporation.” Blurton explains that “the thing is, the Spellcaster Lodge was the place for outsider art and music” and would obviously not be high on any government agenda as it was “run by outsiders…they were outsiders for a reason.”

Current plans include a split 7” with Whitey Houston featuring two songs and a bonus CD with the same two songs on an undetermined label, “but I’m sure you’ll see the Blow Your Speakers logo somewhere,” an upcoming cross-Canada tour in March, before beginning to record the new album “sometime in the summer…we’re not one of those bands that sit around and schedule everything.” As to what these new songs will sound like? Blurton becomes immediately tight-lipped, refusing to even discuss in broad parameters, other than to say, “it’ll be different.” For fans hoping for an international release Blurton says “I hope so, I mean its so easy for Canadian bands to become short-sighted and just tour Canada twice a year, I mean it’s every band’s dream to get out of where they came from.” But like many Canadian musicians he laments the lack of respect Canadian bands get “I mean there is NO WAY a band like NOMEANSNO shouldn’t be in the Canadian Hall of Fame, bands like D.O.A.…there’s great punk bands, hardcore bands, metal bands like Cryptopsy, Voivod that don’t get the recognition they deserve”.

Not to mention rock bands…

- Jeremy Shum

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