Billy Talent: I

“Milk carton mug-shot baby missing since 1983… 20 years of dirty needles, rain drops running through my veins!” – “Standing in the Rain”

Billy Talent is a post-hardcore, punk-rockish band from Mississauga, Ontario Canada. They started in the early 90′s as the group Pezz but got into legal trouble and changed their name to Billy Talent in 2001.. when they had their breakthrough mainstream success (in Canada at least). Their second album and first with the new band name is self-titled (or sometimes considered ’1 or ‘I’ as they have a trilogy of self-titled albums). I’ve seen these guys live in concert twice and they sound awesome in concert. I saw them in a smaller club venue for their first Billy Talent tour and I saw them at the Air Canada Center in Toronto for their third album’s (Billy Talent ‘II’) tour. Both times were amazing!

The second time I saw them live they started with a white sheet over the stage and the silhouettes of them playing this album’s first track, “This Is How it Goes”. The play the intro chords and then the sheet dropped when the song gets heavy.. it was pretty sweet. This song was actually written about the band’s drummer, Aaron Solowoniuk, who suffers from Multiple Sclerosis.

If anybody has ever heard the group Billy Talent, you might recognize the song “Try Honesty”; it was the band’s first single from this album and was released in late 2003. The video shows the band playing in an abandoned psych wards. This song was also featured on Tiger Woods 2004′s soundtrack, for any golf fans! haha. “The Ex” is a song just about that.. an ex girlfriend, go figure. It was the band’s second single and it had a pretty sweet video.. was the band playing the song live in a really dingy, tiny club.. but I love their live work so it was a sick video.

“River Below” may be the most recognizable song on this album and it gained the most critical acclaim compared to any other song from this release. The video also featured more airtime than any other single on the record. For anybody that’s watched the Canadian channel Much Music, this video was labeled #7 on the “Top 50 Controversial Videos” and #15 on MuchMusic’s “100 Best Videos”.  “Standing in the Rain” is one of my favourite songs on this album.. all I can think of when I hear this song is flyin’ down the 403 in the old Mustang and cranking this song.. STANDING IN THE RAIINNNN… haha sorry, had to be there.

I’m not into heavier rock or metal but “Cut The Curtains” is where I would draw the line for “heavier” stuff. This song is by no means “heavy” haha but it is one of the more metal songs on this album in my opinion.. however for somebody that is only very selectively interested in this genre and this type of rock.. this song sounds very good. The band released the song “Nothing to Lose” as a single and it tells the story of a young character who commits suicide before graduating high school. Every time this song was played on the radio on Canadian stations, the band donated $1000 to the Canadian organization “Kids Help Phone” for support for teen depression and suicide.

This album has a lot of good tracks on it and I love supporting good, Canadian music. I’ve included a few Youtube videos of some of their work from this record, so I hope anybody that is interested checks them out. If anybody read my Alexisonfire review from a few weeks ago – Billy Talent is a similar, good, Canadian band!

Cheers!

Official Billy Talent Community – http://www.billytalent.com
Billy Talent on Myspace – http://www.myspace.com/billytalent