Even if you’ve never listened to Ketamines, chances are you’ve at least read some things that band member Paul K Lawton has written on his “Slagging Off” tumblr. The blog provides brutally honest, and in the eyes of many, controversial commentary on the Canadian music industry.
That’s just to put a little context about who is in the band. They are a Toronto via Lethbridge, Alberta band who put out releases with trippy cool space-art-barf collages as album covers and a sound that fuses together the rawness of garage rock and the free spirit of psychedelic rock.
The band just kicked off a 7” single series that will see four singles released two months apart on different labels (Pleasence, Leaning Trees, Hosehead and Mammoth Cave). Put the artwork for the four singles together and you get one of those art-barf collages done by Montreal artist Felix Morel.
The first 7” in the single, All of the Colours of Your Heart features the title track and “Turning You On”. The title track is built around a jazzy, bouncy organ riff and fuzzy vocals with lyrics that are just begging to be sung along with. The b-side “Turning You On” is another short ditty built around a classic punk sounding guitar riff and sparse percussion and lyrics including the horribly wonderfully morbid line “I guess it’s just the death of me turning you on”.
Catch Ketamines in Halifax at OBEY Convention on June 6 at the Khyber along with Mac Demarco, Yellow Teeth and Heaven For Real.
Ketamines Bandcamp
Ketamines Facebook