Last time Canadian rock quartet Ladyhawk made an album, it had to record the material twice. The first take was a low-budget rush job cut live off the floor in an attempt to recreate the band’s frenetic performing style. Unhappy with the end product, the four musicians then headed back to the studio and re-recorded their eponymous debut from scratch, a decision that pleased both lead guitarist Darcy Hancock and his steadily growing fan base.
“[Jagjaguwar Records] said they’d put it out the way it was, but we weren’t really happy with it the first time around,” Hancock says. “It was hard to do again, but I think it was worth it.”
After undergoing such a painful process for the band's debut LP, the Kelowna, B.C. natives simply forewent the songwriting and editing stages altogether for their next release, a vinyl-only 12-inch due out May 22. Recorded on hiatus between tours in early 2006, the six-song mini-album is a far cry from the labor of love their painstakingly produced debut became. Instead, Ladyhawk’s forthcoming effort (or lack thereof) is the product of four friends, two days in the studio and one all-important bag of mushrooms.
“[The drugs] just gave us a lot of focus," Hancock recalls. "I think we worked really fast and lost track of time. We’d think the day must have been over, and we’d still have like six hours left.”
Once jokingly titled The Mushroom Sessions, the record was at the last minute nonchalantly re-dubbed Fight For Anarchy, a name that fits its songs’ raw and unedited sound. On opening track “War,” available for listen here, every stray guitar strum and every background noise isn’t just audible—it’s loud and clear, front and center.
“Nothing was even written with each other before we went in,” Hancock explains. “We’d just go in and be like ‘this is a song’ and just do guitar and drums and then take it from there and see how we could make it interesting.”
Such a casual attitude by no means stops with the recording process either. Ladyhawk hits the road tomorrow for its longest tour to date, sharing the stage with the likes of Saturday Looks Good To Me, Tapes N’ Tapes and fellow Canucks The Constantines. With 48 dates covering every corner of the U.S. and Canada, exhaustion is likely and monotony is pretty much guaranteed, but Hancock shrugs his shoulders at both, ready for the journey ahead.
“We’ve never done this much touring,” he says. “We’re kind of excited, but I imagine we’ll get burned out by the end.”
Fight For Anarchy tracklist:
1. War
2. If You Run
3. Amber Jam
4. Boy You Got Another Thing Coming
5. Red Teeth
6. You Ran
Tour dates include:
March
3 - Vancouver, British Columbia @ Plaza Club
4 - Seattle, Wash. @ Chop Suey
5 - Portland, Ore. @ Holocene
7 - San Francisco, Calif. @ Hotel Utah Saloon
8 - Los Angeles, Calif. @ Spaceland
9 - Phoenix, Ariz. @ Modified Arts
10 - Albuquerque, N.M. @ Launch Pad
12 - Dallas, Texas @ Ellum: Onstage
13 - Houston, Texas @ Proletariat
15 - Austin, Texas @ Jagjaguwar Showcase @ Mohawk
17 - Austin, Texas @ Chunklet Magazine SXSW Party @ Red Seven
19 - Birmingham, Ala. @ Bottletree
20 - Greensboro, N.C. @ Two Art Chicks
21 - Washington, D.C. @ The Red And The Black
22 - New York, N.Y. @ Cake Shop
24 - Buffalo, N.Y. @ Soundlab
26 - Bloomington, Ind. @ Landlocked Music
27 - Chicago, Ill. @ Abbey Pub
28 - Iowa City, Iowa @ Picador
31 - Toronto, Ontario @ Lee's Palace
April
2 - Madison, Wis. @ High Noon Saloon
3 - Winnipeg, Manitoba @ Pyramid Cabaret
4 - Regina, Saskatchewan @ The Exchange
5 - Saskatoon, Saskatchewan @ Louis' Pub
6 - Edmonton, Alberta @ The Starlite Room
7 - Calgary, Alberta @ The Hi-Fi Club
8 - Calgary, Alberta @ The Hi-Fi Club
9 - Canmore, Alberta @ Canmore Hotel
12 - Vancouver, British Columbia @ The Plaza Club
13 - Victoria, British Columbia @ Sugar Nightclub
14 - Tofino, British Columbia @ The Legion
May
2 - San Francisco, Calif. @ Great American Music Hall
4 - Portland, Ore. @ Dante’s
5 - Seattle, Wash. @ Neumo’s
6 - Vancouver, British Columbia @ Plaza Club
9 - Denver, Colo. @ Bluebird Theatre
10 - Omaha, Neb. @ Sokol Underground
11 - Des Moines, Iowa @ Vaudeville Mews
12 - Chicago, Ill. @ The Abbey Pub
14 - Ottawa, Ontario @ Barrymore’s
15 - Montreal, Quebec @ Le National
16 - Toronto, Ontario @ Lee’s Palace
17 - Buffalo, N.Y. @ Mohawk Place
18 - New York, N.Y. @ Irving Plaza
19 - Boston, Mass. @ Paradise Rock Club
22 - Cleveland, Ohio @ Grog Shop
23 - Columbus, Ohio @ The Basement
24 - Newport, Ky. @ Southgate House
Related Links:
Ladyhawk’s homepage
Ladyhawk on MySpace
Jagjaguwar Records