Breakout 2007: Geronimo

06/16/09 10:08am

Hometown: Regina, SK

Sound:
Geronimo take the sonic strangeness from Modest Mouse and rough it up a little in the mosh pit, making for a quirky little marriage between indie handclaps and punk rock guitars. It's weird, fast and good.

Why?
Sure, Regina doesn't have the indie rock cult of, say, Montreal, but the oft-neglected prairie city has produced some exciting buzz bands over the past few years.

Funnily enough, two of the most stirring Saskatchewan exports have been comprised of half of Geronimo's lineup.

After the Regina-based, angular art-rock band Despistado called it quits in 2005, ex-members Leif Thorseth and Dagan Harding didn't completely abandon the idea of making music. After a few months apart, the pair rekindled their musical relationship and, along with Garret Matheis and Henry Brass, were able to get Geronimo moving. Armed with their debut EP, Enlightenment In A Small Town, the quartet have already snagged gigs with indie buzz acts Tapes ‘N' Tapes and Minus The Bear.

"We've been really lucky," Harding says. "I mean, our third show was with Ted Leo And The Pharmacists. We've been extremely lucky."

To an outsider, luck might seem essential for the indie band trying to break out of Regina. But that's the thing: Geronimo aren't trying to break out of Regina. Without a high-pressure music industry present in their home city, Hagan feels that the band are better able to concentrate on music.

"I've played in this scene for seven years, so I've gone through a couple perspectives," Harding says. "Regina's full of as many good bands as Toronto or Vancouver, but they're just not motivated. It's hard to have that John K. Sampson ambition to make it at home. But I think there's nothing wrong with choosing to stay home and choosing a life of creativity. I think I'm still making music because I'm still in Regina."

Although the immediate plans for the band don't include ditching their hometown, the quartet are excited to play some gigs outside of western Canada. Geronimo plan to make a six-week cross-country trek in May, their first jaunt across Canada. The band will spend the early part of the year writing feverishly.

"We'll be writing from now until May. After that, we don't know. That's as far as we've planned," Harding says cryptically. Keep your ear out.

Official site: www.myspace.com/geronimonow

This feature is from the February 2007 issue of Chart Magazine. To purchase the issue, go to the Chart Shop.