The Tackies want you to stop taking yourself seriously
The loud, quirky and stylishly cool sound of The Tackies feels somewhat like a throwback. The band hones in on a generation of music from many years ago, with a modest yet refined discography sounding like it could be off of the soundtrack to the movie Superbad, or the anthem for reckless, party-going teens in Dazed and Confused. The band oozes with retro sensations with an energetically charged, modernized take on dance-beach-rock and punk and they use this vantage point to give a new energy to some classic rock archetypes.
The overall experience of seeing The Tackies perform live is a little like what one would imagine a 1971 Rolling Stones performance in your bedroom to feel like. Every bit of matter in the room is buzzing, their stage presence is brazen and infectious, their songs are teeming with catchy, stylistic hooks, and their performances are all the more punctuated by the animated swagger of lead vocalist Hans Vivian-Wenzel.
Sound-wise, the comparisons with The Talking Heads or Franz Ferdinand are legitimate, but mostly regarding their energetic sass and ability to paint peppy, awestruck moments throughout their songs. However, the boys are emphatic about the fact that they don’t take keys from anyone; their style and sound are their own. “We don’t try to sound like anybody which is why I love it,” says Tackies drummer Jamie Orser.
“We all come from very different musical backgrounds,” says The Tackies’ blonde and long-haired lead singer, Hans Vivian-Wenzel. “I think we do just try to do our own thing and make our own music. We like to make things happen accidentally I guess.”
Tackies bassist and keyboardist, Galen Cussion adds, “I always tell people we’re alternative rock just because it means so much as a title,” he continues. “I can just say, ‘well we got a little bit of punk [in our sound], we got a little bit of dance rock, we got a little bit of mainstream in us,’ But ultimately, we’re us.”
Based in Ottawa, the 4-piece band met in 2013 during the second year of their music program at Carleton University. “We were all jamming in a room,” says Wenzel. “And some lady came in and said ‘We need a band for a show on Friday’ and we kind of lied an said we were a band. We were like, ‘Yeah we can totally do a set this Friday’ and then we ended up writing a bunch of tunes, covering a few, and ended up booking a studio date two days after the show. We did our show on the Friday and we did our first EP on the Sunday, all within a week.”
Since their organic formation in 2015, The Tackies have developed somewhat of a distinctive style that blends all the best parts of dance-beach-rock, punk, and new wave, into something thrilling. The architecture of The Tackies’ sound often summon the spirit of David Byrne and David Bowie, holding some of the best parts of 1970s and ’80s punk and new wave at its core. The band’s most recent release, Beach Party, incorporates new tropes, including Beach Boys-esque surf rock into their practice. The 5-song EP is a sonic embodiment of hard-edged, passionate intensity that sees the group wholeheartedly embrace their hard rock inclinations. The EP arrives two years on from the band’s first ever release. Their self-titled EP The Tackies, is a ritzy but tamer rendition of Beach Party, both albums selling nuanced versions of dance rock.
The band managed to parlay the less-refined, low-fi soundscape of their first release into something hard-core yet decidedly original, as seen in Beach Party. Sonically, Beach Party is very much an extension of The Tackies’ first release, but their content is seemingly drifting into new directions. “It’s definitely much larger production-wise,” says Wenzel. “We were very picky with where to go to record it and with whom. We produced the album with Jensen Grant and tracked everything pretty much in a day. So I think the energy came across a lot more with the off the floor aspect and the rush of it, compared to tracking each instrument separately like in our first EP.”
There are only 15 minutes of music on The Tackies’ latest release project, but that’s more than enough time for them to make a lasting impression. “Simply put: Party. Beach.” says Cussion, in speaking of the overarching themes that guided the album’s production. Garnering inspiration from their experiences with suburban house parties, the lyrics in Beach Party aren’t overly personal, rather they are unabashedly simple and inclusive, propelling their songs into the realm of universality and relatability.
“It’s relatable to everyone,” says Wenzel. “Everyone’s been to house parties so we just kind of make [these songs] and hope people can either think of a friend or think of themselves in our stories.”
The very spirit of a party is social and celebratory in nature, usually involving some form of entertainment — or the party itself is the entertainment. Such is the case with the The Tackies. Being a band making music about parties, “You can’t just talk about a party you have to be the party,” says Cussion. “And that maybe sounds a bit tacky but it’s true. We enjoy ourselves as a band and it’s because we’ve got exciting, energetic music”. For them, it’s about more than making high-energy music that feels good to rock out to, it’s just as much about epitomizing the music they’re making.
The album’s opening track, “A.F. 108,” debuts with a clean, trilling riff and maintains the band’s pastiche of Franz Ferdinand throughout. In the album’s title track, “Beach Party,” the band pairs together hazy surf rock with punk rock, by-way-of-The Ramones. The two minute ripper is slow-building and raw, accented by the feral, toddling growl, “let’s craaaaaash this,” sang by Wenzel, and the immediate anthemic chant of “Beach Party!” makes you feel comfortably out of your mind with modest composure.
Proper single and album standout “Beer Goggles,” features stop/start changes and what could be the single greatest guitar riff on the entire album. It gleams with the catchy hook: “Who’s that girl? Talk to her!” — rendering the song instantly iconic-feeling.
On “You’re No Party For Me,” Wenzel’s tone evokes Talking Heads’ David Byrne mostly, with his expressive, riddle-like talk-sing mannerism. The power of Tackies guitarist Matthieu Malette’s eclectic, electric guitar tone should also be noted, and his ability to wring as many grooves out of every song.
The most aggressively hard rock song on the album, and fittingly the album closer, “Make Waves,” ironically feels like the album’s spiritual center. The song flits through a sound that is flirtatious and sophisticatedly haunting upon fervently exploding into a pit of loudness and hardcore chord progressions. Every mood and sound the band has ever evoked can be found on this single track, melded together into something greater.
Describing their approach to the song-making process, Cussion elaborates on the growth of the collaboration within the band: “The thing that’s great is how the collaboration has grown between the four of us. There’s a lot more dialogue when it comes to what to keep and what not to keep.”
“I think at this point, the collectivity of the production process is amazing,” Wenzel adds. “I’m very happy with everyone’s contributions. We aren’t afraid, no one takes insult anymore, we’ve all matured pretty well together.”
Despite the brevity of both their EP’s, The Tackies’ unapologetic charisma and potent musical ability still ring strong throughout both bodies of work. The overall message the band wishes to convey to their listeners is simple: “Stop taking yourself so seriously,” says Wenzel. This idea of not taking themselves too seriously is very apparent throughout their music and can be felt in the nonchalant, carefree nature of a lot of their songs. Right now, and well into the future, what The Tackies seem to crave most is progression. “Future plans,” says Wenzel. “Just make this thing happen.” ‘This thing’ being the proverbial “dream”. “It’s fun,” he elaborates. “I’ve never been in a band that goes this far. We’re playing Bluesfest this summer too which is wicked. I’d love to get a label by next year.”
“We get an hour on a stage that looks out into water,” Orser beams. “Our only plans for the future are really just to keep going — I rarely feel so confident in something.”
The Tackies’ musical prowess undoubtedly lies in their ability to get under your skin in an in-your-face way yet maintain purposeful restraint and precision when delivering a song. They espouse a sound that is of today but equally of another era, with a sound that relentlessly brims with vim and vigor: it’s funny, it’s stylish it’s sexy it’s aggressive, it’s universal, it’s inclusive. Ultimately the music of The Tackies is a metaphor for one big party…and everyone’s invited.
This article was originally published & printed in Ottawa Beat Magazine in November 2017.
