From the album Live In Ontario, here is the second music video from the CD: “I Don’t Advocate Drugs”. This video was painstakingly animated, using real Lego bricks, by hand. No AI here folks. Bricks were collected to create these characters including all four members of the band: Max the Axe (lead guitar), Uncle Meat (lead vocals), Mike Mitchell (bass), and Dr. Dave Haslam (drums). Depicting a druggy trip and a stage performance by the band, look for several easter eggs referring to past Max the Axe songs, or even Dr Dave’s well-stated hatred of Transformers.
Kitchener Ontario’s Max the Axe has several studio albums and EPs, plus a “best of”, but never before have they released a live album. Until now!
Recorded in 2006, 2017, and 2018, the album features a spread of Max classics new and old, including favourites like “Scales of Justice” and “Gods On the Radio”. Each song features Eric “Uncle Meat” Litwiller on vocals.
“But Mike,” you ask. “I thought Meat joined the band later than 2006.”
True. While we won’t get into details, if you consider Kiss Alive to be a great album, then you should have no problem with Live In Ontario!
The first six tracks come from a 2006 recording called Heads or Tails, recorded in Etobicoke Ontario. The lineup includes Litwiller, Mike “Max the Axe” Koutis on guitar, Tom Cole on bass, and Jeff Slauenwhite on drums. These tracks are heavy on bottom end. The guitars are pure sludge. Opener “Blood Runs Red” sounds great with Meat singing; a fantastic vocal performance. The familiar “River Grand” follows, and once again the vocals stand out, with Eric adding twists that aren’t on the album versions.
“Labyrinth” has distortion and groove. Max wrings some cool sounds from his axe on this frantic, messy, punky classic. It’s very shambolic, definitely with a punk rock appeal. Back to a more metallic sound on “Immortal” (subtitled “I Feel the Sun”). The vocals are more tentative here, as the song was less familiar when recorded.
“Mexican Standoff” opens with the traditional Mexican sounding guitar lick, and then it’s off to the races with Meat in peak voice. This version lacks the shouted backing vocals, but is cool nonetheless. Max throws some wah-wah on during a noisy interlude. One more song from this gig is the Metallica-like “Space Marine”. It is great to finally have versions of these older songs with Meat singing, tentative as some are.
Onto the next batch of songs from 2016 at “The Farm” in Woodstock Ontario. This was the very first gig with the new (and definitive) lineup: Mike Mitchell on bass and Dr. Dave Haslam on drums. Having never played live before, and with a batch of brand new songs, the gig sounds much as you would expect. It’s energetic and engaged, but good as the songs would come to be, they are not there yet. The set features a number of compositions that would later appear on the Status Electric album, plus “I Don’t Advocate Drugs”, the first version available with Eric on vocals. He cranks it up a couple notches.
A very cool band intro leads into “The Other Side”, a very embryonic version. The parts are all there, but it’s not tight yet. “Loose” is a good word to describe this live album in general. There’s also an extended guitar solo. From there, Eric asks the audience if anyone out there owns a snake? Which means, of course, that “Scales of Justice” is up next. It’s not as crunchy as the album. If anything, maybe it’s a bit more Zeppy. Yet those vocal hooks are there, and Meat is in peak voice. This track needed some work before it was album worthy, but it is fun to hear these early versions, flaws and all.
“This is a song about gambling,” explains Eric. This means the “Next Plane to Vegas” is about to land. It barely hangs together, but it’s over in a flash. Finally, “Gods On the Radio” closes the set with Max’s best song. Again, it’s not quite what it would become on album yet, but the bones are there and the vocal hooks are 100% intact. It doesn’t have the drive of the album version and unfortunately the drums are hard to hear. The guitar solos also haven’t evolved yet.
Finally, “Randy” from 2018 was recorded on a cell phone by your’s truly. While a limited run of one (1) single picture disc was made, this is its first CD release, and in much better sound quality. In terms of performance, this is by far the best track. All the songs were by now well rehearsed by the band, as the album had been completed. The difference between this and the Farm tracks is clear.
It is a shame the whole 2018 Boathouse set was not recorded. That said, you do the best with what you got. In this case we have a 2006 recording of an early band lineup, with the older songs. Then you have the 2017 recording of the definitive lineup, but with songs that they were still honing. So it’s not a perfect situation, but it’s history recorded. Something to remind us that albums don’t come fully formed. They must be worked on diligently, and if anything, Live In Ontario! makes us appreciate Status Electric that much more.
“Randy” on the other hand could be the best version of that song, period.
I’m not posting this with the expectation that anyone will spend an hour and 45 minutes watching me drive home from the cottage. This is for me.
However, if you want to hear a live bootleg of Max the Axe playing their first gig with the current lineup…it’s here. I actually didn’t intend to use it, but I clicked the wrong music folder and it will take hours to re-save. So here you go! The track list for this video is:
MAX THE AXE
Live on the Farm Aug 4 2017
“The Other Side” (Instrumental)
“I Don’t Advocate Drugs”
“River Grand”
“Next Plane to Vegas”
“Uptite Friday Night”
“Randy”
“Scales of Justice”
“Sick of Living”
“Thirsty and Miserable”
“Gods on the Radio”
Trillion Dollar Threats
“Overload”
“Guns To Iran”
“Daddy Was a Murderin’ Man”
“Labyrinth”
“I Don’t Advocate Drugs”
“Belljar Party”
“Blood Runs Red”
“River Grand”
“Uptite Friday Night”
“Immortal”
“Space Marine”
“Mutant Mind”
“More”
“Letter To Yourself”
“Livin’ the Country”
“Mexican Standoff”
RECORD STORE TALES #992: Long Weekend of Lizards, Water, and Max
We rolled in Thursday night and it was so hot that we cranked open all the windows. And that was it with any kind of warmth! The rest of the weekend was cold, windy and required long sleeves! Regardless of the hot and cold reception we received, I watched Brent Jensen and Alex Huard discuss Appetite for Destruction on Thursday Night Record Club outdoors as planned.
The music on the road up was, as always, good! We started with Saigon Kick’s The Lizard, in anticipation of Friday night’s big interview. It was tremendous fun to listen to such a great album, 30 years young, in the car. Upon conclusion we played a tape of Max the Axe’s first gig with the present lineup, recorded August 4 2017. Five years of Meat, Dave, Mitch and Max creating music together. While the years have made them better, the live cassette of the first gig is good enough that we hope it will form the basis of their first live album. The setlist consisted of eight tracks from the then-unrecorded Status Electric album, a Black Flag cover later finalized for Oktoberfest Cheer, and the Max classic “I Don’t Advocate Drugs” with Meat singing lead for the first time.
All Friday and Saturday, music took over the cold front porch. It is hard to type with frozen fingers. I am working on a major Kiss project that I will not reveal yet, but in preparation I played a ton of old Kiss on the porch. Lick It Up, Creatures of the Night, Hotter Than Hell, Paul’s solo album, and plenty more. When the Kiss was concluded, I moved on to Judas Priest (Point of Entry). As always, it was a magical retro soundtrack that acted as a mental time machine. I would have been playing those same albums back in ’87-’88. The big difference being – I was stuck in my room! Now the porch is my room.
One thing for certain. I would have loved it if I had the technology to do stop motion animation in 1987. All I had were my Transformers toys, comic books and imagination. Now I have that plus cameras and computers. I spent several hours working on animation. Let’s face it: It’s just an excuse to play with toys as an adult! There’s nothing wrong with that and it was damn fun, especially with Judas Priest blasting in the background just like they would have in the 80s.
Saturday night we went for some nice walks and I shared stories of the old days. No phones, no cable, no digital music back then. The only way to was to haul all my physical music, and associated players, up to the lake to enjoy. And enjoy we did. Nothing has changed there except convenience and sound quality. Playing the music that I bought at the cottage originally sure brings the memories back. White Lion’s Big Game and Jon Bon Jovi’s Blaze of Glory were two such albums that I spun again in the old original setting. I bought ’em both in Kincardine on cassette. Hanging out with Bob Schipper and picking our favourite new tunes…great memories! I remember putting the sticker for the JBJ cassette on the bottom of the top bunkbed. Jen and I talked a lot, and perhaps there’s a number of stories there to tell in the future.
Three days came and went as quickly as a cool summer breeze. All I have left now are the photos and videos to keep the memories fresh. You can watch them now too, all edited together to the sound of a new remix of “Scales of Justice” by Max the Axe! I think it’s the best cottage video I’ve ever made. What more could you want?
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.
mikeladano.com 