Now that the new Max the Axe EP, Oktoberfest Cheer, has been released, I am happy to present to you their new never-before-heard original “Pygmy Blowdart”. Lead singer Eric Litwiller stressed to me (more than once) “I did not write the lyrics”.
Video footage was taken the last weekend of August, but held on to until I could use some fresh new Max music. Check out “Pygmy Blowdart” and let Max and Meat know what you think of this new tune in the comments below!
Available at Encore Records.
Nothing major, but watch where you’re going bud.
Music: “Pygmy Blowdart” by Max the Axe from the new Oktoberfest Cheer EP.
MAX THE AXE – Oktoberfest Cheer (2021 EP)
Pandemics suck, but last year Max the Axe began working on a remedy. Three new songs — one cover, two originals — and a new EP called Oktoberfest Cheer! With this year’s Bavarian festival just around the corner, Max is ready to rock your beerhallen. It’s the second release with the same lineup: Mike Koutis (Max the Axe) – lead guitar, Eric Litwiller (Uncle Meat) – lead vocals, Mike Mitchell – lead bass and Dr. Dave Haslam — lead drums. It’s a much more punk rock affair than the last album Status Electric. Perhaps it’s even a concept record about intoxication!
Opening with the original “Pygmy Blow Dart”, Max sounds like Queens of the Stone Age jonesing for a smoke. Litwiller is in full Homme mode with the groove of the Axe behind him. “I think I’m going downtown, looking for some dope.” Ah, the quaint pre-legalization setting! By the end, the band is in a singalong, looking for some smoke. “Round and round, and round and round…” Hey guys…check the local dispensary! There’s one on every corner now. Great bass solo in the middle, right before Max rips on the six string. Fans of the last album will love it.
The Black Flag cover “Thirsty and Miserable” is outstanding, full-on punkfied Max. Definitely some influence from Lemmy’s version of “Thirsty and Miserable” too. This track kicks and Litwiller sounds legit. They could play it two or three times in a row and you wouldn’t get bored.
Finally the punk-inflected EP ends with the title track “Oktoberfest Cheer!”, a song destined to be a seasonal hit. Feather in cap, beer on tap…October is here so raise up that beer! You can picture the festhallen going mad for this October anthem. This is the clear hit, frantic and haggard as it may be. Adorned with festive accordion, it’s punk rock unlike any other. You can play it year after year…or in August. Don’t crush my smokes, don’t spill my beer!
The great thing about this EP is that it’s under 10 minutes in true punk fashion and perfect for repeat plays.
Kitchener knows.
5/5 stars
RECORD STORE TALES #927: Red Sun, Red Meat, Ready to Rock
When the city traffic finally abated and we were on our way, only then did we begin to enjoy the music.
We had an historic soundtrack for both the trips to and from the lake. On Thursday night for the drive up we enjoyed:
2021’s musical selections are strong. Lee Aaron proved she has the album necessary for a good-time summer, and Polychuck played well in the car. ZZ Top was obviously spun in tribute to the late great Dusty Hill. When Afterburner concluded, we played “I Got the Six”, and “Sharp Dressed Man”.
On the Sunday drive home, Jen slept while I got nostalgic for the year 1989 with:
My feelings this time out were that Dr. Feelgood is tremendously overrated while Pump is not. Pump is solid and probably the last time Aerosmith nailed it front to back.
On the front deck this weekend, I spun a lot of music. Most notably Guns N’ Roses’ new song “Absurd” about six times in a row. I also listened to a new album by group out of Halifax called War & Sin that you will be hearing about. The album is called The War Within and it hits all the bases, like good heavy metal with diverse influences. The singer reminds me of Blaze Bayley, but in a good way. You can check out the album on iTunes.
I had a couple good fires this weekend, and the soundtrack of Kiss went well in that setting. A cottage weekend without Kiss just isn’t right for my soul. This weekend I chose Dressed to Kill and Destroyer. I brought the laptop over to the fireplace and let Kiss do the rest.
It was a solid three day weekend anchored by music, fire, food and swimming. On Saturday I believe I went for five swims total. The last was a sunset swim and we got some pretty cool video footage that you can now enjoy with me.
From the infuriating city rat race to the open roads of the country, a beautiful drive is to be viewed here, all to the tune of the classic “Scales of Justice” by Max the Axe.
Best rock band in Kitchener, best sunsets in the world. Enjoy.
It’s a long weekend in Canada and I chose to spend my Saturday going through video footage on my hard drive. Every Sausagefest I take a lot of video and most of it never gets used. What I discovered was that I had a lot of fun footage that just needed to find a home.
At the same time, I have been making videos for Max the Axe songs, so I can use them on the LeBrain Train. I like having music videos to play so we can take breaks, and I need things that won’t set off copyright strikes. All of this footage I’m discovering is helping me kill two birds with one stone. Or, as Ricky might say, get two birds stoned at once.
“Gods On the Radio” is the first one I made, for the Friday May 14th show. It’s Max’s favourite. It doesn’t have any previously unseen footage in it; it is just a video I made to play that night. All the footage was simply edited down from the Sausagestfest 2019 video. Dave Haslam approved of the editing and that inspired me to make more.
I didn’t want to keep recycling old footage that everybody has seen, so I started exploring the hard drive for “Next Plane to Vegas”, which was debuted on the Friday May 21 episode of the LeBrain Train.
One of my favourite Max songs is “Overload” from the EP of the same name. Problem is: it’s short. Too short for me to play on the show and still get enough of a break to make a coffee. So I had to extend it. I found some cool footage of Uncle Meat singing and drumming “New Orleans Is Sinking” in 2014, accompanied by Max on backing vocals. This served as a good intro to extend the video. Bonus: rare footage of Max playing bass. 60-70% of the footage has never been seen before.
Another goodie but shortie is “I Don’t Advocate Drugs” from Trillion Dollar Threats. Mickey Straight sang this one with Max at the Boat House, so although Ted Moore is credited on the album, I used a little bit of Mickey footage that I had a few times in this clip. The video is about 60-70% previously unseen video.
BONUS!
I took the most footage at Sausagefest 2015, where this video was performed. We had multiple live bands jamming and I got video of a lot of it. Unfortunately, the audio on most of it was completely unusable due to a problem with the camera. Also, very few songs were captured in full, thanks to a rapidly draining battery. I did, however, capture this unique version of “Seven Nation Army” by the White Stripes, played improvisationally, on the fly. Though wobbly at times, the vocal is solid, the bass outstanding, and the take on it is unique. The soloing in the long outro is smokin’. I’m glad I recorded the whole thing. If you stay tuned to the end, you’ll hear Bucky complaining that he forgot the snare drum. That was true. “Seven Nation Army” and every other song that weekend was performed without a snare! (It sounds like they were about to go into “Iron Man” at the very end.)
I just felt like saying “thank you”. And a few other things. Enjoy this unofficial episode of the LeBrain Train.
RECORD STORE TALES #896: Plans
Plans. Gotta make ’em, but sometimes nothing goes according to them.
Winter is over. We made it through. I have Seasonal Affective Disorder (appropriately acronymed as SAD), so winter is always a hard time. It feels good to be on the other side of it, and not have to put on layers of warmth just to take out the garbage.
Last fall I made some plans to make it through the winter. I completed some, and I left others unstarted. That’s just the way the cookie crumbles, and what was winter 2020/21 but a shitty stale crumbled up cookie?
As we hunkered in for the winter, I gave myself a couple projects to keep me occupied. One was continuing with the VHS Archives. I accomplished very little on this. I did not play any video tapes at all this year, and only uploaded videos I already had on my hard drive. This season I only posted six videos.
I also wanted to teach myself Photoshop this winter. I didn’t get anything done there. As it turns out, I didn’t really have to, thanks to the generosity of friends. Good ol’ T-Bone has donated his time and made plenty of great artwork for the LeBrain Train live show. Plus our artist friend Saige did some great work too. I’m so lucky that we have built such an amazing community of artists and writers together.
Speaking of the live show, I had one plan that I thought would be easy, but never came to be. As a proud Canadian boy, I wanted to show some of our American friends (especially the one in Hawaii!) what a Canadian winter looks like. I planned on doing a live show outdoors in a snow storm. I thought that would be an absolute hoot. The weather never really aligned with a good live stream day. It was kind of a mild winter compared to others.
Looking back at the goals from the fall, there are two I did accomplish. One was to make a dashcam video of a shitty winter drive, set to the music of Max the Axe. I did that with “Magnum P.I.” and it is a great example of a typical winter commute. The second mission accomplished was to keep on live streaming. I still haven’t missed a week — knock wood.
I couldn’t have done it without my friends. You know who you are. Chances are if you’re reading this, you’re one of ’em.
We promised you tunes, and we brought the tunes! With a special interview with the guy himself, kinda a big deal, Max the Axe! It was not an uptite Thursday night at all. This loosey-goosey interview covers Max’s discography and history as an independent musician for over three decades. Find out about his origins, see rare photographs, and watch the band play live! We even get to look at the cover art and title of the new EP. (Added bonus: running commentary by drummer Dr. Dave.)
Straight outta lockdown, Max the Axe jammed together again for the first time in about a year. The lockdown session was filmed and tonight we played for you three tracks:
For a band who hadn’t practised in a year, filmed on a crummy cell phone that apparently only does vertical video, these were some fine tracks. Enjoy the show! Rock on, Max the Axe!
LATER TODAY
Don’t forget – the Easter special streams April 2 at 7:00 PM E.S.T. It’s pure nostalgia as we pull from a grab bag of great memories. Don’t miss it!
*Two more unaired songs were played during the session – “Uptite Friday Night” and the new “Oktoberfest Cheer”.
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