The Got To Get Got Come Together From A Distance
Thursday July 26, 2007 @ 06:30 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

The Got To Get Got

North Of America's Mark Mullane, Michael Catano and Mark Colavecchia have created their musical magnum opus with The Got To Get Got. The bi-coastal pursuit borders on madness, as the majority of the arts collective's members have never met but have still managed to merge musically. Mullane is the sole member who has divided his time in both sides of the band, holding a postal code at some time or another in both Vancouver and Halifax.

"Basically, our biggest goal as a band is to be in the same place at the same time," explains Mullane. "There are quite a few people in my band who I have never met. We write songs separately but release them on the same recording."

Based on an insane amount of trust, the coast-to-coast project creates sounds separately and fuses them together through sending tracks via email. Mullane confesses to only first hearing the closing track ("Mass Murder Weekend") of their Canadian Arts Collective Blues/Huge Zig Zag EP after it was released by Noyes Records.

In addition to the key players of North Of America, the ever-expanding cast of The Got To Get Got includes Chris Vanderlaan (Animal Names), Dan Tompkins (Baby Control), Ron Bates (Memories Attack), Eleanor King (The Just Barelys), Brad Lahead, Jon Dacey, Haley Thomas, Rachael Schwartz, Andrew Glencross, Laura Peek (Laura Peek And The Winning Hearts), Dave Reynolds, Kate Walker, Melissa Gregerson and Tom Hillifer.

"The band name comes from a really old episode of Law And Order, where one of the characters was in the midst of being interrogated and they said, 'He's got to get got,'" explains Mullane. "Basically it's a slang to kill someone.

"Originally we were going to be called The Villains, but Nardwuar, who is like a human encyclopedia, informed me there was already band with that name."

Their hyper yet anthemic musical rotation includes dense instrumentation, solid pop rhythms, choir-like choruses and the soul of true independent music.

By combining the musical population of two oceanside cities, The Got To Get Got have it all covered. There are rumours of a Canadian tour later in the year. The seemingly ambidextrous Mullane, who also has the title of video producer under his belt after working on Arcade Fire and Steven Page clips in the past, is working on a video for "Blood Test."

Perhaps The Got To Get Got's bi-coastal conundrums could be solved by meeting in the middle and melding together somewhere in rural Saskatchewan. Until then, check out portions of the project in these cities:

• July 31 New Glasgow, NS @ North End Rec Centre
• Aug. 3 Sackville, NB @ Sappyfest w/The Constantines and They Shoot Horses Don't They?
• Aug. 25 Charlottetown, PEI @ Baba's Lounge (Close To The Coast Music Festival)
• Aug. 31 Halifax, NS @ The Khyber w/Thundrah!

—Shannon Webb-Campbell