American Flamewhip
American Flamewhip set to drop hot debut at the Albert
Don Beat

“The Quiffs are the reason why we chose Jared Weiss to record our album,” affirms American Flamewhip songwriter/drummer Chris (Mama) Bauer (ex of Stagmummer, VaGiants) in the dimly lit Cavern after knocking out three super-sweaty sets behind his kit with The Perpetrators.

Months back Mama told me at Times Change(d) that he joined the Perps because he dug them and wanted to “keep busy”

Behind the skins he’s a lifer, a skilled practitioner of rawk in a “jazz tradition.”

Mama says he loves the energy that Albert sound guy Weiss captured on The Quiffs’ debut disc, and Mama also says he’s the chief songwriter on the new American Flamewhip album, which will see release Aug. 24 on the locally ambitious Transistor 66 Label.

“This is a return to writing for me. I didn’t do a whole lot of writing in the VaGiants,” he says after informing yers Beatley what some of the new numbers are. The only trax I can read from my creepy scrawled notes is Kick It and the title track — so check them out for yourself when the disc drops.

“The album’s called Finger Tight and it’s dedicated to The Quiffs — my favourite band in Winnipeg,” Mama says.

(S-Bleat Last-Gig-Announcement Department: Those Quiffs are playing another one of their final shows at the Albert in late September. It should be one of their last — perhaps — for at least a year.)

Now back to the F’n Whip, whose current roster includes vocalist/rhythm guitarist J-Rod (ex of Off the Wagon, VaGiants), and D-Mitch (ex-Blue/New Meanies) on guitar. Guitarist Rob Pachol (Windups, Telepathic Butterflies, ex-Rowdymen) was in the band early on.

Hip Whip percussionist Mama B. is the groop’s soop-R-vet of the alternative/avant rawk scene in Winnipeg, and he’s a player with impeccable taste. Heck, he was one of but five Manitobans at the Rocket From the Tombs reunion show at The Entry in Minneapolis three years back. Stagmummer used to cover a Rocket number — thee updated Pere Ubu version — called Life Stinks. Bauer puts his drumsticks where his fists are, and he has a unique musical vision that a few of U musical Streetbeaters might try to pick up on.

How could it hurt when it whips like this?

“I think that lively and creative music — no matter what the genre is, as long as it’s interesting — needs to be creatively focused and entertaining with a sense of experimentation. That’s what we’re trying to do in American Flamewhip,” he says.

See American Flamewhip at their CD-release bash at the Royal Albert Arms Hotel on Aug. 24 with gig partners Wife, Z-Rays, and The Gorgon, featuring members of The Quiffs and The Rockdoras.

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