R.I.P: The Sainte Catherines (1999-2012)

All these posts about death and band break-ups reminded me I had forgotten to mention the shitty eventuality that is The Sainte Catherines breakup. Oh universe, you spoil me!

Not sure how this will impact their rootsier alter-ego Yesterday's Ring, but it sure does suck. The hygenically challenged Montreal punks released Fire Works in 2010, a record that was my favorite TSC record since their debut Those Stars Are For You. I was well chuffed at the prospect of finally seeing the band that had become my personal Bad Brains in recent years, having canceled a half-dozen shows for reasons unknown, an eventuality that netted a personal zero in the JS-NYC Sainte Catherines live shows seen column, a stat that makes me pretty irritated at having missed their 500th show when I was in Montreal last. Now it seems that the time-honored personal differences and family obligations have caused the gents  to hang it up. You can read their statement (in English and French) here.

Meh, and Bah!

R

The Sainte Catherines - Fire Works

Yowza! Is this one real ass-ripper of a record. Fire Works is the sixth Sainte Catherines full-length on as many labels. Four years after dropping Dancing For Decadence and two from the DVD/ odd and sods collection The Soda Machine, this time SC Stateside release comes courtesy of Anchorless Records, allegedly as Fat deemed it not punk enough for their hallowed halls. This from a label that is excited to release Cobra Skulls records? Life sure is funny sometimes. Listening to these tracks (and ok, the cover is pretty aces) I'd say Fat's loss will be to the gain of The Sainte Catherines and Anchorless, and would argue further that Fire Works is the best SC record to date. Thirteen tracks, all recorded by the band and sounding fat as hell. There really isn't a bad song on this record. I would acquire it immediately. East Coast JS-NYC readers should be advised to look out for the Sainte Catherines shows in Albany and at Party Expo in Brooklyn in early December.

Brendan Kelly and Joe McMahon - Wasted Potential

This digital age we live in allows for a lot of releases that maybe should have stayed in the realm of one-off tapes passed amongst friends and prospective paramours. This split release pairs one Joe McMahon of RVA transplants Smoke and Fire with Mr. Brendan Kelly of The Lawrence Arms and adheres to the time-honored 'acoustic versions and some covers' format. It's ok, but far from anything that anyone should go out of their way to pick up.

Smoke and Fire were always kinda sorta ok for me. I had seen them at least once when they were Jericho and from Boston and definitely saw them on a couple of the last Fifth Hour Hero shows, but they never really caught on for me. McMahon fares the best here, revisiting a couple tracks and doing a Johnny Cash cover. Kelly sounds like he got shit-housed and dashed off the seven tracks in the time that it took to sing them. It's that attention to detail that has kept me out of Lawrence Arms shows in recent years. There's a fine line between being shit-housed and non giving a shit and I'm finding Kelly more and more over the line. Wasted Potential, indeed. That said, I'm sure that Kelly is not losing a moment of sleep over the lack of JS-NYC advocacy and truth be told, his blog Bad Sandwich Chronicles is one of the best on the interwebs. Here's hoping he musters up an appreciable level of enthusiasm for his next release. Superfans and stalkers can get Wasted Potential here from Red Scare or as, it is a co-release with Anchorless here from them.

R