We are Escape Goats. Our lead guitarist plays the drums, two different, but equally unconventional voices sing lead vocals and our guitar player recently learned the names of all five strings on his guitar. No matter what cool bands we aspire to imitate, we never pull it off well enough for anyone to be able to tell what kind of music we’re supposed to be playing. Ideally, we’d just like to play songs that rock, and maybe amuse people a little with our witty lyrics. Really, we amuse people a lot with our midget leaps towards rock and roll greatness and make our parents a little upset with our self-damning and sometimes offensive lyrics.

Second self-released EP featuring very fresh, hot-out-of-the-oven, tracks. Alternate/live/basement versions and obscure one-offs are the order of the day.

When hearing of a band that sets out to create a series of lit-rock-operas, it’s a natural reaction to stand bemused while figuring out how it all gets done. Chapters rather than song titles? Literal plot ranslation? Paper cuts vs. jamming fingers in the CD case? Having re-visited memories of mandatory high school reading (insert harp melody here) as their sweet nectar of inspiration, The Deviance have paired their synergistic styles, impeccable musical talent and flair for the unheard of to create an eponymous album re-interpreting William Golding’s Lord of the Flies.

This release, The Deviance, was born through heavy experimentation and revealed itself to be a sophisticated statue of sound, providing a unique audible journey into the riffs and drifts of this classic novel come to life.

Together since 2003, the band officially started after a last minute gig in Kingston, Ontario saw Steve and Billy (who each have their own solo releases also out this year) perform their take on To Kill a Mocking Bird. When brought back to hometown Hamilton, Ontario, the idea appealed to the others and soon a summer spent jamming turned into a self-described “post-apocolyptic-literary-prog-core” style evolvement and the release of their official pre-debut album, Tribulation (2004), based on John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids. The mind-blowing show evolved from talent showcase to true form and ingenuity, leaving the band and their fans hungry for… more high school English, go figure.

More Deviance:

Put On Your Drinking Cap’s flagship double-dating enigma Country Church vs The Crotch Rockets present: Telescope - Six songs of sweet chaos you wish you recorded on your four-track. Distorted guitars battle harmonious trumpets, wistful poetry resists the relentless attack of dirty ignorant rock and in this lyrical landscape, no one wins except the losers. We’d like to tell you which song to check out first but the whole EP is only fifteen and a half minutes long - you can spare that, can’t you? Better yet, hand over the airwaves to Captain Chad and Laura Lovegood and play the whole thing on your radio show. Their compact rock morphs to fit all formats and will fill your ears with its syrup and sandpaper sensibilities.

Always restless between bands, Chris self-recorded and self-released a cassette under the name Christopher Eckart 100% sometime between the demise of high-school-era Garbagedrink and Zildo Ildo. This is the heart-and-soul of the 4-track bedroom era. Around the same time Chris gave me a tape with additional songs, probably hoping I'd practice and learn how to play them. I don't know if anyone else has copies of these songs so I wanted to make sure they have somewhere to live for posterity. I apologize and simultaneously don't apologize for the sound quality. When I get access to my tapes again I'll try to get better/complete captures of some of the rougher tracks. - Chad

Taking refuge from life as the lead Escape Goat, Christopher wrote and recorded Elegy for Diamond Lake entirely on his own in the time between Independent Rocker and Critically Ashamed. From the pointless lead track ‘The guy who did nothing’ to the morbid final ballad ‘Diamond Lake is Dying’ this introverted and self-obsessed songwriter makes his way through material already thoroughly digested by really good artists like Woody Guthrie, Beck and Tom Waits.

Billy Holmes doesn't just play guitar for The Deviance, he crafts rollicking pop songs soaked in rich atmosphere. A Magic Wombat was entirely self-recorded and produced making it even more incredible. Billy creates warm soothing spaces around finger-picking folk-based songs. Imagine riding double on the bicycle through autumn leaves or floating down snow-covered hills in the sound-dampened Winter.

Sisters can be good for lots of things. Forging notes to teachers for late homework. Last minute style advice when Mom insists pleated pants are perfect. For Hamilton native singer/songwriter/guitarist Billy Holmes, his sister was good for introducing him to playing music in the first place. "She told me that playing guitar would be cool," says Holmes. "It stuck."

Curiousity, exploration, and courage are the driving factors in all of man's greatest achievements - from Columbus setting out to prove that the world was not flat to Kennedy's dream of putting a man on the moon. Vikings, pirates, and imperialists have all attempted, and at times succeeded, at conquering such fears, only at the expense of other man. Astroknaughts, however, look to stretch boundaries, and venture into new areas with the utmost respect for the human condition and try to encapsulate that very essence as they cross new ground.

After a messy website left behind by a hasty retreat from active music-making we've finally re-vamped the site. All of our releases are now available for free and forever.

Enjoy!

Chad & the rest of the Drinking Cap Gang