Bury The Bully

Last Friday I stopped by the Groove to see Bury The Bully.
BTB were once known as 1 Short. They were part of the then scene that included Good Time Charlie, Not By Choice, Accident Prone and TOE (Cauterize). They played with Simple Plan and Gob, won Bandwarz and also Jonovision's gig.
The name change has been prompted not so much by a new direction in music but a new direction in the band. The members ( Rich McPherson on vox, Mike Paglia on bass, Steve Parker on geetra and Cala-Daniel Calabrese on kit) have all recently finished the sensible approach to being a rockstar i.e. they have all graduated post secondary studies. Having the diploma under the white belt allows them to now focus on their music which was eased over into the passenger seat for a while.
Parallel to studying the boyz also focused on the craft of songwriting and have now issued forth their debut CD Life Death & Wonder. It has been produced by Pete Lesperance and Mike Turner (Our Lady Peace) and Turner has also taken on the task of manager.
The sound is very much in the 905/ Nu-Radio bracket strong on vocals and with a boombastic undercurrent, check out No Guarantees. BIrdcage is the track that stood out for me and I've marked it as among my top ten for 07. (I had an advance copy of the disc.) Its a quieter approach with cello rubbings.
Touring is the next step and the band have chosen to help bury bullies such as AIDS and breast cancer by designating a portion of album sales to a variety of charities, a different one each month.
They have a couple of gigs lined up already. Among them, EP Taylors with Hello Beautiful, Side Project (nice!) and Deadlight Radio January 18.