cleopatrick — 'GOOD GRIEF'
It’s finally here. After over a year of waiting, cleopatrick have finally released a new single — and good grief is it good!
2020 had a fairly lucrative start for the Canadian trail blazers. February played host to some jam packed headline UK shows; not to mention incredible slots supporting the legendary Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes — including at a sold out Alexandra Palace — while March promised a span of shows supporting fellow Canadian grandson. April was when the debut album was planned for recording. The Summer, meanwhile, offered new releases, new shows, and some major UK + EU festival appearances, including at Reading + Leeds.
But, to quote front-man (and one half of the brilliant duo), Luke Gruntz, most of that ‘got totally fucked by Covid’. Their momentum, that had propelled them to sold out shows across continents, was gone; instead, they found themselves locked in the very basement that had been their inspiration in the early years.
This, though, proved almost a blessing. It gave the two time to recharge, to take stock. It left them hungrier and angrier than ever, leading to a shake up in their planned debut album as newly written songs were thrust into its gaping jaws. One of these, GOOD GRIEF, has just been released — and it’s perfect. It reflects the memories of a pre-Covid normality — of sweaty mosh pits, of furious head-banging, of sticky, sweltering floors, of hectic nights with the lads — while embodying the desperate need for everything to return. It’s manically chaotic and powerfully unifying in its sheer furious strength.
The song is beautifully simple. It’s a repeated bass line, and a fairly stable drum line. The vocals give the song its identity, and a damn good one at that, but they aren’t exactly poignant; it’s almost just a thought barrage from someone struggling to make themselves heard, with the sheer wall of sound thrown up by the instrumentals resulting in Luke seeming to almost shout over them. But that’s exactly it. For a band that’s motto, as it were, is ‘fuck whatever you think rock is’, the song is undeniably free, and theirs. It’s a song wholly written and produced by just the three guys — cleopatrick, and their close friend Jig Dubé of the equally brilliant Zig Mentality — without any label supervision or intervention. It’s even made in the very basements that gave the bands their raw, infectious energy to begin with. It’s primal in its unpolished savagery, and it’s all the better for it.
The music video, too, is almost breathtaking in its simplicity, with cleopatrick, Ready The Prince and Zig Mentality rocking out in a friend’s empty swimming pool, all documented on a rented camera. It’s a group of guys having fun, and what’s more rock and roll than that?
GOOD GRIEF — and the all caps is very self-evidently necessary — is a blazing symbol for any other bands looking to make it without ‘selling out’, and represents the new chapter in both Cleopatrick and New Rock Mafia. It’s a brilliant song, and I can’t wait to see what’s next!
New rock mafia is a collective and an idea, founded by Canadian bands and close friends cleopatrick, Ready The Prince and Zig Mentality, (formerly Dubé). The trinity are revolutionising the idea of rock music, a scene of doing shows with rock music, full of energy, and the ‘vibe of almost a Hip Hop show.’ It’s something to believe in and to strive for; something to rally behind. Something to set their music apart from any form of dilution in either their sound or their energy. And it’s brilliant.
If you like this, check out the recent releases of Regicide by Ready The Prince and Best Direction by Zig Mentality for more NRM goodness!
Words by James O’Sullivan