After a four-year break between releases, Tusks returns, reconfigured, with Total Entertainment, out on Oct. 23 via Static Clang. You can stream the whole shebang here until Oct. 30.
ListenTotal Entertainment by Tusks
Streaming until Oct. 30
Tracklist
“The old version of Tusks were all wonderful guys but after our first EP came out, we really struggled to finish songs,” explains Tusks figurehead, Samir Khan. “We took a little bit of a break from it and I had these little fragments of songs. I was thinking I didn’t have it in me to finish them.”
Following a period of writer’s block and both health and personal issues that derailed his interest in music, Khan was re-energized by drummer Steven McKay of Bruce Peninsula and guitarist Jordan Howard of the Skeletones Four. The two join Khan and original Tusks member Shaw-Han Liem, of I Am Robot and Proud. Khan, Howard and Liem also play together in the Jim Guthrie Band, and Khan clearly values the camaraderie.
Khan describes the experience of making Total Entertainment with these dudes as therapeutic and inspiring, and he hopes that listeners find time to delve into its adventurously dynamic, high-level pop sophistication, which isn’t always easy to pin down.
“There’s a philosophy behind it,” he says. “I’d like people to hear a cool record collection in there. There’s a fair amount of consideration and thought put into the lyrics and the arrangements. We’re not particularly satisfied with things so there’s a lot of tinkering. Some things might be feedback-drenched, others might be a pop, new wave thing. We just write what we want to, which makes it a bit hard for me to confidently say what we do. Because I don’t really know.”
To hear the full conversation, you have two options. You can download an MP3 if you right-click and “Save target as.” Or to stream it, press play.
Pick up Total Entertainment by Tusks now. See the band live at the eBar in Guelph on Oct. 24, the Piston in Toronto on Nov. 1, Raw Sugar Cafe in Ottawa on Nov. 2 and at Casa del Popolo in Montreal on Nov. 3.
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