HoZac Mammoth Cave & Pizza Records
With a cherry-picked lineup from Calgary’s seedy musical underworld Sharp Ends personifies the fearsome culmination of the last few years of local rock. Despite the relatively short nature of the band’s serial killing spree these charismatic crooks have already accumulated a formidable case-file that’s found them collaborating with Chicago’s HoZac Records Lethbridge’s Mammoth Cave and Calgary’s house of greasy goodness Pizza Records. All three 7-inches provide ear-bleeding evidence in a format perfectly suited to the band’s grimy timeless squalor.
“Northern Front” was Sharp Ends’ first transmission and a fully formed introduction to the band’s sound: the rock-solid rhythm section of bassist Dan LaPlante and drummer Mike “The Nuder” Bressanutti guitarist Daniel Christiansen’s suitably sharp moves and frontman Chris Zako’s contortions. B-side “Ghosts of Chance” might even best it adding extra echo to Zajko’s barks for a slow-burner that spirals into all-out attack. Second single “Loaded Hearts” introduces the band’s friendlier jangle-pop side while “Crack Trap” gets back to the scary stuff flashing post-punk razor blades.
The four-song Pizza Records EP is the newest platter yet it plucks from set-lists of the band’s earliest shows. A-side opener “Broadview Pressure Test” will be instantly recognizable for its hollered refrain of “World War 6!” while quickie “Panic Button” is raved-up paranoia. On the flip “Vacant City” finds Christiansen showing off stadium-sized riffs as Bressanutti rides his hi-hats like an experienced hobo on the rails. “Can’t Say No” ends things insistently before collapsing into clamour creeping back into the shadows to plan its next crime.