Whitey Houston - ST

Tracks

Side 1

		Track Name	Length
	1	They Got Cameras in Their Pockets	02:48
	2	I Got Fucked by Liberty Mutual	02:24
	3	One Hundred	04:05
	4	I Get Around	01:48
	5	Brand New History	02:53
	6	The Good Ship Indiscretion	02:58
	7	Why Would You Want to go and do that to Me?	02:35

Side 2

		Track Name	Length
	1	Heavy Metal Parking Lot	03:00
	2	Do That Thing!	01:57
	3	Liarbird	03:20
	4	Havalina	03:47
	5	Democracy Disease	02:53
	6	Turning	03:22
	7	President Whitey	02:18

Photos

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Information/Write-up

In a Canadian musical climate that seems to get a little more elaborate and overwrought with the emergence of each new Broken Social Scene side-splinter, it's reassuring to see there are still bands like Whitey Houston around to keep things from getting too precious. The Edmonton bass'n'drums duo of Lyle "Whitey" Bell and Rob "Gravy" Hoffart have been smashing out their '70s boogie-rock beating up '80s metal brand of party music since 1999, and the energy of their stage show makes the translation onto their self-titled 12-song debut with nary a scratch. Opening with the swaggering bass line and strained, wailing vocals of "They Got Cameras In Their Pockets", and following up with the chugging blue-collar revenge anthem "I Got Fucked By Liberty Mutual," the disc's stripped-bare production value almost lets you feel the sweat flying off their brows. With their boundless energy and seemingly dead-on sense of what'll get asses shaking, Whitey Houston have produced an album that will resonate for anyone who's been wondering lately when the French horn will start being uncool again.

Why did you guys decide to go with the two-piece format? Bell: Gravy and I had played together in lots of other bands, and when those bands disintegrated we just kept playing together. But it's not like it was a lucrative format at first; there were times when after our first set at a bar, the owner would tell us to go home. Then we started running the bass through a bass and a guitar amp, which made us sound less shitty.

Was it difficult getting your sound onto an album? With two instruments, you can't get into a lot of textural stuff or go too far afield; everything's gotta be full-on stomp, so it can be tough to create something that's interesting to sit down and listen to. There were a couple of parts we had to beef up, but we tried to keep the whole thing as authentic as we could.

Did you actually get fucked by Liberty Mutual? Oh man, I got totally fucked. They cancelled my car insurance without telling me, and I didn't find out for three weeks, so I had this three-week gap in my insurance record which meant I now had to pay high-risk rates despite my perfectly clean record. It's just a fucking enraging industry that I still get mad about - no, actually, I get mad about natural gas prices; the insurance industry makes me go berserk.
-Chris Boutet, Exclaim, July 31, 2005

Lyle "Whitey" Bell (Mollys Reach, Shout Out Out Out Out, Corb Lund, Lisa Hewitt, Whitehorse, The Dead South, Slow Fresh Oil, The Wet Secrets, Terra Lightfoot): bass, vocals
Rob "Gravy" Hoffart (Shout Out Out Out Out, Slow Fresh Oil): drums, vocals

Recorded by N7 at Castle Wilfenstein, by JP at Riverdale Recorders, and by WH at The International House of Whitey

Track order differed from CD release. LP featured two bonus tracks - tracks 7 on each side only played by lifting needle and cuing from the outside groove of the record in. These bonus tracks are not listed on the back of the album.

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