Free Music

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.

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."

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.

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.

We have developed a fresh follow-up to May's Independent Rocker by some serious research and development in the Put On Your Drinking Cap Studio. With technology sprouting around the studio and creativity nurtured by the smells and brain-sensations of Southern Ontario summer we made an album for ourselves and our fans. Critically Ashamed brings well-seasoned as well as freshly made songs to our listeners, documenting the past and present of our lives inside and outside Escape Goats. Of course you will hear the classic rock songs we continue to write and play but aren't known for, and you will hear at least one sodden love song. But, you will also be allowed to witness unashamed excursions into guitarland, with only moody keyboards and associative lyrics for company.

Escape Goats say what everyone is thinking with the release of their first full-length hi-fi album Independent Rocker. Highly anticipated by long-time Hamilton fans, Independent Rocker will let Canada know what original rock music was, is and should be.

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.

"Seriously, though, someone had described you guys as "jazz rock" and I shuddered - in my experience too many jazz players have had the feel trained right out of them, and rock needs feel; that or their jazz chops aren't so hot. You guys had neither problem and you're really inventive with your songs & arrangements. Hope to catch you again." - Jamie Tennant, Program Director 93.3 CFMU

One September day in 1989, Martin Eckart (Tenor Sax) and Simon Gill (drums) found themselves in the same kindergarten class. Of course, at the time they weren't aware that they would eventually join forces to help create a breed of intense psychedelic funk-rock, they were more concerned with which of them would get first pick of toys and obtain the coveted red fire engine.

As the story goes, Robbie Holmes began his musical career alongside The Sweet Homewreckers' lead singer Cam Malcolm in the nascent local band Langston Heights, but it was a chance encounter away from the local stages that would influence him and this project.

"I think the mysterious nature just grew out of the circumstances the music lies under," explains Robbie Holmes on the origins of one of the new artists on Drinking Cap by the name of Leonard Gold. "I mean, I found a man in the woods playing music, a total recluse, poised to make music for the sheer joy of it and not the recognition. I took that music with his permission, fell in love with it and decided, hey, someone else should hear this."

Paxton has been recording and writing songs since 2003 and released this EP of five songs in 2006. His musical influences reads like a Who's Who of great contemporary songwriters: Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Band, Johnny Cash, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Mississippi John Hurt, Townes Van Zandt and many more. Matt has played many shows across the Canadian landscape, sharing bills with Blackie & The Rodeo Kings, Tom Wilson, Jason Collett, Peter Elkas, Elliott Brood, Apostle of Hustle and Cuff The Duke among others.

The Ragged Old Fox is a ragged old traveling troubadour who plays a ragged old 5 string guitar. He grew up writing songs and poetry in a ragged old box near the railway tracks and now lives underneath the Old Man's porch.

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You’re going to want to know Hamilton-native Steven McKay; he’s the requisite friend, embodying wit, wry, quirk, smirk and honest, authentic soul-shining celebrity. At least, that’s what his requisite friends think. A classically-trained percussionist, McKay found a warm seat in the generally welcoming arena of “sunshine prog-folk.”

This singer/songwriter is only recently hip to the notion of writing songs. Having spent most of his growth behind a drum set, it was a stint in his university band ‘FUN!’ followed by an equal turn in The Sprigs that brought the pen to paper for McKay. This new turn brought him into co-founding The Deviance, a literary rock outfit dedicated to bringing high school classics to the stage as well as an astounding solo venture.

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:

If it's true that there’s a tendency for young bands to wear their influences on their sleeves, The Sweet Homewreckers evidently can't decide which shirt to throw on. Formed in the small university town of Peterborough, ON, The Sweet Homewreckers are a six-piece rock and roll outfit. They're tight enough to show the contours, but loose enough to let you move around. They take the basic two guitars, bass and drums, and throw in some horns for added appeal. As for the contents of their closet, the ensemble is quite eclectic. Their music has been described as harkening to the days of "Halifax East-coast pop", with a "long awaited nod to early Beulah" included therein, and "a fine mix of soft pop influences with hints of sweet 60s styles".

Zildo Ildo was a ramshackle project that eventually settled down into a core line-up of Chris Eckart, Hugo Fischer, Jesse Lewis, Chad Ingles and Mike Keire though the band also had many friends drop by to play and record. Inspired by good friendship and that unruly period between the end of highschool and the pre-planning stages of adulthood Zildo Ildo flourished briefly.

Country music, fishing, and cottage-trips were the settings for songwriting and recording. Drinking and ensuing destruction were often the background for practices. Falling asleep on church lawns at 3:00AM. Alien Attack. It was pretty carefree.

Zildo Ildo played often for a couple of years around 1999 but never officially released any albums, or even finished recording for that matter. It didn't really matter if we ever got anything down because we were having so much fun on the way.