I’m giving this month’s BOM honour to C’mon’s Ian Blurton. I’ve consistently put Sir Ian’s beard on a pedestal, and the fact that his band just released a new 10″ gives me occasion to do it once again. Ian’s beard is accentuated perfectly by a sweat-stained ball cap, denim jacket, baggy eyes, and fuzzy rawk riffs, and dutifully he rarely goes anywhere without ‘em. Now, I must admit, I’m also giving Sir Ian the nod this month because I recently read a scathing critique of Ian here, and although said in mocking tone, the author suggested Ian shave his beard. I don’t like reading that, even in jest. So, I’ve got your back, Ian! At least as much as this stands for anything.

I also want to applaud Ancestors and Night Horse guitarist Justin Maranga, who always keeps it burly. While Justin’s wicked wool always seems to vary in length, it’s never less than prominent and powerful. There are two things I can tell you about Justin that I know for sure: he knows how to rock and he knows how to beard.

C’mon
The Mountain
Yeah Right! Records

The Mountain, the new four-song 10″ from C’mon, Canada’s premiere bleary-eyed bastards of fuzz, kicks off with the longest, most ambitious song the band has ever laid down. Until now, the seven-minute track “Fortress of the Night” from 2010′s Beyond the Pale Horse held that distinction, but this here title track, which commands all of side A, clocks in just shy of 12 minutes, and reaches an epic and dangerous precipice the band had only previously admired from afar. C’mon has built an outstanding reputation as a band that can move a mountain by sheer rawk force alone, but this time they do us one better and scale the entire fucking thing in a burnt-out van, blowing dirty exhaust the entire way, planting their tattered flag at the top when they land. What they unleash on the world below is a spacey rumble of arena bravado and prog-crunch, a steady build-up of monolithic metal like a giant analog amp rising up from behind the fires of the sun. Musically, “The Mountain” is more dense and layered than anything C’mon has done in the past* and that kind of studio presence/trickery continues as the band bounds on down the back side in its usual muddy-riffed fashion, turning thrusters on high and heavy with “It’s Alright,” the wonky instrumental “The Grunge,” and a cover of The Osmonds’ “Crazy Horses,” a pretty weird beard song to begin with that is given a special kind of supercharged Blurtonian treatment here. Okay, I know you’re waiting for me to say it, so here it is: C’mon does it again.

*Singer/guitarist Ian Blurton has said in an interview that at one point in the song there are two versions of the band playing against each other, so two drum kits, two basses, and about 25 guitars, which he called a tribute to Voivod’s Piggy and Thin Lizzy’s Gary Moore.

Listen to “The Grudge” from The Mountain!

The Best Canadian Albums of the Year

Canada is home to some of the best fucking bands in the world. Sorry, that outburst wasn’t very politely Canadian of me, but it’s fucking true. I’ve got the proof right here, ten times over. I’d crank any one of these albums while I’m watching the hockey game. I can’t bring myself to rank ‘em because, well, I’m just so goddamn proud of all of ‘em, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take the time get to know ‘em right now. Here then, in alphabetical order, is this year’s cream of the Canadian crop. Oh, and that crop also includes a case of Pil and some weed.

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