Brant Bjork's Canned Heat

09/10/08 4:01pm

by Keith Carman (CHARTattack)

Despite his slacker persona, solo artist Brant Bjork is a hard worker. He's constantly getting ahead of himself, as his latest Punk Rock Guilt full-length proves.

The album was recorded in 2005 while Bjork was taking a short break from recording another disc. Punk Rock Guilt's eight songs are a step back to Bjork's desert rock beginnings when he kept time for acts like Fu Manchu and Kyuss. The album sat in the can for three years before he was finally able to give it proper attention.

Punk Rock Guilt is packed with solid, fuzzed-out, spacey jams that are thick on downbeats and droning guitars. It confirms that while Bjork has been delving into other musical styles over the past decade, he's still a rocker at heart.

ChartAttack: You're revered as a rather prolific musician with constant output. It seems strange that you would let an album sit unreleased for three years.
Brant Bjork: I prefer to get a record recorded and released as soon as possible, or sit on it for ages. I don't like that middle ground. Where I was back then, I was in the middle of working hard on my 2005 trip, wherever I was musically and artistically. This recording was spur-of-the-moment. I had to get something off my chest and revisit some older vibes. We had fun with it and I deliberately went out of my way around Christmas of that time, blew it out and went back to work doing my thing. I was in the middle of a double record with a lot of improvised, trippy things going on... on stage, record and in my personal life, too. I didn't feel the need to release it any time soon.

After sitting on it for so long, did you feel the need to revise anything or did you just stick with how it came out at the time?
Sometimes it can go both ways. I probably got more comfortable with this record as time went on. I didn't alter anything. What you hear is exactly how it turned out, mixes and all. But there are times when you leave an album for a while and go back, wanting to change everything.

As a solo musician, you have that freedom of control. Does that ever become a burden, having no one to play devil's advocate with your ideas?
That's probably been my biggest challenge. I ran so quickly in one direction with so much freedom since becoming a solo artist, it's been difficult for me to have a touchstone or mentor to bounce ideas off. Even then it's hard. My partner Cale Bunker has been my label partner for eight years. He's the closest thing because he's not a musician. He's just a listener, and it's cool because he's not a rocker, so to speak. He's more into punk and Jamaican music, so he keeps me grounded. I can tell when I'm floating away a little too high. He'll be like, "That song's cool, man, but I kinda like this rock song over here..."

Speaking of Bunker, Punk Rock Guilt is on your guys' label, Low Desert Punk. However, you two had a previous label, Duna, that closed down last year because you said you couldn't give it the attention it deserved. Can you explain how things have changed?
Yeah, we started Duna around 2000, but put it to rest last year. About six months later, we finally got our shit together and decided to start over again as Low Desert Punk. It's nothing different... just a new chapter with us starting over.

How important is it for you to play the songs from Punk Rock Guilt live?
I'll be playing songs from it live, but probably not the majority of the record, though. Because of my extensive catalogue, I didn't want to focus on the new record. I don't look at myself like that. I have nothing against careers like that, but I'm not one to just go out and play the new record as if it's the masterpiece. I have a lot of records and I respect 'em all, so I want to play a little off of all of 'em live.