Better Than Noodling: Sam Roberts Band
Over the last few years our neighbors to the North have been exporting some of the most buzzed about bands around. So much has been written about these acts, that I won’t waste your time rattling off a laundry list of them. There is one band though that has been greatly overlooked among the art-rock and indie-pop that we’ve been eating up like plates full of poutine (and coincidently happen to be rather huge in their native land) - Sam Roberts Band.
Despite the rather mundane moniker the band has been nominated for multiple Juno awards - Canada’ version of the Grammy’s - for their last two albums; raking in a trifecta of them in 2004 for Artist, Album and Rock Album of the year for their major label debut We Were Born In A Flame. While I would normally avoid most things that resemble a radio-friendly mainstream rock band, it’s really hard to not like these guys. So don’t be a hoser and read on eh…
While watching an episode of Subterranean some years back I was sucked in by a video for a huge, hook friendly rock song by a bunch of scraggly looking guys playing outside on a stark, frigid night with the lead singer rockin’ a Canadian tuxedo. Part of their appeal may have had something to do with the fact they sort of looked like the Kings Of Leon, who I had just begun my infatuation with, but it was really hard to not dig their jangly song. Check out the video for Where Have All The Good People Gone…
Sure they may not have the hippest sound, but how can you argue with something that would sound so good blasting in your car as you’re cruising around?
The live clips floating around the YouTubes are dubious at best, so let’s go with The Gate, off Chemical City - which debuted at number three on the Canadian charts in ‘06. Obviously the words “Huge In Canada” doesn’t equate to notoriety in the States….
While they play large venues in their home country, Sam Roberts Band are still relative unknowns in our country. Be sure to see their big rock show in small clubs while you still can.
- Further Listening: Sam Roberts Band - 07/05/2007 - Buffalo, NY
They played on Thursday at Bonnaroo last year. It was a good time. Of course I’ve already seen them about a million times, being Canadian (okay, maybe more like 10 times).
I was kind of bummed that I missed them at Bonnaroo, we pulled in later then we though that night. I did get a chance to catch them this summer in Prospect Park and really dug them live.
Yo. Sam Roberts rocks. Nice article. It’s always great to see some recognition across the boarder. Just a note–the album is titled We Were Born in a Flame, not We Were Born in Flames. Check them out though; you don’t know what you’re missing.
[...] Roberts Band, a group that Some Dude featured in his Better Than Noodling column, topped the Canadian charts this week with their newly released album. Love at the End of the World [...]
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