Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Glam Punk with Dirtbag Republic

Canada’s hottest glam-punk act, Dirtbag Republic, release the second video from their upcoming full-length album, Tear Down Your Idols.  ‘Days Are Gone’ was shot, directed and edited by top Canadian filmmaker Matt Leaf (The Devil You Know, Beer Money, the documentary Backroad Truckers and more) and shot at the famed Rickshaw Theatre in Vancouver, BC and features the band in a mock live performance. 

Days Are Gone’ is an autobiographical look back into frontman Sandy Hazard’s debaucherous junior high school days. “”It’s actually about me and a group of friends I hung out with in junior high and looking back at those days all these years later.” 

Sticking with the punk and roll aesthetic that they championed on their previous single, ‘Wannabes’ as well as the entirety of Tear Down Your Idols and their previous two releases, the Canucks marry Finnish heroes Hanoi Rocks with Cleveland legends Dead Boys and the result is a raucous, energetic fireball of a track. 

The quintet – consisting of lead vocalist Hazard as well as guitarists Mick Wood and Mike Federici, bassist Dave Worden and drummer Ed Nijjer – recorded Tear Down Your Idols at both Hazmat Studios and The Woodshed, and was produced by Sandy Hazard and Mick Wood. 

It was mixed by Tim Neuhaus at EarArt Music and mastered by Harry Hess (Harem Scarem, Danko Jones, Billy Talent) at HBomb Studios. Hazard describes the album as being so low down it’s dragging its ass through the gutter filth. The band has grown exponentially since 2014 and strived to create anthemic songs throughout the record.

As for the album’s title, Hazard tells it like it is: “It comes from a few different angles, actually. People like to discover a band and hang onto them dearly when they are lesser known. If they suddenly blow up and become wildly popular, they get a stigma attached to them and people like to “tear them down” a notch or call them a sell-out. 

“Another instance I’ve noticed is when you see some of the classic bands from the 80s who have had either health problems or are not regularly active live. Some of them sound like their expiration was due long ago and are just trying to milk their legacy.”

Days are Gone’ can be purchased on iTunes and streamed on Spotify – You can watch the video for it right here at RAMzine.

Paul H Birch
Paul H Birch
RAMzine Senior Writer - Writer of fiction, faction and fact, has edited several newsstand magazines. He declares himself a hack for hire but refuses to compromise on the subject of music.

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