Cuff The Duke
I got to hear Oshawa’s Cuff The Duke for the first time at my hometown’s OFF Festival last year. In this city of bureaucrats and sprawling suburbs, it’s hard to get events where the music offerings are adventurous and lacking the variety show format. Like a starving man in a deli, I was ready to swallow whatever the OFF chucked at us. When Cuff The Duke reached the stage at the smallish Pub Saint Alexandre, it blew my mind. With one band, one evening, I was reassured that all was well with Canadian rock. Not since the heyday of the great Halifax “Seattle of the North” era had I heard homegrown talent with such passion, talent, and inspiration.
It came in a really odd package too: Cuff The Duke churns out spacey rock-country fusion which hits you right in the middle class. The 2005 self-titled release showcases their harmonious arrangements and sonic roots with songs like the toe-tapping Take My Money And Run, or the supernal anthem It’s Over. The authenticity of the band’s art is the hook and their craftsmanship is the clincher; it couldn’t be more sound or moving.
The MP3s are tracks from their first album, Life Stories for Minimum Wage (released in 2002), which includes the quintessential Ballad of a Lonely Construction Worker.
Blackheart
The Difference Between Us
Ballad of a Lonely Construction Worker
Mike’s note: this is a re-post from an other blog of mine with a tiny edit which deserved a place here on Gluemeat.