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BROKEN DOWN TOWN ALBUM REVIEWS 2010
Canteen Knockout — Broken Down Town
Broken Down Town
Weewerk/Outside
Scott Bryson (CHARTattack)
Broken Down Town's first sentence provides a decent hint at the sort of album we're dealing with here: "Whiskey drains the pain to another place."
Consider Canteen Knockout the everyband that play in the background of the saloon scene in countless Hollywood movies. In that sense, they're nondescript, but they're certainly not lacklustre. There aren't a great number of bands that can carry that sound outside of a film soundtrack. Hayden dabbled in it on "Trees Lounge."
It's hard to call whether this album or their Navajo Steel debut is better; they're rather different beasts. For Broken Down Town, the Toronto four-piece have turned down the debauchery a notch (as well as the swearing), opting instead for serious country/roots rock.
Lyrically, there's a lot of heartbreak happening here — band founder Andre Skinner sings about being stabbed by a woman (both metaphorically and literally) on more than one track. Mid-album, they toss in an enjoyable cover of Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" (sans Lightfoot's recent amendments).
In the end, Canteen Knockout kept it traditional and simple, and they do simple very well.
HeroHill.com review
The other day I was trying to put together some sort of flow chart for how we got to the point where almost every band has a pedal steel player and members don snappy cowboy shirts like Bart Simpson wears orange tees and blue shorts.
It would be easy to trace the history and talk about the genius of Sparklehorse or Uncle Tupelo (or just blame Wilco), but I had to point to a moment, it would be when Indie pranksters Ween put out 12 Country Golden Greats. After that, people with guitars could play funny songs about Japanese cowboys and pissing up ropes to make their friends laugh. It also meant that tons of song writers could try their hand at writing hokey songs full of twang without running the risk of turning people off.
That record transformed country from something pure and outdated into something accepted by our most indie-loving and eco/patchouli-friendly associates. Sadly though, it also made country music a bit of a joke for a lot of people now experimenting with it. That long winded preamble is my subtle dig at the authenticity of the most of the bands trying to cash in on the legacy, but its also makes me nod approvingly when I hear a band putting together sounds that pay tribute to the genre, not just try to take from it.
Enter Canteen Knockout.
I don’t know much about the Toronto band’s back story; I liked their debut LP Navajo Steel enough (and still think that;s a great name for an adult film star), but really had no knowledge of the countless styles Andre Skinner tried his hand at before he settled in with this band. The players that help him bring the songs on Broken Down Town to life – Alex Maxymiw (Luther Wright and the Wrongs), Jake Adams (Doug and the Slugs!) and Scott Whirmore, Janes Carroll and Dean Cavill – display an appreciation for the history of country music that can’t be faked and help these songs stand out from the overcrowded collection of bands sampling from the same influences.
Whether it’s shit hot country fried rockers like My Head’s on Fire, a tear-in-your-beer ballad like Golden Day or a sincere take on a classic Lightfoot epic (The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald), the songs Canteen Knockout put together just feels real. Beautiful pedal steel floats around the electric guitar work. Simple but driving bass keeps you moving. Brushed and heavy drums keep time nicely and some well placed fiddle and female harmonies steep the emotion at just the right times.
Canteen Knockout rests firmly on the country side of that dreaded alt-country descriptor, which probably means more people will dismiss the sounds than embrace them, but for fans of actual country music, there is something here. Broken Down Town is full of melancholic nostalgia and Saturday night foot stompers, but the most important moments are the ones found in the closing five minutes. Driving starts like countless other sad sack, self-pity anthems but Skinner starts to realize that maybe, just maybe life is not as bad as he tries to make it out to be. Hearing bands like Canteen Knockout makes me feel the exact same way about the state of music today.
SPILL MAGAZINE
Broken Down Town
Canteen Knockout
Weewerk
There’s something in the Toronto water that just keeps breeding alt-country rockers who own that down-home twang sound. Canteen Knockout’s first album, Navajo, was released in 2008 and now the roots rockers are back with their sophomore album, Broken Down Town. The album follows in the footsteps of The Sadies, Blue Rodeo and the United Steel Workers of Montreal. Canteen Knockout offer an honest Canadian sound that will prove infectious to any fan of that alt-country sound. If you need some proof of just how Canadian Andre Skinner and his band are, they dish up a melodic cover of Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” But the Toronto boys are at their best when they let their roots side out on the track “My Head’s on Fire” or when they show off their rock ’n’ roll sensibility on the track “Louisiana.” Broken Down Town is 12 well-crafted tunes and serves as proof that Canteen Knockout should be drawing crowds all over the country — not just in Toronto’s own Horseshoe and Dakota Tavern.
Northumberland News April 2010
Canteen Knockout
Broken Down Town
Weewerk
The Toronto roots rockers recorded some of their latest disc at The Exhaust System North in Brooklin, giving it a local flavour. They work similar territory as Corb Lund or the Warped 45s. They are also brave enough to tackle Lightfoot's The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald, which surfaces halfway through the album. However, the now clearly undead Lightfoot has recently changed the lyrics of the classic Cancon standard due to new evidence, but here Andrew Skinner and his Canteen deckhands go with the original line. The Rheostatics have covered the wreck as well, so for comparison, Canteen Knockout uses a lot less atmospheric trickery and cuts straight to the core of the tune with pedal steel and electric guitar. www.canteenknockout.com.
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(underground, under-paid, over-looked and over-sexed)
Blame it on Andre Skinner's frequent time-off trips burning the highway south of the border in between his many gigs across Ontario, or just his love for road songs, Canteen Knockout's long-awaited second release and first full length offering, NAVAJO STEEL, could easily be called or taglined "The Driving Album". An ample percentage of this CD's 13 tracks end up having something to do with "driving". Skinner and the boys cover much of everything that one driver or passenger can do while charging down the road to wherever: dreaming, speeding, crashing, drinking, smoking, ---and even yes, fucking. It's all here, in its refreshing raw grassroots/alt. country glory.L'ordre du jour on NAVAJO STEEL is definitely rock with generous twang, echoing The Flying Burrito Brothers and early 70s country-fied Rolling Stones, especially evident on the power acoustic strum-driven "Georgia", with its old school bare-effects electric guitar licks in between what seems to be one of Skinner's most comfortable and relaxed vocal performances. CK-O as a whole are not a chops players band perse, but this is actually a 'plus' for the more country-ish tunes like "Home" and "Dad Song" where the little imperfections help keep these songs this side of all-too-clinical Nashville, thank God. These are well crafted country songs performed by unpretentious rockers who appreciate their country influences.Many songs on the CD benefit from lead guitarist Alex Maxymiw, with him often, in addition to his stratocaster lashings, adding his beautiful pedal steel talents to the mix, either in the foreground or background. There is a good musical variety here. A tour de force track is the cool slow "Overnight Girl" with a nice flowing steel arrangement and good lyrics. "Balls Out Truckin'" is trademark ZZ Top. There's the fun back porch mock(or tribute)-Dylan "We Work", and the Davy Crockett theme-ish "Bill Cody", arguably as valid as The Beatles' "Rocky Raccoon" and "Bungalow Bill". And then there's the way-outta-left-field haunting and eerie title track.Should Andre Skinner get his license revoked? Should one feel safe travelling with him as a passenger? Should Mothers Against Drunk Driving start getting worried? Will Skinner end up playing 'chicken of the road' with Jeff Tweedy? We'll probably just have to stay tuned for Canteen Knockout's next episode for the answers to these questions. In the meantime, we can enjoy this strong, humble and honest effort by Toronto's unsung saddle riding heroes.Jeff Cole
Canteen Knockout at Mitsy's SisterJanuary 14th 2006 at Mitzy's Sister
was the most recent wagon stop of the on going alt/country story, Canteen
Knockout. A packed house responded well to a tight set of the little
bit twangy, "my baby spilled my last beer" old school country,
a little bit rock and roll and a little bit "psychedelic".
From start to finnish there was hooting and dancing and cheering.
I have seen several Canteen Knockout performances
now and this thing that they do is starting to take hold. I always thought
that bringing anything country
(county/western, alt/country, country rock) to Toronto is a little like
lighting a match underwater.. Sure you can do it if you apply yourself
and tremendous
resources, but what's the point. In a town that love's it's Constantines
and Metic, what's hip about country - other than maybe a gig as Shinia
Twain's
pool boy? But despite the odds, Canteen Knockout is building an audience
for itself - even on Queen Street West.You have to love and underdog. And if you love
a band that moves to the beat of it's own drum - or in this case, to
it's own petal steel guitar, then hop on the
Canteen Knockout wagon. I guess no one likes a phony and you can feel
the sincerity in the words, music and performance of the foursome that
is Canteen Knockout.Joe Chisholm IN THE CAN MUSIC
Weekly Review
Canteen Knockout - Mitzi's Sister - Jan. 14For anyone who likes a little "twang"
in their rock or a little "alt" in
their country, Canteen Knockout (along with guest act Shawn Sage) was
their
best bet last Saturday night at Mitzi's Sister. The hip low-key venue
had
a great crowd in attendence and Andre Skinner and his henchmen served
up a
great set of alt-country/grassroots rock offerings that they are known
for.
The band seems to have mastered their sound and the material seems to
be
delivered now in a way that only CKO can deliver it. Skinner is one
of
those frontmen who is at his best when he is at his most relaxed, and
on
this night he definitely was. Guitarist Alex Maxymiw always alternates
seamlessly from the electric guitar to pedal steel, depending on the
song.
The band's staple tunes were performed like their 2003 EP opener BENT
OUT
OF SHAPE, as well as their new material garnering attention like the
single-bound HEADLINES and the beautiful easy-going HOME, both from
their
forthcoming full length album hopefully out sometime in 2006. The music
seems definitely headed more in the (alt) country vein rather than the
variety of styles explored in their debut disc. The marketing, more
spagetti western (check out their kick-ass posters these days) and the
Skinner attire more fitting, great black western style shirt he was
sporting
on stage(!). This was CKO's first big local gig of 2006 and a good
beginning to what will hopefully be a good year for our T-dot twang-packing
unsung heroes. Long may they ride.Jeff Cole
 Some of Canada's finest
turn up heat musically
By Jocelyn Chan Contributing Writer
June 9, 2005
In spite of Toronto's heat wave and smog, as
well as a case of heat stroke, yours truly took a trip out east to check
out the North By North East (NXNE) music festival last month. The June 9 to 11 blitz featured independent musicians
of various genres from Canada, the U.S. and as far away as the Netherlands.
Nearly every venue had a decent sized crowd and more than 60,000 music
and film fans took in the festivities to catch some of Canada's best
new bands. Obviously, there wasn't enough time to check
out everything (400 plus shows were scheduled for three nights); some
weren't great and others were fantastic. Here's a rundown:Canteen Knockout at The Black Bull I was en route to C'mon but was drawn into the
Black Bull upon hearing Blue Rodeo/Wilco-type songs drifting out of
the venue. The venue wasn't the greatest but the Toronto Canteen Knockout made the best of what they
had. The band did a commendable job tugging emotional heartstrings with
their songs; there's something remarkably candid and sincere about frontman
Andre Skinner - no doubt he believes in and feels the lyrics. Overall,
a confident, polished sound.
GREAT WHITE NOISE
www.greatwhitenoise.caCanteen Knockout – Self Titled
2004The first spin through the Canteen Knockout self
titled E.P. basically leaves you shaking your head after each song and
thinking “What the f….?”Front man and lead singer/guitarist Andre Skinner,
along with band members Paul Mates, Manrico Erasmi and Scott Whitmore,
have combined to put together a five song E.P. that can truly be said
to cover a large spectrum of musical styles.Song #1, Bent Out Of Shape, has a country/rock
feel to it that would easily fit onto any Eagles tribute album! Song
#2, Blue Girl, features a slide blues guitar and a distant sounding
vocal track only. Song #3, Chords Ring, begins with a pop sounding acoustic
guitar and vocals and then kicks into a good slightly grungy sound.
#4, Plane, is a pleasant mellow rocker, and finally song #5, Hangers,
is just a plain old good rock song. Throughout each of these songs interesting
lyrics combine with the a unique sounding vocal style of Skinner to
keep the song playing in your head long after it has actually stopped.Skinner is no new comer to the Canadian indie
music scene, having played drums for the now defunct Pope Factory and
the still active Slit Slot. In Canteen Knockout he has, however, set
aside his kit and stepped into the limelight. Weather this is to insure
his songs were reflected in the proper light, because he is a masochistic
control freak, or because he was weaned too early as a child (ok, I
think we can disregard the last two options) Canteen Knockout serves
up a hardy helping of good music, minus the mosquitoes and grease. I
think everyone should ask for seconds!!
 
Andre Skinner (left), Manrico Erasmi,
Scott Whitmore and Ben Adivi don't dig the Hip.
CANTEEN BOYS
LOCAL ROOTS ROCKERS FIGHT THE DARK SIDE
BY NICK FLANAGAN
Canteen Knockout at B-Side (129 Peter), Wednesday (July
21) $5. 416-204-9660.
Have you ever wondered what the dark side of alt-country would be? Throw
away the image of a grungy disciple of Neil Young perfectly combining
dirty riffs with a soulful twang stomp, and allow yourself to focus
on the horror that would occur if there were ever a band to combine
Bush X with GG Allin's country work. You can stop fretting about it,
because Canteen Knockout, the year-and-a-half-old brainchild of local
musician Andre Skinner, have fought against the dark side of alt-country
and won. The evidence lies in their self-titled EP, which contains a
series of well-crafted and aurally pleasing rootsy rockers.
"When we started, I tried to do alternative-type stuff, with the
big choruses, and it wasn't really working with the rest of our sound,"
says Skinner during an Annex tête-à-tête. "This
year we got into North By NorthEast because we didn't have an alternative
sound. It's working for us."
The lineup has changed several times; a guitarist whom Skinner describes
as "talented but high-maintenance" has left, as have a bassist
and a drummer. Skinner's written all the songs, which might explain
why the lineup can change without hassle. "These guys are a lot
more subdued and easy-going. They just show up for rehearsal and play.
They say to me, 'Oh, we've got a gig? Cool.' "
Skinner, the former drummer of jam-rap band Slit Slot, learned a lot
from time spent with the dramatically different, often drunk miscreants.
"I learned that you can't really give a fuck when you're onstage.
You've just gotta play. Don't be concerned about the crowd or every
little detail – you've just gotta have a good time. The more relaxed
you are onstage, the better you are."
When I ask if he wants CK to be a hip band, he gets offended, thinking
I'm referring to the Tragically Hip. "No, we don't. You can put
that on the record, too. I don't care." When told that the question
was whether Canteen Knockout want to become the kind of band that plays
to the types who wear po' boy hats and listen to crunk/Frente! mash-ups,
his answer changes to "Yes. Certainly we do."
And as long as they stay on the right side of alt-country, they'll be
fine.
Canteen Knockout
The Silver Dollar
April 22, 2004
9:45pm
By Cameron Gordon
You'd be hard-pressed to find a band more fittingly
matched to the Silver Dollar Room's "anything goes" booking
policy than Toronto's Canteen Knockout. By mixing country, rock, blues
and other trace elements, CKO are the bastard child of Hogtown, just
looking for a supple teat to nuzzle… or at least a shot of Piss
Dru. Leadman Andre Skinner decided to pull back the reigns on this night,
which meant that the band's set was awash in a more country-tinged approach
than their recorded output would lead you to believe. Working backwards,
lead guitarist Manrico Erasmi earned his keep by flashing some very
impressive chops-the kind that make record execs and 14-year old girls
from the suburbs buckle at the knees. Erasmi's twangy twiddling of his
six-string was a definite standout yet it didn't overwhelm his bandmates
efforts by a long shot. CKO were tight, taut and tested, allowing them
to burn through such staples as "Bent Out of Shape" and "Sinner"
with relative ease. Even the normally explosive clunker "Chords
Ring" was castrated down to a mid-tempo groover. A cover of the
Black Crowes' "Remedy" was probably the most obtrusive the
boys got and it gave Skinner an opportunity to extend his vocals beyond
his characteristic coo-something we hope to see a lot more of in the
future. - Cameron Gordon
  Canteen Knockout
B-Side
Saturday, March 6, 2004
10:30pm
By Jeff Cole
The Crash Kelly onslaught was to be a hard act
to follow, and it was up to Queen St. West's new roots rock posse Canteen
Knockout to pack a punch and prove they could sustain the crowd's interest
right after the curtain closed the main stage where an imprint of the
Kelly dudes was still etched on everyone's retina... --and Canteen Knockout
did so, damn it! Complete with a few foul words and the announcement
of prize pack giveaways, they quickly got to work and launched into
their assured set containing a mixed bag of song gems which they are
known for, with some straight-ahead strumming guitar melodies, kickass
grunge-style crunches, a untempo-ed Springsteen cover, and even a pseudo-country
closer that had all heads crowded at the front of their (smaller but
modest) stage boppin'. - Jeff Cole
February 2004 - Volume 8 - Issue 1
By Cameron Gordon
FEATURE - CANTEEN KNOCKOUTIt's only a few short blocks from
Chinatown to Queen Street, but for Toronto's Canteen Knockout and their
affable frontman, Andre Skinner, the distance between is symbolic. "Two
years ago, busking was my summer job. I'd grab my drums, go out to Chinatown
for six hours and play," says Skinner with a combination of pride
and jest. "Some days I'd make insane money, other days I'd just
do OK. I didn't have a permit but Chinatown's so crazy that it was never
an issue." A lot has changed in the years since,
namely Skinner had decided to pack up his drumsticks for the time being
and concentrate on frontman duties for Canteen Knockout, an erstwhile
collection of collaborators (singer/rhythm guitarist Skinner, lead guitarist
Manrico Erasmi, bassist Scott Whitmore and drummer Paul Mates) that
has been turning heads in the Toronto club scene since their inception
last summer. While the band has only played a handful of shows to this
point, Skinner is quick to recognise the difference between bashing
away at his skins and actually taking the mic. "I'm confident in
my voice but there are so many levels in singing and I'm trying to get
my voice to a point where I can get some additional vibrado in it,"
he says. "That and songwriting are what I'm concentrating on; just
getting up front and making a kick-ass show." The band's self-titled debut EP
(produced by Skinner himself and co-produced by Mark Doucet) was released
in the fall and is a good indicator of the band's range. Whereas tracks
such as "Bent Out of Shape" and "Hangers" are steeped
in twangy guitars and rootsy sensibilities, others such as the dramatic
"Chords Ring" stray closer to the dense, angsty sounds produced
by Skinner's former band Pope Factory, a band that toured extensively
within the US and was championed by Edge 102.1's Dave Bookman on a number
of occasions. However, Skinner hopes that with time, the band will be
able to smooth out their sound to the point where the dichotomy of their
collective influences will become a bit less obvious. "I want to
cut it down from such a wide range and have people come to expect a
certain type of music," he says. "But at the same time, I
look at a band like Wilco as my ultimate. They can go totally psychedelic
and then straight country, and then just rock out too. I want to craft
this 'Canteen Knockout sound' so when our audience hears the chords
and vocals they'll know what they're listening to." With a pile
of fresh new songs yet to be recorded and a number of gigs and contacts
already lined up, you can expect to be hearing a lot more from Canteen
Knockout in the coming months as they try to take advantage of the recent
good fortune that has blanketed the Toronto indie rock scene in the
past year. "I couldn't see any better time [to be in a Toronto
band] because right now is just booming," Skinner says. "Three
or four years ago I read an interview with an industry person in the
UK and they mentioned how amazing it was that nothing was coming out
of Toronto, because there were just tons of wicked bands just sitting
there, not getting signed. I think we're finally starting to catch up."
- Cameron Gordon
 Canteen Knockout
Album Title: Self-TitledRelease Date:
Rating: * * * *
Genre: Folk/Rock
You know what they say about drummers… sometimes they want to
come out from behind their kits in order to write their own songs and
sing and play guitar (I admit, it's not that well-known of an adage).
This is the case with ex-Pope Factory basher Andre Skinner, who's new
band Canteen Knockout has recently released their eponymous debut EP.
The five tracks are a solid mix of rootsy, Wilco-styler rockers and
noisier, nastier guitar dirges. Actually, that's not entirely true because
there is actually a real cohesion considering that the slap happy "Hangers"
doesn't sound much like the explosive "Chords Ring" and so
on and vice versa. The common thread is Skinner's songwriting, which
bleeds through with a straight-forward honesty and manages not to bore
the listener. The musicianship is solid and again, doesn't alienate
the listener with inhuman studio BS and any fancy-pants guitar hooey.
These tracks seem ready for consumption, no small feat for such a fledgling
act, and could be Skinner's personal rocket to the stars. Because this
KO packs a punch, baby…um, yeah.
Writer: Cameron Gordon  
Artist: Canteen Knockout
Title: Self Titled
Label: Hyper-Intelligence
Rating: 4 out of 5
EP Review by Mark Anderson
From Andre Skinner, Toronto percussion busker fixture and former skins
beater for Queen St. West staples like the (now defunct) moody anti-scenesters
POPE FACTORY and the (still together) sex obsessed beats-smiths hip-hop
improv rock pranksters SLIT SLOT, comes a 5-song EP under the moniker
Canteen Knockout.Skinner unexpectedly pulls a "Dave
Grohl" and comes out back from behind his drum kit, sporting a
guitar and a confident attitude, fronting a 4-piece combo offering us
some no-nonsense singer/songwriter style grass roots rock tinged with
blues, grunge, and even a bit of country.The album, although a bit too bold
for a first tryout (with its experimentation, especially when "EPs"
usually stick to the "one style" and play it safe), Skinner
arguably can emerge as a survivor in pushing this particular envelope.
The mini-album has two rather strong straight-ahead, radio-ready, strum-happy
rockers BENT OUT OF SHAPE and HANGERS used as bookends (songs which
would make Tom Petty proud), these kinds of songs stylings obviously
being the band's soon-to-be-known signature sound, with the middle tracks
slipping into different genres: like the somewhat magical, Lanois-esque,
slow, swampy slide blues lament called BLUE GIRL, that, if listen to
the "right"way, can literally take over your nervous system
and immobilize you from the song's opening bars.Skinner and producer Mark Doucet
perform the old "powerful restraint" exercise for the album's
most elaborate studio track PLANE, which moves along plodding like an
elephant to a Kurt Cobain-like singing delivery and a slow build of
layering, taking the song from the "simple" to the (fortunately
still low-rent) epic proportions, making the song sound both small and
big.Undoubtedly, the album's hardest
rocking moments come in CHORDS RING, which features TV Ontario's VOX
host Anjulie performing the duet vocal, adding a silky sexiness to the
track's guitar wall-of-sound: a wall sounding like as if Phil Spector
had been born in Seattle and had never left his hometown. Although cruelly
abbreviated before its time, the song does close with an effective Space
Oddity-like guitar solo that satisfies.Good lyrics and a timeless feel
throughout. Fans of music by the Cash Brothers and Jason Collett will
feel they are spoken to here.
MA – Rock Block Magazine
(underground, under-paid, over-looked and over-sexed) A KNOCKOUT at The Hooch.
By Jeff Cole
I just had to check out this show. Word had it that this showcase's
lineup included two ex-members of the now disbanded T.O. group
POPE FACTORY, Phil Crechiolo, and Andre Skinner, both playing in
two seperate new bands, NURSE and CANTEEN KNOCKOUT
respectively. The latter eventually winning my vote as the one worth
the price of admission that night, not that, I'm sure, Phil and Andre
were ever competing with each other, of course.
I've always been a fan of POPE FACTORY. They were like Toronto's
own Sonic Youth/Pink Floyd hybrid, headed by songwriters Scott
Warren and Peter Muha. But here tonight were PF's two other
members. While Phil Crechiolo played good and was his usual
dedicated unassuming brilliant self with a good sound, contributing
well the NURSE's heavy rocking set of classic rock cover following
an amazing and pro performance by THE NEW BLACK, it is by far
Andre Skinner that "surprised" us, giving us a taste of his
new band
CANTEEN KNOCKOUT which he is at the helm of, offering us an all-
original set of nice soothing, acoustic/electric straight-ahead intelligent
songs, showing us his craftmanship and vision.
Although sometimes working against the elements, like not having
the perfect sound mix (Skinner's vocals were a tad buried in the mix)
and few technical problems (hey, shit happens, right?), Skinner's conf-
idence and professionalism didn't let this faze him. He would calmly
laugh it off and make the best of it, only adding to the sincerity of
his
unrehearsed natural banter in between songs (or in between shorting
cable problems), reassuring the attentive audience that this guy can
handle himself up there.
Good tunes came out of this engaging set, like the linear Sunday-
afternoon-driving-perfect "BENT OUT OF SHAPE" and the simple
but
heavy-strummed thrash Nirvana-ish "CHORDS RINGS", two songs
which I'm told are on Canteen Knockout's forthcoming debut EP (maybe
even out already at the time of this printing.) Bass player Scott Withm-
ore supplied an uncomplicated but good unobtrusive bottom support,
while Paul Mates kept a solid backbeat on the traps. Skinner's right
hand dude, lead guitarist Manrico Erasmi, in addition to being a potential
threat to John Mayer in the innocently cutesy guitar weilding heart
throb
department, provided a nice complimentary warm sound and neatly
performed harmony vocals. Our humble host Skinner tickled us with a
song called "THE BOSS", a rather explicit but clever tongue-in-cheek
declaration that HE likes to call the shots in bed, in those intense
heated
moments with the song's subject hottie. Were any female members of
the audience seemingly offended by his deta-iled delivery? Nah! Such
charm and confidence can't be bought.
So hopefully, there will only be more noize to come from Canteen
Knockout. Andre Skinner definitely has something here, and I would
urge you scenesters to keep your eyes and ears open.
So what the lastest dope on this pope, you ask? It's Canteen Knockout.
Let the buzz begin, or maybe it's already begun.
*******Canteen Knockout -- On-line live
music review exclusive by Jeff Cole
Andre Skinner's rock posse put up their dukes and come out swingin'
at The Horseshoe!
Toronto, Ontario, Canada (PRWEB) December 20
2003--The Horseshoe. Dec. 17th. Frodo could wait another night.On an evening where it seemed that all of the
planet's population was scrambling to catch the third installment of
the Lords Of The Rings movie trilogy at their nearest Cineplex, I'm
sure Andre Skinner expected fierce competition, being that this was
the same evening his band CANTEEN KNOCKOUT was playing their big show
at Toronto's Horseshoe on Queen St. West.But his loyal fanbase stuck it out and attended
with anticipation his 'Shoe appearance, putting the hobbits on the back
burner, and Skinner thanked them for this at the microphone before his
band launched into what was a great impressive showcase.Compared to his first official appearance in
Toronto at The Hooch this last October I had witnessed, which introduced
his new music mission with the band sounding good but still in its infancy,
this time at The Horseshoe, it was a quantum leap. Canteen Knockout
was in top form and kicked some serious ass. And unlike the Hooch gig,
this time around the sound mix was very good. A band like Canteen Knockout
"belongs" at a venue like The Horseshoe. It probably didn't hurt that Skinner had reportedly
just got back from a one-week vacation down south, and the dude was
obviously looking relaxed and well-rested, -- and ready to take care
of business! Alternating between acoustic and electric guitar,
Skinner led his mates in delivering the goods. With "all"
tunes coming off great, including three rockers from his current 5-song
self-titled EP, "Bent Out Of Shape," "Chords Ring,"
and "Hangers," the songs that really had the audience at their
most attentive were the newly penned "Sinner" and "Concentrate",
both solidly atmospheric and well-written gems, as well as the surprise
"alt-country" dabbling of "Time On My Hands" which
closed the set.There was talk in the crowd after the show about
Skinner and his boys holing up soon at his studio hideaway, The Exhaust
System, in Toronto's Dundas/Carlaw studio district, to commence work
on a full-length album. Let's hope this is true and that he can capture
some of these new songs in disc while they're fresh and while the dudes
seem to play them with feverish intensity.
- Review by Jeff Cole, Antisocial Butterfly 'Zine.
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