Bones Malones – BOOMHAÜS - review!

I have been in the process of starting a Maritime Vinyl radio show on Fredericton’s community radio station 97.9 CHSR fm. While I have been partaking in the training and sitting in on a few live shows I have also been trying to volunteer around the station in any way that I can. One area where they always need help is reviewing albums from the bottomless pile of CD’s that are sent to the station weekly to be considered for on-air. This is a great opportunity that I can’t pass up, opening a new door for me to discover new and old Canadian indie bands and labels. Like a kid in a candy store, I dug through their pile of CDs. I did the forbidden, and chose and album solely on its cover (or is that just books?). Luckily, it worked out for me on the first try as I got a soon to be released album by Bones Malones from Montreal, Quebec called Boomhaüs.

 

 

Now, let’s get the obvious comparison out of the way early. Yes he has the same deep raspy growl singing style as Tom Waits and yes this will prevent some from giving him credit for originality, but fret not! Bones Malones is the real deal. He has the talent and ability to hold his own and be proud. His two prior albums, Barn Recordings (2010) and Calyptrophone (2011), were released independently and Boomhaüs is being released under Hybride Park Musique (I could not find any information on this label and it could very well be his own. If anybody has more information on this label, I would love to hear! You can reach me at [email protected]). This album contains some songs from his prior independent albums as well as a handful of unreleased tracks so it is a great starting point for new fans like me discovering Bones Malones. It is being released this coming Tuesday, May 21^st.

Known as a local favorite in Montreal, Bones has been performing for the past ten years including a few cross Canadian tours. With his deep and raspy voice, rumbling drums that rarely use cymbals, a reverb heavy harmonica, and a saxophone that will purposely hit sour notes just at the right moment, Boomhaus gives us a great dirty blues sound and it works! If this dirty sound alone is not enough to drag you in, his cover of the Littlest Hobo theme Maybe Tomorrow will be sure to make you smile and give the record a chance.

It’s hard to find much information on Bones Malones on the web. All I found was a website that hasn’t been updated in months with a biography tab that says “coming soon”. The mystery is kind of exciting, thinking that I may have stumbled onto something new, but it’s also a shame. I’m still new at CHSR but I hear of people tossing CD’s aside and not giving them a fair shot simply because there is absolutely no information on the artist. In today’s internet heavy world, I hope musicians like Bones Malones will take the time and realize the importance of portraying themselves online. Here’s hoping Bones has his biography and upcoming plans up online soon, but in the meantime I encourage everyone to give this album a shot. It was a pleasant surprise stumbling on a gem like this, I’ll be sure to give this ‘judge an album by its cover’ technique another try.