Inukshuk – Prime Minister Hoser

 

Last time we heard from this northern band of rawkers (you can read all about it RIGHT HERE), they were making a poorly disguised (as a tour) long distance run for the border. Details were as sketchy as the band members about what happened when they finally reached the border, but the truth of what went down has come to light – plainly, they were denied entry to the United States. No one was hurt in the exchanges that followed, though prides were wounded and a lot of “well, what the fuck do we do now?s” and “what the fuck is a passport?” were tossed around.

What the band did was steal a boombox from someone’s back deck (with a note saying they’d bring it back when they were done with it), found a truckstop bathroom “for those sweet cement wall acoustics,” per bassist Gordon Murphy, and recorded their second album in one go of less than an hour onto a C60 recordable cassette.

Prime Minister Hoser is 9 tracks of invective about border guards and why crossing borders is dumb anyway, lack of booze and clean showers, and the government in general because, as drummer Gord Tremblay poignantly pointed out, “it’s what folks do in coffee shops, so we figured it was good enough for our tape…” The tape also contains one cover tune, of Spinal Tap’s Break Like The Wind. When asked why that song was chosen for the Inukshuk treatment, lead singer Gord Smith said, “Why the fuck not do that one, eh?” Good point, Gord.

The band performs to their usual level of, er, proficiency on this effort. Gord Tremblay remains on drums, and his farts remain cataclysmic. Gordon Murphy is still slappin’ da bass, and says he gave up painting houses for following his dream of becoming the new sunscreen application technician for the Swedish Bikini Team. Good luck, Gordon! Gord Brown had to re-learn how to tune his guitar before recording began, but he was fine once the band helped him and then propped him on his feet. Gordie Gagnon squeezed out some incendiary solos over this rough melange of rawk, though he admits he misses his missus and the kids and so was chanelling his longing for them into his playing. And Gord Smith has added some gravel to his voice. Actual gravel. It’s fascinating.

The band doesn’t know how many copies of this cassette album will be available to their adoring fan(s), because they returned the cassette player to its rightful owner, as promised. “It was a sweet jobbie with the dual decks, eh,” said Gordie Gagnon. “I never had one so nice as that, I’m gonna miss it fer sure, but we couldn’t keep it, ya know. We aren’t animals, eh.” As such, they are unable to bootleg their own album until they can find another dual cassette deck player.

Will the world ever hear Inukshuk’s opus about their travails at the border? No one knows, not even the band. And what’s next for Inukshuk? They took off on this reporter when I made a trip to the bathroom (leaving me with the tab for the coffees), so we can only imagine when we will next hear from them. There can be no doubt, though, that this is not the end of Inukshuk.