The Spades Are The Voice Of Rock 'N' Roll Reason

10/16/06 7:30pm

by Jared Story (CHARTattack)

Rock 'n' roll has heavy shoulders. It's always taking the blame for felonious teenage activities, so it's about damn time that this scapegoat music genre is noticed for its redeeming qualities. For five young Dutch miscreants, rock 'n' roll was the ticket to becoming upstanding (well, at least decent) citizens.

"It started out as being a bunch of juvenile delinquent kids in the gutters of Eindhoven Rock City Holland," says Denvis Wankalot, frontman for The Spades. "There was this project where they wanted the kids to get into music and out of criminal activities. Although we fall back occasionally, we recently got our heads together to poop out a couple of albums."

The Spades dropped their Learnin' The Hard Way full-length in 2002 amongst a couple of shorter dirty ass rock 'n' roll efforts. The musical defecation continues with a second full-length, Above The Law, Below The Belt, which is currently in the works. After spreading their rock 'n' roll waste all over eastern Canada, The Spades will play at the CMJ Music Marathon in New York City. There, they plan to play the part of shit disturbers, farting all over the trendy artsy bands.

"We are the voice of reason," Wankalot says. "We play CMJ this year only to kick those students."I don't even know how you call that, prog rock? We are there to make the difference and to make CMJ credible."

It often seems like Europeans are better at the dirty and dangerous boogie-woogie rock than the Americans who invented it. Wankalot says it's all due to America's culture of fear.

"America keeps on suppressing the man," Wankalot says. "I think because of how the law and parent respond on children and how they grow up, I think that has a big impact. I've been arrested in the States four times for walking down the street. They just saw somebody that wasn't right, you know. I think fear keeps them kids down."

For their run across eastern Canada, The Spades are hooking up with well-known Toronto rockers Maximum RNR. The two bands, who together recently released a split seven-inch for Relapse Records, should provide rocking good times. And judging by Wankalot's description of how they met, some debaucherous good times, too.

"We came across those guys chatting on a dodgy sexual internet group," Wankalot says. "It's pretty funny.

"I typed in 'Asian squirting teenagers' and that's how we came across Maximum RNR. We stayed in contact ever since."

Has the repulsive pornography reference got you interested?

Here are The Spades' and Maximum RNR's Canadian tour dates:
Oct. 16 Quebec City, QC @ L'Arlequin
Oct. 18 Fredericton, NB @ Bugaboo Creek
Oct. 19 Saint John, NB @ Elwood's
Oct. 20 Halifax, NS @ The Attic (Halifax Pop Explosion)
Oct. 21 Moncton, NB @ Manhattan
Oct. 22 Rivieres Du Loup, QC @ Le Vol De Nuit
Oct. 23 St. Hyacinthe, QC @ Le Trash
Oct. 24 Fonthill, ON @ basement show
Oct. 25 Oshawa, ON @ The Dungeon
Oct. 26 Peterborough, ON @ Trasheteria
Oct. 27 Hamilton, ON @ Club Absinthe
Oct. 28 Kitchener, ON @ Circus Room