MOCK MEDIA - RAT BASTARD - MAC’S RECORD LABEL

British Columbia-based art-rock quartet Mock Media - Evan Aasen (guitars/voice), Garnet Aronyk Muhammad (bass/voice), Austin Boylan (guitars/voice), and Bennett Smith (drums) – share Rat Bastard, their new album on Mac’s Record Label. The LP features the stand out singles “Straight Line, ” the anthemic “Mock City Rock” and the LP’s title track, which Paste Magazine designated their “Song of the Week,” calling it “...chock full of the stickiest phrases, ones that arrive hammed-up with a Rick Springfield-meets-The Clash, ‘80s power pop sheen.”

Speaking on the album, Aasen says “We’re constantly trying to channel that spiritual energy, and it’s hard, especially in recordings. We feel like we’ve achieved it live before, but we want to fully lose ourselves and lock in as a group. As for any specific message: we really just care about each other, and about making music together. At the end of the day, it’s us singing and us playing together… and that’s all we really know how to do.”

Despite Rat Bastard’s more superabundant sonic left turns, Mock Media insist they’re not doing anything radically different from previous incarnations of the band. In North Okanagan’s rocky valley, if one shouts loud enough, one reckons that at some point, you stop guessing whether you’re receiving the lonely echo returning or some higher voice of the divine. What Mock Media are building, or why it should be located in such a remote and desolate place, no one could say.