Artist Spotlights Artist Spotlight - Billy Talent | Artist Spotlight - Billy Talent |
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| Written by Art Michalski | |
| Monday, 13 November 2006 | |
 Back in 2003, you couldn’t go anywhere on alternative radio, and not eventually hear Billy Talent’s “Try Honestly”. The song took over the airwaves, and the band received it’s first taste of U.S. exposure.
These Canadians went away for a little while, and now are poised to finish what they started with “Try Honestly”, with their recently released second album, simply titled “Billy Talent II”. In an interesting note, the band recorded their new album in The Warehouse, owned by Bryan Adams. I'm just glad that Adams’ musical influence didn’t rub off on the band. Hailing from the mecca of Canadian music, Toronto, Billy Talent cut their teeth playing gigs in the Toronto area for nearly a decade before getting signed to Atlantic Records. The band has mixed their love of old school punk rock with politically fueled alternative, to create their sound. Led by singer Ben Kowalewicz, the band is making sure that their voices are heard on their sophmore outing. Kowalewicz lends his unique voice to rockers such as the first single “Devil in a Midnight Mass”, which is a hard rocker in the vein of Papa Roach, among others. “Worker Bees” is a call for all office drones to rise up and escape the misery of their everyday life. “Pins and Needles” is the type of jam that alternative radio salivates for and should be showing up on your airwaves soon. Guitarist Ian D’Sa provides entertaining riffs on tracks “Fallen Leaves” and “Sympathy”. “Billy Talent II” proves to be a steady improvement on their debut album, and should attract new fans as well. The band is a virtual powerhouse in their native Canada, where their first major album went triple platinum, and the band walked away with numerous awards on the Juno Awards (Canada’s version of the Grammys) and the MuchMusic Awards show. They played Lollapalooza in ’05, and have had numerous stints on the Warped Tour, including a three week run this past summer. They are now touring with Chicago punk rock upstarts Rise Against and the old-school emo band Thursday in what will be a highly entertaining triple bill. The tour started on October 23rd and runs through Thanksgiving. Make sure you make it to the show early, and catch what will be one of the best things you have heard out of Canada in a long time. Check out Billy Talent with Rise Against and Thursday at the State Theatre on Wednesday, November 15th. If you have anything to say... email me at arthatesyou@detroitbuzz.com |
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