Indie Spotlight - The Sourkeys - s/t

This album is so rare that this is the biggest image I could find of the album cover. The Sourkeys were one of the first out of town indie bands I ever saw, and I got to see them twice in the same night in my hometown of Yarmouth. After buying the album (which looked super cool, with a bright yellow sunflower in the center, and the outside ring of the disc being clear). I always thought I would get tired of it, but it always found it's way back into rotation (and it continues to do so on my Ipod). They returned to Nova Scotia a couple of years later to play at the Pop Explosion and I was sure to be there.

My favorite song has always been Sick Since Sunday and as they neared the end of their set I feared they wouldn't play it. I was a little tipsy by the time they played their last song and began walking off the dark, poorly lit stage in Hell. I started yelling. "I didn't pay TEN DOLLARS to see you NOT play Sick Since Sunday."

"We don't really know it anymore."

"Too bad. Play it."

"But our bass player, he..."

"Play it."

"I... I guess we could try..."

By this point everyone had been wanting an encore anyway, so when they kicked into the bass line everyone went nuts. We all danced and sang along and it was the perfect closer to the night.
After they finished I went to the merch table to thank them and we talked about Yarmouth and common friends we had and eventually the bass player came around and I told him how well he played the song even though it wasn't planned. He was sort of quiet.

"Yeah, well we used to play that song all the time, but I developed rheumatoid arthritis in my wrists and it kills me to play it."

I probably should have felt bad, but I didn't. If Brenden Shanahan can skate off the ice with a broken ankle, then Johnny Bassman* can run through Sick Since Sunday once on a tour.

What does this story have to do with the drumming? Nothing, but unless you own this already or know someone who does, you'll never hear the cool off time stuff Mike Lurz does in May, or the balls out rocking he does on Demon Or Deity. I can't even find a video of these guys playing on youtube to show you.

How's that for elitism.

*Note: Not his actual name.