Suicide Helpline/Heathers
Suicide Helpline
Re:Generation // Independent
Topics once considered taboo: mental health and suicide. We’re coming around slowly to acceptance that sometimes we need some extra help. If not you... maybe someone else you know. Any band that is open to talking about mental health and suicide, I can get behind. This new album Re:Generation by Suicide Helpline comes with a warning as they delve into these topics which may be a trigger for some. 7yrs ago I couldn’t say the word suicide without falling apart. Time does heal but so does music. This album is far from dark and scary. Music is medicine and I found it healing.
Suicide Helpline is a glittery retro punk band from Edmonton, Alberta. City of potholes that will swallow you whole and some of the Best Punk bands around! Suicide Helpline consists of Logan Turner, Kevin Maimann, Adam Likness, and Stu Chell. Their new album Re:Generation is a time machine trip to another dimension.
Their sound is vast like space and ranges from 50’s sock hop, peppy ska numbers and everything glittery glam-punk in between. Infusions of 70’s and 80’s punk. This album really has it all!!
‘I’m So Sick of This Generation’ is a punky upbeat number with a Ramone’s vibe. They’ve released the coolest video for this one. Fun and flashy 80’s style music video. I love the ‘Woah’s’ and that this song encourages audience or listener participation....atleast in my mind it does! ‘Before You Take My Soul’ has the crunchie guitars of 70’s rock with “John Fogerty style,” raw and growl vocals. Dark and sexy CCR kinda feel. Sweet guitar solo, a little fun hand clapping. A fast favourite for me. ‘This Void’ Fills your ears with the happy uptempo rhythms of Ska. There’s a couple of these gems on the album. I really dig the drums on this track. They give off great energy that carries through the whole album.
I’ve only touched on a few! You’ll have to listen to the whole album to really enjoy this whole awesome trip that is Re:Generation. This album is definitely one I’ll be playing again and again this summer! A good pick me up for 2020! Thank you Suicide Helpline for this rad album...we needed this one!
Be good to each other!
Noreen Hurst
Heathers
“Janus/The Chariot” // Independent
On June 16th , 2020, Heathers released their last ever singles: “Janus” and “The Chariot.” Heathers was a queer post-punk band based out of Montreal, composed by the three-piece of Heather Hardie, Helen Chau Bradley, and Nikki MacMillan. While they were active for close to 8 years, Heathers grew into veterans in Montreal music with several releases along the way: the early self-titled album (2018), the single “DOWNTOWN COP” (2015), the EP Strange Allies (2017), and the definitive album Midnight Is A Place (2018).
“Janus” jumps between a rhythmic sludgy groove and melodic duets between Bradley’s vocals and Hardie’s lead guitar. This song is perhaps a good example of the metal-adjacent sounds that Heathers hits whenever a song is let lose into a thoroughly full sound. Similarly, “The Chariot” chants as if it were a dark gospel song with a certain ceremonial edge. While this second single can also be quite rhythmic in focus, the pay off is quite different when MacMillan’s drums accentuate the haunting pace of the song that they are putting together in the chorus or when the song lets itself rest by showing off the instrumental prowess that makes their sound. As a whole, the set of singles offer one last glimpse into the sound that Heathers offered – enough that if this is your first chance to listen to them, it might just entice you to go back to Midnight Is A Place to start digging yourself back into through their discography.
At its core, their sound is darkly harmonious through its enveloping shoegaze textures and reverbed vocals, and this only enhanced by their attention to melodic upheaval whenever the vocals and lead guitar play off each other. As a long-time listener, it is hard not to reminisce over their haunting performances in a live setting, like the Midnight Is A Place release show atop the ruin-like top floor of an industrial building in Montreal. With this last set of singles and a last performance that took place virtually on June 16th for Suoni Fest, Heathers says goodbye and leaves a legacy in their discography and in the impact of their performances across the festival circuit.
- Simone A. Medina Polo
