Gassy Jack and Other Tales

Gassy Jack And Other Tales is a very Vancouver record. Released in 2007, it is packed with local characters, old punk stories, British Columbia history, records, radio memories and bits of information that Nardwuar had collected over years of interviews, digging through record bins and following the local music scene.

The opening ‘Where’s The Butterknife?’ comes from a story involving Vancouver hardcore band Death Sentence and the filming of a 1987 episode of 21 Jump Street. From there, the subjects wander all over the province. ‘Gassy Jack’ looks back at the figure whose nickname became part of Gastown history, while ‘E.J. Hughes’ celebrates the British Columbia painter whose work had long fascinated Nardwuar. ‘Float Plane’, ‘Desolation Sound’ and ‘St. Roch’ draw from West Coast geography and history, while ‘Evatone Sound Sheets’ heads directly into record-collector territory.

Some of the best songs come from details that few other bands would think to write about. ‘Do The Eggbeater’ grew from stage banter preserved on an old Pointed Sticks live tape. ‘Crispy Space Bacon’, complete with theremin from Adam Sloan, came out of Nardwuar’s interview with moon-landing conspiracy writer Bill Kaysing. ‘Sasquatch And Me Ate Berries For Free’ turns another unlikely phrase into an Evaporators song. The band has always been good at taking odd stories and bits of trivia and turning them into short, catchy songs without making too much of them.

The lineup of David Carswell on guitar, vocals and organ, Stephen Hamm on bass, organ, piano and vocals, Scott Livingstone on drums and Nardwuar on vocals keeps the record moving at a brisk pace. John Collins adds bass to several tracks, Megan Barnes contributes vocals, and the arrangements occasionally stretch beyond the band’s usual garage and power-pop sound. The songs remain direct and energetic, leaving plenty of room for Nardwuar’s storytelling without losing their hooks.

The artwork carries the same interest in Vancouver music history. Rebecca Blissett’s front-cover photograph recreates the bus scene from the Subhumans’ Incorrect Thoughts album. As Blissett explains in the accompanying booklet, finding the correct type of retired Vancouver bus required tracking one down at a Surrey garage, then bringing together musicians, friends and people connected to the original scene for the photograph. The result is more than a visual reference. It connects The Evaporators directly with the Vancouver punk history that runs through so much of the record.

Gassy Jack And Other Tales is funny, fast and deliberately peculiar, but there is a great deal of local knowledge behind it. The songs preserve small pieces of Vancouver and British Columbia history that might otherwise remain buried in old records, concert tapes, newspaper stories and personal memories. The Evaporators turn all of that material into a lively garage-punk record that sounds completely at home in the city that inspired it.

-Robert Williston