I’ve started, restarted, procrastinated, and then restarted this review so many times. It comes down to a few simple facts. I’m reviewing a band I have been listening to for 15 years, a band that in certain circles has reached iconic status, and for me that makes things difficult. Where do I start? If this was a first album from a band I’d never heard before it would be easy, I could simply compare them to other bands, but in this case thats not fair, and I’m going to try not to do that. NoMeansNo has been around for thirty years, and realistically I should be comparing other bands to them, after all so many artists owe their sound, their influence and their careers to this band, a review is a little daunting.
So I guess a good place to start would be a comparison. In 2006 NoMeansNo released their last Album, “All Roads Lead to Ausfahrt”. It was a great pop punk album. Full of high energy tracks, and it was a fun album. Fast forward to 2010, and “Tour EP 1” is a completely different story. Where All Roads showed off the bands punk influences, Tour EP 1 definitely exhibits their interest in Jazz and Prog-rock, and at least to me it’s a perfect follow up.
Tour EP 1 is rich, and thick and broody. The opening track “Faceless May” is a dark narrative, it represents a darkness that so few artists attempt to create, and even fewer are successful at. It’s also a prime example of what makes NoMeansNo not just a good band but a great band. Just like the change in tone from one album to the next, they pull off similar changes within songs, at the end of “Faceless May” we are teased with a cameo by that other punk NoMeansNo, a change of pacing into the frenetic style many of us have become accustomed to, and then flitters away into the darkness and the end of the track, it’s perfect, and it shows the diversity of the band in one song. I love change ups like these, and they happen time and time again. The little teases, the stops and restarts. “Slave” seems to me to be the most cynical of the four tracks, and retains the most punk rock out of them as well. It’s not fast paced, but still driving and hard, with Rob Wrights bass, and Tom Hollistons guitar layering together to add more punch, and heaviness to John Wrights drums. “Old” is the longest song out of the four and the best example of NoMeansNo teasing us. It builds and builds, and we expect it to just break out and it never does, and it is better because of it. “Old” is a great song and I think will be one of the bands classics. The last song on the record, “Something Dark Against Something Light” is an angry, strange, and dissonant wrap to the EP, and in many ways is everything I look for in a song. Again they return to the strong narrative story telling the began the EP with.
To say NoMeansNo is very good at what they do is an understatement. For thirty years they have been releasing music that is original, it is their own, and over the years they have adapted and changed, and somehow stayed the same. They have incorporated other styles, and other genres. It may not be unusual for a band to still be around after thirty years, it’s also not that unusual for a band to be touring after thirty years. What is unusual is that after thirty years most bands are content to sit back on their catalogue of material, to keep the fan base that they developed, not write anything new. Most of these bands are far past their primes, trying to make a comeback, not for the sake of music, but the sake of money. NoMeansNo on the other hand is a band that is well and truly in their prime, they’ve never needed to made a come back because they’ve never quit, and they certainly haven’t faded into irrelevance. They appeal to the fans they made 30 years ago, and have made countless new fans along the way. They are still writing good music, and it’s easy to tell that they still love their craft.
Originally appeared on Vanmusic.ca May 22, 2010