Yukon Blonde started all over and got things right.
Photograph by: Handout photo, The Province
Long-haired road warriors get it right after some hiccups
By Stuart Derdeyn, The Province
April 4, 2010

Yukon Blonde is not a northern strain of the legendary Lebanese blonde hash mentioned in hit songs from the psychedelic ’60s. It is the name of a smoking-hot band that plays some pretty trippy pop, though.

Since relocating to Vancouver from its Kelowna home, the trio of Jeff Innes, Brandon Scott and Graham Jones has been converting fans across Canada to its brand of buzz.

Since the February release of its self-titled Nevado Records debut, the long-haired road warriors have been touring relentlessly, hitting major markets such as Boston, New York and Chicago, as well as a stop in Austin, Texas, for South By Southwest.

The guys are getting lots of love everywhere they play, too. Like the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young style harmonizing on “Wind Blows,” the forecast is smooth sailing right on back to its hometown launch of the new disc. Also on the bill is Halifax’s buzzy In-Flight Safety.

“This tour is a lot better than any of the other tours we’ve had,” says Innes. “It’s our fourth time across Canada and the first one where people are showing up at all the shows.

“Before, we used to just book everything ourselves and do all our own promotion and it was pretty suicidal.”

Originally formed in 2005, the band was previously a quintet named Alphababy that released two well-reviewed EPs recorded at the Hive Creative Labs studios in Vancouver. Logging in 300-plus gigs supporting the likes of Women, The Constantines, Ladyhawk and Black Mountain, the name change came after one member departed in 2008. The attention factor rose incrementally after that.

“We got to a point where everything was stagnating and we had all this material that wasn’t coming together,” says Innes. “So we reassessed everything and decided to start from scratch with new songs that were about what we knew we did the best and it seems to really be working out in regards to morale and musical chemistry.”

All it takes to agree with him is a listen to tracks such as “Trivial Fires” or ” Brides Song.” At a time when so much indie rock is characterized by mediocre playing masked behind posturing or so-called lo-fiauthenticity, this band embraces big melodies, cascading choruses and an overall vibe that wouldn’t have been out of place in Southern California in the mid-1970s.

This doesn’t mean that the band can’t kick it up, but you can’t miss the influences of groups such as Big Star, Wings or Fleetwood Mac. The music bounces and makes you want to bounce along with it.

“The project really came together naturally and things have been coming to us that way,” says Innes. “We met Nick [Bernal] from Nevado when we played with his old band Riley and he told us that we should meet up when we played at the Horseshoe in Toronto. We’d just crashed our van, the name change was coming and we were in total disarray and figured he’d run from us. But he was right into everything.”

The luck has held out, too. Which is good, because things do have a habit of going wrong on the road for this hard-travelling unit. For the recent U.S. tour, drummer Jones couldn’t get across the border and labelmate and Fox Jaws member Brandyn Aikins was brought in as a ringer with two hours practice to complete the gigs. Andy Bishop from Red Cedar is filling the bass seat at the moment.

“It’s weird how it always works out,” says Innes. “Knock on wood that it keeps happening that way because we’ll be seeing an awful lot of home, er, the van, in the next few months.”

As to what the heck is in the water in Kelowna these days that leads to so many fine bands coming out of the lake-side town, Innes says he has no idea. But with Ladyhawk, We are the City, Bend Sinister, Sled Dogs and others hailing from the Okanagan burgh, it was a good place to get your chops.

Innes stresses that with no venues or any kind of real local support to speak of, bands have lots of time to practice and operate in the kind of vacuum that often spawns unique approaches to music making.

And the name? A former employer of Scott’s said “Yukon blonde” was a term denoting a denial of grey hair. It stuck.

IN CONCERT

Yukon Blonde
Where: The Biltmore Cabaret, 779 Kingsway St. When: Tuesday night at 8 Tickets: $12 at Red Cat, Scratch and Zulu

sderdeyn@theprovince.com
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Saturday, April 10th in Kelowna at the Habitat w/ In-Flight Safety
$15 (+$1.50 tx & sc) Buy your tickets for this show here
Doors at 8pm