The Highway Kind Say Wah?

Last December, the Highway Kind climbed onstage at the second annual Keithmas benefit and destroyed everyone with their version of "Memo from Turner."

They were cheating a little. Nobody else had the bright idea of doing the song because Keith Richards -- whose birthday is celebrated at the annual multi-band bash -- had bugger all to do with it. Glimmer Twins songwriting credit aside, the version of "Memo from Turner" that we all know and love is a Mick Jagger solo effort from the film Performance, with Ry Cooder on slide guitar and a couple of mysterious session guys on drums and bass.

In any event, it was a beautiful moment fraught with danger. "Memo from Turner" isn't the kind of cover that calls for a creative reinterpretation; you either honour the sacred groove of the song or you get off the fucking stage, and the local three-piece elected, with ecstatic results, to do the former. They nailed it.

Then again, of course they did. The Highway Kind is the latest project from Matt Camirand, who knows about groove, and taste, and who always has something interesting going on, most recently lending the monstrous bottom-end to Black Mountain (he's the "cute one") or working out his jones for gothic Americana with Blood Meridian.

In a call to The Tyee, Camirand says he imagined The Highway Kind "as an extension of Blood Meridian, but a little more upbeat and rocking," or the kind of thing, if you like, that makes you think, "Hmm, I like country rock." These things never work out the way you plan, of course. Once he brought Cristin Heck (bass) and Mark Karpinksi (drums) on board, things took a turn for the evil. Their debut 7" is two sides of heavy blues, black-lit for people who'd take Altamont over Woodstock. It's freedom rock after the sun's gone down -- forever!

If that description doesn't make the sound of The Highway Kind magically appear in your head (and I can't imagine it did), then you can take the easy way out and just listen to "Young and Strong" and "Tail Dragger" at their bandcamp.

Or you could opt for Karpinski's fabulously lo-fi promo for "Young and Strong" here -- something Camirand describes as "an early '90s, college rock video that you'd see on "City Limits."

The video captures the band's larger aesthetic pretty beautifully, marrying chintzy solarized effects with the analog grit of the recording and the sound of Camirand's beloved '60s Japanese fuzz-wah pedal.

"I think a lot of guitar players look at the wah and they think it's something you gotta be good to play with," he states. "But I think it's actually the opposite; I think it makes shittier guitar players sound better."

Whatever -- that's what a tail dragger would say.

The Highway Kind plays at Pat's Pub in Vancouver on Friday (July 6) with Bleeding Horse Express and Broken Hands.