On his own with Black Lungs
Alexisonfire's Wade MacNeil finds his own voice with Black Lungs
When Canadian ‘post-hardcore' band Alexisonfire take a break from touring, each member has his or her own projects to attend to.
Singer Dallas Green, as City and Colour, has proven just as successful in Canada as the US, George Pettit has a hardcore band with members of Attack in Black and Fucked Up, and guitarist Wade MacNeil has punk rock band called Black Lungs, who are performing in London this week.
It's one stop on a mini-tour to promote MacNeil's latest project Send Flowers, which was released in May of 2008 on Dine Alone records.
It has a working class rock and roll vibe to it, which extends as far as the band's name. ‘Black lung disease' refers to pneumoconiosis, caused by the inhalation of dust particles. It's a disease prevalent among coal miners, whose lungs become stained from the dark coal dust.
The name also refers to MacNeil's gritty sounding voice, which is perfectly matched for the music.
In fact, the whole band is his creation, and, though MacNeil performs with a backing band, the members have never been constant for more than a tour. Friends from The Saint Alvia Cartel, Attack in Black, Bedouin Soundclash and several other bands from Southern Ontario take turns on band duty when schedules coincide.
“There's not much of a set lineup of things, so it's always with different guys,” MacNeil said over the phone. “It's cool to watch people grow and jam with everybody and watch the song turn into something a little different.”
And while it might be unfair to call The Black Lungs the Broken Social Scene of punk, there is most certainly a common vein, which runs though a network of bands who all grew up in the same music scene.
“We're just fortunate to come from an area of Canada, or in the world, where there are a lot of like-minded people, guys in The St. Alvia Cartel, Alexisonfire, or Attack in Black The Cancer Bats...” Wade asserted. “It may sound a little crazy to someone outside of it, but a lot of these guys I've grown up with going to shows, and are bands that I've gone to seen play and bands that I've played with, which is why we're such good friends. The Black Lungs is just kind of this extended family.”
Some Alexisonfire members play in The Black Lungs too, but even playing with them is a different feeling, now that MacNeil is the front man.
As one of the lyricists in Alexisonfire, MacNeil often wrote personal songs that would end up featuring the vocals of Green or Pettit. But now, MacNeil has reached a comfort level in writing and performing songs on his own.
“There are some things I wouldn't want anyone else singing,” he explained.
One such song is “Fire and Brimstone”, which deals with religious hypocrisy. The lyrics are particularly daunting, with lines like:
Statues and hypocrites keep you in line and never falter/
Beat your kids pray to the holy ghost/
All's forgiven Sunday you just wait in line accept the host.”
Though some may see it as an attack on faith, MacNeil argues otherwise.
“I personally think there are a lot of anti-religious songs, and [“Fire and Brimstone”] is not supposed to be like that, it's just a different way of looking at it...,” he said. “You can't be a shitty person all week and then be absolved of it on Sundays, and that's sort of what it's about.”
Not all songs are of such heavy subject matter, and in fact, Send Flowers as a whole is a little scatterbrained, partly due to how it was recorded.
“[Alexisonfire was] touring like crazy, so we'd come home for a week and I'd go record for a couple of days. So it was kind of done in that fashion, until I logged about two weeks of studio time and we started mixing it all together. I'm pleased with it, but the record is what it is. It's done around being on the road all the time.”
Reviews of the album have been quite positive, and the same goes for their live concerts. So for fans of melodic punk rock played by some of Southern Ontario's finest rock musicians, the concert on Friday, January 23 at the London Music Hall is not to be missed.
When Canadian ‘post-hardcore' band Alexisonfire take a break from touring, each member has his or her own projects to attend to.
Singer Dallas Green, as City and Colour, has proven just as successful in Canada as the US, George Pettit has a hardcore band with members of Attack in Black and Fucked Up, and guitarist Wade MacNeil has punk rock band called Black Lungs, who are performing in London this week.
It's one stop on a mini-tour to promote MacNeil's latest project Send Flowers, which was released in May of 2008 on Dine Alone records.
It has a working class rock and roll vibe to it, which extends as far as the band's name. ‘Black lung disease' refers to pneumoconiosis, caused by the inhalation of dust particles. It's a disease prevalent among coal miners, whose lungs become stained from the dark coal dust.
The name also refers to MacNeil's gritty sounding voice, which is perfectly matched for the music.
In fact, the whole band is his creation, and, though MacNeil performs with a backing band, the members have never been constant for more than a tour. Friends from The Saint Alvia Cartel, Attack in Black, Bedouin Soundclash and several other bands from Southern Ontario take turns on band duty when schedules coincide.
“There's not much of a set lineup of things, so it's always with different guys,” MacNeil said over the phone. “It's cool to watch people grow and jam with everybody and watch the song turn into something a little different.”
And while it might be unfair to call The Black Lungs the Broken Social Scene of punk, there is most certainly a common vein, which runs though a network of bands who all grew up in the same music scene.
“We're just fortunate to come from an area of Canada, or in the world, where there are a lot of like-minded people, guys in The St. Alvia Cartel, Alexisonfire, or Attack in Black The Cancer Bats...” Wade asserted. “It may sound a little crazy to someone outside of it, but a lot of these guys I've grown up with going to shows, and are bands that I've gone to seen play and bands that I've played with, which is why we're such good friends. The Black Lungs is just kind of this extended family.”
Some Alexisonfire members play in The Black Lungs too, but even playing with them is a different feeling, now that MacNeil is the front man.
As one of the lyricists in Alexisonfire, MacNeil often wrote personal songs that would end up featuring the vocals of Green or Pettit. But now, MacNeil has reached a comfort level in writing and performing songs on his own.
“There are some things I wouldn't want anyone else singing,” he explained.
One such song is “Fire and Brimstone”, which deals with religious hypocrisy. The lyrics are particularly daunting, with lines like:
Statues and hypocrites keep you in line and never falter/
Beat your kids pray to the holy ghost/
All's forgiven Sunday you just wait in line accept the host.”
Though some may see it as an attack on faith, MacNeil argues otherwise.
“I personally think there are a lot of anti-religious songs, and [“Fire and Brimstone”] is not supposed to be like that, it's just a different way of looking at it...,” he said. “You can't be a shitty person all week and then be absolved of it on Sundays, and that's sort of what it's about.”
Not all songs are of such heavy subject matter, and in fact, Send Flowers as a whole is a little scatterbrained, partly due to how it was recorded.
“[Alexisonfire was] touring like crazy, so we'd come home for a week and I'd go record for a couple of days. So it was kind of done in that fashion, until I logged about two weeks of studio time and we started mixing it all together. I'm pleased with it, but the record is what it is. It's done around being on the road all the time.”
Reviews of the album have been quite positive, and the same goes for their live concerts. So for fans of melodic punk rock played by some of Southern Ontario's finest rock musicians, the concert on Friday, January 23 at the London Music Hall is not to be missed.
