In 1992, wrestling, Mortal Kombat and Nirvana were all very popular. All three feature in the video for ‘Roddy Piper’, the lead single from Casper Skulls’ third album Kit-Kat (and a GIITTV Track of the Week a couple of months ago). Melanie St. Pierre-Bednis and Neil Bednis perform dual/duel vocals over fuzzed-up guitars that inevitably remind one of MBV and, less predictably, Leeds’ Sky Larkin. Casper Skulls are from Sudbury/Toronto, and at the time of writing this review, it is not known whether late 2000s North Yorkshire indie rock is also popular in Canada.
Spindletop is where the Texas oil boom of the early 20th century began, and it’s also the first track on Kit-Cat. ‘Spindletop’ is a warped Wilco nihilistic pioneer daydream. “We’ll destroy Dallas / One strip mall at a time / And setup pumpjacks side-by-side.” It’s not Kerouac, but you’ll like it. Next track ‘Petty At A Funeral’ takes a more subdued, parochial turn, though with initially-innocuous-yet-actually-rather-sinister lyrics such as “The sisters in the yard are asking for the will” and “What’s behind the walls?” The first and third quarters of ‘The Master’s Singer’ sound like Elliot Smith soundtracking a mumblecore scene in which a sassy and rueful twenty-something gazes out of a train window. The second and fourth quarters are like Hole but happy. ‘Sweet Spots’ is Mazzy Star with Metallica lyrics.
Augusta Veno from Peterborough (Ontario) art punk trio Lonely Parade joins in the mid-90s college rock fun of ‘Numbing Mind’. Its radio friendly refrain is wavelengths away from the melancholic ‘Kihl’ (or should that be melan-kihl-ic?), which was inspired by recurring nightmares St. Pierre-Bednis had before leaving Toronto for Sudbury. We can be certain that 1980s West Sussex goth rock is well regarded in Maple Country. “Nothing kills a dream like living does” claims Bednis on ‘Living’, though despair becomes joy when it’s smothered in such pretty jangly chords. The gentle strumming and slide guitar on ‘Left Alone For Loneliness’ conjur images of, dare I say it, a wide American expanse (I’m sure Canadian examples of wide expanses are available). Third single from the album ‘Dying in Eight Verses’ is like Shakespeare read by Lou Reed, with a big goofy riff that sounds like it’s the credit music for a 90s kids’ show.
Fraser McClean’s splashy drums à la John Bonham begin the album’s final track ‘The Awakening’, named after and inspired by the Kate Chopin novel published in 1899. It’s an interesting choice for the married couple St. Pierre-Bednis and Bednis to sing “And not listen to any husband”, though within the context of articulating the novel’s core theme of being free from the expectations of society, it makes perfect sense. The track is a tender and triumphant tribute to the noble and troubled pursuit of being our authentic selves.
The cover of Kit-Kat is a painting by St. Pierre- Bednis, which is a collage that includes a Kitty Cat clock, a rural dirt road, and a painting of a ballet dancer in a luchador mask while being transported by a dinosaur. It neatly sums up Casper Skulls’ creativity and playfulness. A 1980s wrestling rivalry and 1890s female liberation are both valid song references, though they’re not usually found on the same album. Kit-Cat will make you ready to rumble and punch a righteous fist to the sky.
Kit-Cat is out now via Next Door Records
