Critic's Choice

Related Content

• Jim Norris Rockbar benefit tonight at 7 p.m.
  December 15, 2011
• Mile Highlights: This week's concert news, local radio playlists and top album sales
  August 9, 2011
• Mark Armijo takes the cheese out of karaoke at Interstate Kitchen & Bar
  July 7, 2011
• Hemi Cuda heading off into the sunset
  August 11, 2009
• The Westword.com blog shortcut, August 11 edition
  August 11, 2009

More About

• John Wright
• Johnny Hanson
• HEMI Engines

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Music Newsletter: Keep your thumb on the local music scene with music features, additional online music listings and show picks. We'll also send special ticket offers and music promotions available only to our Music Newsletter subscribers.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

When they're not busy logging miles as Nomeansno, an exceptional Victoria, Canada-based prog-punk outfit, founding members Rob and John Wright pound out simple, Ramones-style hockey anthems as their dim-witted alter ego, the Hanson Brothers. Inspired by the knuckle-dragging trio from 1977's Slap Shot (a classic sports satire in which a bankrupt minor-league team resorts to goonery in order to build up attendance), the Wrights and two other middle-aged Canadians celebrate slashing, face-offs and the occasional odd-man rush -- not to mention the cartoonish applications of three-chord guitar crunch. With sporty team uniforms and a crude musical wit, this fraternal order manages to transcend one-off joke-band status (despite indulging in rhymes like "Zamboni"/"spumoni") and pay tribute to the glue-sniffing glory of the late Joey and Dee Dee with honor and distinction. With a voice more scarred than a penalty-box door, frontman Johnny Hanson leads his fellow rink rats through a spirited donnybrook in which heavy metal and bubblegum muck and grind like it's ten-cent-beer night. The Hansons, now on tour in support of My Game, its latest release on Mint Records, will join Hemi Cuda on Tuesday, December 2, at the 15th Street Tavern for a tooth-shattering evening of urban surf and blitzkrieg hops. The gloves are off!