{"id":6994,"date":"2013-05-15T08:00:42","date_gmt":"2013-05-15T15:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=6994"},"modified":"2013-05-16T13:31:07","modified_gmt":"2013-05-16T20:31:07","slug":"montreal-psychobilly-band-the-brains-lose-makeup-gain-notoriety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2013\/05\/15\/montreal-psychobilly-band-the-brains-lose-makeup-gain-notoriety\/","title":{"rendered":"Montreal psychobilly band The Brains lose makeup, gain notoriety"},"content":{"rendered":"

It didn\u2019t end up working out for KISS, but it might be a permanent thing for Montreal\u2019s long-running psychobilly band The Brains. We, of course, are talking about taking off the makeup and hanging up the costumes. For KISS, their \u201cunmasked\u201d era was a desperate plea for commercial resurgence in the \u201980s and \u201990s, but for The Brains it was a health necessity that reaped other benefits when the band started playing far-off countries, according to vocalist\/guitarist Rene \u201cD La Muerte\u201d Garcia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got a nasty eye infection in Romania and that was that,\u201d says Garcia, a Chilean immigrant who landed in Quebec after the Pinochet coup of 1973. \u201cI couldn\u2019t do the makeup and the creepy contact lenses anymore because they were killing my eyes. So we let go of that because there was just no way I could do that to myself anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"We\u2019re<\/a>
We\u2019re assuming this photo is from back when The Brains did wear makeup… (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although the psychobilly band\u2019s image became less flamboyant and horror-themed, it afforded them some much-needed credibility in a scene where a lot of others were doing the makeup\/costumes\/horror thang and The Brains weren\u2019t as unique anymore.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt actually helped us a lot to let go of the makeup,\u201d claims Garcia. \u201cLess people were intimidated by us or thinking we were just a gimmick. And we got more recognition for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Psychobilly, for those uninitiated, is a spruced-up version of \u201950s-born rockabilly music that incorporates punk rock and horror themes. And while The Brains aren\u2019t the first band to do it (some trace the genre back to \u201970s art punks The Cramps, while others go further back to the horror-blues of Screamin\u2019 Jay Hawkins), they have put out six albums of some of the highest-energy music ever produced by guitars, drums, and a standup bass.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a version of rockabilly with the same kind of attitude, but up to date,\u201d says Garcia of the fringe music genre. \u201cIt\u2019s about fast cars and fast-paced life, the fun stuff that we liked about music in the \u201950s, but brought up to date.\u201d<\/p>\n

The band\u2019s latest album, The Monster Within<\/i>, is more of the same horror-inspired rockabilly and punk that has kept the band on the road since they played their first show 11 years ago. On Halloween. Dressed as zombies. Before zombies were cool.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy friends and I were in another band and we used to go out and get drunk together,\u201d recalls Garcia. \u201cOne night I told the guys I wanted to start a rockabilly band. We all liked horror movies and it stuck with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

And although the main goal of the band is to have fun and feed off the energy-fuelled crowd, it\u2019s cool to know that there are still some bands that are willing to keep the dangerous aspect of the original punk rock scene alive, whether it\u2019s supposed to be part of the show or not.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still like that at punk shows in Montreal,\u201d laughs Garcia. \u201cI used to work at this bar called Caf\u017d Chaos as a soundman and there was a lot of beer throwing, bottles broken, and noses broken\u00c9 But when you\u2019re working nine to five, you don\u2019t want to come back home from a show covered in blood. You want to have a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Brains
\nFriday, May 17
\nLucky Bar, $15
\nluckybar.ca<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It didn\u2019t end up working out for KISS, but it might be a permanent thing for Montreal\u2019s long-running psychobilly band The Brains. We, of course, are talking about taking off the makeup and hanging up the costumes. For KISS, their \u201cunmasked\u201d era was a desperate plea for commercial resurgence in the \u201980s and \u201990s, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-may-15-2013"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6994"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7044,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6994\/revisions\/7044"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}