Playing in a grindcore band has its benefits and drawbacks. Just ask Head Hits Concrete vocalist Mike Alexander who, after a long hiatus, has returned with drummer Brad Skibinsky and guitarist Darcy Bunio to embark on a Canadian tour of houses, basements, and dingy dive bars. And while their shows are filled with chaos, feedback, and so much inspiration, Alexander says explaining the band’s sound to family and friends is always tricky.
“I guess we start off saying, ‘It’s heavier than Metallica, so it’s heavier than Slayer, so it’s kind of Napalm Death-ish,’ and by that time we’ve usually lost the person we’re trying to describe it to,” says Alexander from his Winnipeg home. “But, just think fast, think heavy, and try to imagine what that might be like, I guess.”
Started in the late ’90s by Alexander after the dissolution of one of Canada’s best-named and harshest sounding bands ever, Swallowing Shit, Head Hits Concrete went on a five-year tear of live shows and recordings.
The band released a discography CD entitled They Kingdom Come Undone (featuring over 50 songs) in 2004 and curled up in a corner somewhere, nursing their wounds. Last year, they resurfaced, minus a bass player.
According to Alexander, the old songs had “retained themselves” and as soon the three men started jamming again, everything fell back into place.
“We said, ‘We should probably do this again. It’s probably about time,’” he says. “We found that we could devote a bit of time to writing new stuff and it felt like we didn’t really lose a beat, and we didn’t feel like one of those shitty old ’90s bands that no one remembers or gives a hell about anymore.”
A sturdy dude who often looks like he’s bursting blood vessels when the band plays their quick, loud bursts of controlled chaos live, Alexander says that once people get to know him and his motivations for writing music, they are often taken aback by the band’s progressive, positive lyrics. Head Hits Concrete songs deal with everything from colonialism in Canada to transphobia.
“Yeah, when people get to know me, and it takes time,” he says, “even with my co-workers who have heard about me being in bands, they are surprised at how I’m in a band that talks about political things.”
Vehemently independent, the band has always booked their own tours and been involved with releasing their own records. A 7” vinyl release called Hollowed Out Human Husk was released last year on Mercy of Slumber Records and the band is prepping a four-song cassette release for their upcoming tour. Small, sweaty house shows are still the predominant venues on tour for Head Hits Concrete.
“We’ve done the living room or basement shows where I’ve felt like I’ve almost lost teeth or been launched over the drum kit and those are pretty hectic shows, for sure. They are an awful lot of fun and we definitely can’t complain about them, but there’s a sense of, ‘Should there be more room for people so I don’t fucking end up bleeding all over the place with a microphone shoved down my throat?’” explains Alexander.
And while he says big clubs aren’t ever going to be in the band’s normal routine, Alexander’s not sure why the band gravitates towards playing in claustrophobia-inducing spaces and sleeping on people’s floors. It’s seems to be something ingrained in them since day one.
“I don’t know,” he ponders. “It’s either I’m terrified of change or I quite enjoy doing this kind of thing.”
Head Hits Concrete
Wednesday, March 26
$5-$10, The Mirancave (details at Black Raven Records)
headhitsconcrete.bandcamp.com