What they said then:
"Rare is the band that can captivate both punk rock kids and folk music fans. Rare still is a band that can do this by playing a ferocious combination of traditional blues, Appalachian folk, and ragged gospel. But The Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir does just that.
"Formed from the ashes of several wildly divergent Calgary bands, the Agnostics began creating their strange brew just three years ago. Featuring Judd Palmer on vocals, banjo, and harmonica and Vladimir Sobolewski on stand-up bass (both of whom were members of the now defunct Great Uncle Bull), guitarist/vocalist Bob Keelaghan (formerly of the Puritans), and drummer Jay Woolley (a man who has played with so many bands it would take this entire program to list them all), the group claims they were 'founded in an effort to forge a kind of gospel for the unbeliever.' To judge by their performances, they have succeeded and then some."
What they say now:
"There's a buzz on the Agnostics. Did they expect it? Hell, no. After all, the band was thrown together on a week's notice for their inaugural gig. St. Hubert, their 2003 debut recording, was self-financed, self-produced, and self-released. Yet it cracked numerous Canadian campus radio top 20 play lists, got them invited to roots music festivals, was spotlighted on several CBC radio shows, garnered them an appearance on Much Music despite that they didnt fit the demographic audiences tastes, was nominated for a Western Canadian Music Award, and, in the end, gave them the incentive to record a follow-up, Fighting and Onions.
"The Delta blues and mountain music still kicks something fierce, just like the people who invented them, but the styles are warped in a way that bucks at conservative traditionalism or quaint stereotypes. Slide guitar and banjo collide with a clanging drum kit and weighty stand-up bass. Devils music? Sure. If the Agnostics believed in that mumbo-jumbo. Maybe. It's two years since St. Hubert. They're two years better as a band."
Buy Fighting and Onions at itunes.com (click here)
Buy St. Hubert at itunes.com (click here)
OR
Order the hard copies (click here)
Here be video someone shot at our recent headlining performance in Belfast. Thank you fan!
And now the big wind-up from a more intimate show at the Open House Festival in Belfast, 2006. It's especially notable for Seasick Steve shaking his arse in front of the camera.
