Tyvek chant
Tyvek mean a lot to me, for a lot of reasons. I honestly can't remember the first time I heard their music, but the Detroit weirdo punk legends were likely introduced to me by my lifelong friend Paul Lawton — an underground music fanatic who I played with in the Ketamines and Century Palm.
Paul has great taste in people, and bands, and he has a longtime personal connection to Tyvek after putting on shows for them in Calgary and Lethbridge. Outside of my good pal Mike Deane in Guelph, I can't think of anyone besides Paul who's a bigger fan of Tyvek, but they're both part of a dedicated fan club that undoubtedly includes me as well.
Tyvek are a perfect punk band, in my opinion, because they've never been "purists" wearing a uniform, chasing a sound, or tailoring themselves to a trend. Like the Minutemen, the Slits, or the Desperate Bicycles before them, Tyvek infuse punk's energy flash and outspoken political motivations into a minimalist aesthetic approach that is completely their own.
Sure, the pillars of their sound are the shouty vocals and skronky guitar riffs of frontman Kevin Boyer — the band's founder who has remained at the core of a constantly rotating cast of band members since the early 2000s —but people come and go, and Tyvek changes with them. To paraphrase one of several cliches about Mark E. Smith and the Fall, Tyvek are always different, always the same.
I've been listening to Tyvek since a few years after the release of their "Honda" single, but I didn't connect with them personally until 2017. At that year's Sled Island festival in Calgary, I played drums with Simply Saucer, while Tyvek were also in town. The band's then-drummer/producer Fred Thomas and I became fast friends when we hopped on the same bus from the airport, soon realizing that we were both Chandra mega-fans, among many other surprising connections.
I had briefly met Kevin Boyer before Sled Island, but that trip introduced me to Tyvek guitarist Shelley Ginkgo and bassist Alex Glendening, both of whom are still in the band. I bopped along to their set at the #1 Legion, then brought Simply Saucer's bassist Kevin Christoff to see Tyvek a second time.
Tyvek's performances were electrifying, likely because of their loose improvisational approach, and I became an even bigger fan. Meeting the members of the band introduced a whole new dimension, and I was determined to become friends with them, by hook or by crook.
Televiper
Two years later, I had the opportunity to travel to Detroit for the first time. The occasion for that magical trip was CHANDRA's performance at Third Man Records in the city's Cass Corridor neighbourhood, where we shared the Blue Stage with Tyvek and Teenanger.
CHANDRA's set was recorded live to tape, and we had the incredible honour of releasing two songs from the performance on a 7." I was a big fan of the White Stripes in high school, so having any kind of tangible connection to Jack is pretty trippy. As corny as I find him, his music, and the uniforms at Third Man to be sometimes, I still have massive amounts of respect and gratitude for all of the great things he's done for the global music community.
Beyond revitalizing both vinyl as a physical format and live records as a viable release, the label has fostered a vibrant community of artists, engineers, and documentarians. I'm a big fan of their excellent Maggot Brain magazine — plus many other awesome initiatives in Detroit, Nashville, and beyond — so I'd like to take this opportunity to share my eternal gratitude to Third Man's Dave Buick and Telephone Explosion's Jon Schouten for connecting us!
After our Third Man show, CHANDRA trekked to Cleveland with Tyvek, then returned to Detroit for a lively club gig at the UFO Factory. I fell in love with the Motor City during those visits, and now consider it one of my very fave places in the U.S., alongside New Orleans, WFMU, and the Dream House.
During the years I played drums with Motorists, we also toured around Ontario and Quebec with Deadbeat Beat, the infectiously catchy and cool queer jangle-pop band fronted by Tyvek's Alex Glendening. Those trips hold some important romantic significance to me as well, but I'll save those stories for another day 💗
Tyvek remain one of my favourite bands, and I highly recommend both of their 2023 album-length releases — Overground and Blunt Instrumentals. They haven't been back to the West Coast of so-called Canada for years, but after starting their 2024 jaunt with an appearance on The Best Show with Tom Scharpling this week, the band's latest reboot is firing on all cylinders.
That's why I'm incredibly excited to be promoting Tyvek's show in Vancouver this Saturday night (May 25th) at Green Auto! They'll be joined by two of the very finest local bands — Big Rig and Megamall — on the venue's outdoor stage, where Cindy Lee performed my favourite live set of 2023.
All relevant show info is included below in the poster by Tom Whalen, and advance tickets can now be purchased at this link. See you in the pit!
