Stegosaurus are a band from New Brunswick (Saint John to be exact) in Canada. I haven’t been to New Brunswick, I’ve actually only been to two Canadian provinces, but I imagine New Brunswick is something like country Victoria in the grand scheme of Canadian things. Y’know, a storied and quaint region where not much goes on except wood chopping, fishing and presumably ice hockey. In fact, the most exciting thing is probably the Bay of Fundy, a natural wonder which has one of the highest tides in the world. Exhilarating stuff, eh?
From the Great White North comes Stegosaurus, whose understated style compliments their DIY post-punk aesthetic.
Now the geography lesson is over we can get talking aboot the band. Masked Marvel is the name of their latest EP, four tracks long; the ‘Masked Marvel’ seems to be the bloke on the cover, dressed as a wrestler and posing awkwardly in his mum’s basement. The cover reveals what this band’s all aboot. They’re chasing a homemade aesthetic, drawing in childhood nostalgia where things were much simpler.
In other words, the band plays a style combining indie rock and punk, two genres that love the whole cheap homemade schtick. Or perhaps they’re a punk band that sounds indie just because that’s the zeitgeist. Such hard hitting philosophical questions aren’t my forte, but describing how a band sounds…well, that isn’t my forte either. But I can tell you that Stegosaurus sounds raw and garagey; in fact Masked Marvel sounds like it was recorded in an empty pub by someone ootside the pub. From the ootset, Stegosaurus sounds like just another band, but only a few listens in you can begin to hear various eclecticisms come in.
In bits and pieces, there’s some grungey rubs, some post-rock charged emotional instrumentation, and Skeleton Song (from their self-titled first EP) begins as a demonic doom song. In fact, their better bits are when they dash in other genres to their indie rock foundation. Masked Marvel definitely has shadows of hooks – almost quite there – which to people who like indie more than me, may come across as fully fleshed-oot and rather enjoyable.
I’m a bit disappointed though. Masked Marvel actually differs from their first EP a bit, as it follows a more conventional indie sound, whereas their first EP is more experimental. The phrase “been there, done that” was invented for the indie rock genre. Point in hand being that these guys sound pretty similar to Brisbane’s very own Crop Circles, who I covered before. This is despite 16,000 km and 15 years distancing them.
Anyway though, indie seems pretty popular so I guess I’m in the wrong. If you like indie, or if you like punk, or if you’re a parochial New Brunswickian, check Stegosaurus oot.
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