Heavy Metalloid Music: The Story of Simply Saucer due November 24

Jesse Locke's Simply Saucer book launches with an Edgar Breau solo performance at Monarch Tavern December 11.

Here's the press release...

Written by Toronto-based music journalist Jesse Locke (Aux, Weird Canada, Chart Attack), Heavy Metalloid Music is the authorized biography of psych/proto-punk legends Simply Saucer. The book not only reveals the compelling history of one of Canada’s most important underground bands but also examines the ongoing legacy of fellow musical outsiders creating escapist fantasies in their hometown of Hamilton, Ontario. This has been documented with extensive interviews, rare photos, and an exclusive download compilation.

As a founding contributor of the online publication Weird Canada, Locke has made a career out of excavating underground sounds. It only makes sense that he has always been drawn to the cult heroes of Hamilton’s subterranean scene, Simply Saucer. Mostly unrecognized in their ’70s heyday, the electro-rockers were unheralded pioneers with a reputation that grows every year. Simply Saucer’s posthumous debut, Cyborgs Revisited, was first released in 1989 by Mole Sound Recordings. It earned further acclaim with a 2003 CD reissue from Sonic Unyon Records, and will be celebrated with a 40th anniversary expanded edition from In The Red in 2017. Locke contributed the liner notes to this release.

Heavy Metalloid Music combines Locke’s trademark sharp writing and investigative style with incredible access to Simply Saucer. This book is a must-have for fans of music biographies and may just turn Simply Saucer into your favourite band you’ve never heard of.

Heavy Metalloid Music will be available at select independent bookstores across Canada, online retailers, as well as the Eternal Cavalier Press website on November 24. You can pre-order a copy right here here.

Alison Lang of Broken Pencil says “Jesse Locke has long been a gifted diviner of Canada’s brilliant and under heard musical weirdos. With Heavy Metalloid Music, he not only exposes the wild and sometimes unbelievable tale of Simply Saucer, but has produced a fascinating snapshot of the economic and cultural climate of Ontario in the ’60s and ’70s. A smart, funny, and totally reverent paean to Hamilton’s Hawkwind.”

Sam Sutherland, author of Perfect Youth: The Birth of Canadian Punk says “Better late than never this book goes a long way towards canonizing one of Canada’s most inventive and influential bands. Providing all the context and history that even the beefiest of liner notes couldn’t dream of, this is an essential tome for anyone with a passion for Hamilton, psychedelics, and under-appreciated genius getting its due.”



The Toronto launch of Heavy Metalloid Music features a solo performance by Simply Saucer mainman Edgar Breau  and a discussion of the book with Jesse Locke and Sam Sutherland at Monarch Tavern (12 Clinton) on Sunday, December 11 from 2pm to 6pm. No cover. Signed copies will be available.

For the Hamilton launch on Saturday December 17, there'll be a full-band performance by Simply Saucer and a discussion of the book with Jesse Locke and Gary Pig Gold at Hammer City Records (228 James St. North, Hamilton) at 7pm. $5 cover. Signed copies will be available.

Rangda w/ Wyrd Visions, Sacred Lamp @ Double Double Land, Tuesday

Rangda's Ben Chasny, Chris Corsano and Richard Bishop have a new album they think you should hear. 

Ever since the trio of Richard Bishop (Sun City Girls), Ben Chasny (Plague Lounge, Badgerlore, August Born, Comets On Fire) and Chris Corsano (Jandek, Sunburned Hand Of The Man, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Björk)  banded together, the 'supergroup' handle has stuck in Rangda's collective craw. We only meant: "gee, what a super group!" But whatever, what's done is done – The Heretic's Bargain takes a nail gun to that idea's coffin, firmly reinforcing Rangda as a band with a shared intuition, instead of the sum of three separate parts.

After years of recording and touring together, Bishop and Chasny's guitar playing has mutated via some kind of lateral gene transfer of their musical DNA, and the rhythms ridden by Rangda feel mutually funded (though Corsano's beat-making is as fine-lined and rawly inspired as ever).

The Heretic's Bargain takes territories that Rangda explored on their first two albums - the abraded fury and free forms off False Flag and the serpentine Rang-dang-doodle songatechture from Formerly Extinct - and evolves them further into a grand unified development in music.

Lots of ground is covered, but it's all part of the same earth. Until you fall off the edge in the end. The Heretic's Bargain is out now on Drag City. Sharing the bill with Rangda at Double Double Land (209 Augusta) tonight will be Wyrd Visions and Sacred Lamp with DJ Dan Vila playing stuff he enjoys between sets while you text with your pals about the unseasonably warm weather. Watch the fab new video for Rangda's The Sin Eaters directed by Elisa Ambrogio (of Magik Markers and The Brain Band infamy) who was not coincidentally in 200 Years and Basalt Fingers with Ben Chasny.