Jun. 30, 2010 - Issue #767: The Bestest of Edmonton 2010
Prevue
Rough draft
Scrapbooker arranges many influences
Scrapbooker / Supplied
"It's all kind of about throwing things together that don't necessarily seem like they should go together. Even the band name: 'Scrapbooker' kind of seems like a heavy word, but then when you think about it, it's pretty soft," explains frontman/guitarist Elliott Schleske of the band's ethos. "The way I think about it is sort of like wearing a hoodie with shorts. Are you cold? Why are you wearing shorts, then? What's going on there? That's kind of where it all comes from."
Wearing a hoodie with shorts might have been the origin, but it seems a bit too simple to really capture the essence of Scrapbooker. Wearing a suit with a barbed wire tie might be a little more accurate, or maybe a crash helmet with nothing else. The band's music is loud and fast and discombobulating, flying from songs inspired by the on-screen suicide of Budd Dwyer to anti-police screeds, and with structures that seem to change their mind as often as their chords.
That's just the way Schleske—who rounds out the band with brothers Sean and Noel Taylor—likes it, he says, pointing out that part of the foundation of the band was as a kind of response to the indie pop that seems to have surrounded him since he was a teenager.
"People spent the last decade listening to indie pop or whatever, and that's great, I'm cool with that, but I feel like the rock was kind of lacking," he says. "A lot of it for me is trying to confront people with ideas that maybe they don't normally come across, and make people uncomfortable a bit. That's one of the reasons I use the noise the way I do, and the lyrics, too. It's not supposed to sit pretty." V
Sat, Jul 3 (9 pm)
Scrapbooker
With Don Parkin, Rat Tail, A Happy Ending to a Suicide Note
Bohemia (10575 - 114 st), $7
More info about Bohemia Cyber Café →
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