Never Trouble Trouble Until Trouble Troubles You

Never Trouble Trouble Until Trouble Troubles You
Studio album by SNFU
Released November 2013
Recorded January–March 2013
Genre Punk rock
Length 40:31
Label Cruzar Media
Producer SNFU & Steve Loree
SNFU chronology
In the Meantime and In Between Time
(2004)		 Never Trouble Trouble Until Trouble Troubles You
(2013)

Never Trouble Trouble Until Trouble Troubles You is the eighth studio album by Vancouver, British Columbia punk rock band SNFU. The album was released in 2013 through Cruzar Media. It marks their first album in nine years, and first output recorded without co-founding guitarist Marc Belke.[1]

Background and recording

In 2007, vocalist Ken Chinn reformed SNFU after a two-year hiatus with former bassist Ken Fleming now playing guitar. This was the first SNFU lineup not to feature founding guitarist and principle songwriter Marc Belke. The group spent its first four reformed years performing old material from the band's previous eras only.

The group's rhythm section had solidified around drummer Jon Card and bassist Denis Nowoselski by 2010, when second guitarist Sean Colig was also added. The following year, they were dealt several blows. Chinn contracted a severe case of pneumonia, forcing the band to cancel several tour dates.[2] Rehearsing further became complicated when Fleming emigrated to Japan, and Nowoselski relocated to the Northwest Territories.[2]

Despite these setbacks, the group remained active. Late in 2011, Fleming, Colig, and Card recorded a five-song demo in Adam Payne's recording studio in Vancouver.[2] This was their first new material since reforming in 2007 and first studio recording since the In the Meantime and In Between Time album of 2004.

The band led the When Pigs Fly tour in 2012 in support of Chris Walter's SNFU biography What No One Else Wanted to Say. Nowoselski departed and was replaced by Kerry Cyr for the tour's final two shows. The band continued to circulate the unfinished demo among record executives. They received interest from Dan Lefrancois and his Cruzar Media imprint, who had helped them complete the demo by arranging to have Chinn's vocal tracks added in July.[3] Liking the demo and Fleming's additional new material, Cruzar agreed to release a new full-length album, the band's eighth. Steve Loree, a former member of the bands Deadbeat Backbone, Jr. Gone Wild, and Greyhound Tragedy, was enlisted to record and produce the album via his mobile studio Crabapple Downs.[4]

Organizing the recording sessions proved to be logistically difficult due to Fleming's relocation and Chinn's chronic health problems.[2][5] With only short period of time to rehearse and record, the band spent January 2013 rehearsing extensively and recording with Loree under an old bakery in East Vancouver.[6] They played a 30th anniversary show in Vancouver on February 1 before Fleming returned to Japan.[7] Chinn's vocals were recorded in the basement of the DV8 venue in Edmonton the following month.[7] Colig and guest backup vocalist Dylan Bastard also recorded backup and harmony vocal tracks at DV8 in March.

Release

The release of Never Trouble Trouble Until Trouble Troubles You was originally scheduled for May 2013, but it was delayed by several months. The band shot a music video for "Voodoo Doll Collector" with guitarist Tobias Chobotuck standing in for Fleming, who was unable to make the trip from Japan.

With Fleming, the band toured Canada in July. They embarked on the band's first tour of Japan in September and toured Canada again in October, with drummer Junior Kittlitz replacing the ailing Card for these tours.[8][9] The final performance from this era of the band came on October 31. This lineup featured Kittlitz, and did not feature Fleming, who had returned to Japan.[10]

The album was released in November. When the band finally toured behind the finished record in 2014, only Chinn remained from the lineup which had appeared on the recording.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Punknews.org[11]
Vue Weekly [12]

Despite mild controversy surrounding the exclusion of founding member Belke, the album was generally received well by audiences and critics. Many praised the album's authenticity, characterized by SNFU biographer Chris Walter as "not some pale SNFU imitation but the real deal in almost every respect."[9] Walter describes the reviews of the album as "uniformly good."[13] Punknews.org reviewer teacherman wrote that while "SNFU’s musicianship is strong, tight, and heavy on the riffs" and "[t]he guitar solos are harmonious," the "real treat [...] is Chi Pig’s longevity and the fact that he carries on with a desire to bare the punk rock torch into his 50’s [sic], in spite of numerous reported obstacles in his own life."[11]

Nonetheless, some critics published tepid reviews. Bryan Birtles, of Edmonton's Vue Weekly, gave the album two out of five stars and assessed it as merely "OK". Birtles described the album as "disconnected", and worried that Chinn's abilities had deteriorated.[12]

Track listing

No. TitleLyricsMusic Length
1. "Voodoo Doll Collector"  Ken ChinnKen Fleming 2:39
2. "Buy My Own Hand"  ChinnFleming 3:35
3. "Morley"  ChinnSean Colig 4:06
4. "Arm in a Sling"  ChinnColig 2:16
5. "Ashes"  ChinnFleming 4:08
6. "Speed Weenie"  ChinnColig, Fleming 3:01
7. "New Rose"  Brian JamesJames 2:34
8. "Donald the Dead"  ChinnColig, Fleming 3:58
9. "Crude Crude City"  Jon CardCard, Colig 4:03
10. "Fall Down Go Boom"  ChinnFleming, Colig 3:26
11. "Un Low Hung"  ChinnFleming, Kerry Cyr 3:06
12. "No Never"  ChinnColig 3:50

Musicians

SNFU
Guests

References

  1. ↑ "SNFU to Return with Never Trouble Trouble Until Trouble Troubles You". Exclaim.ca. May 23, 2013. Retrieved October 18, 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Chris Walter, What No One Else Wanted to Say. Vancouver: GFY Press, 2014, pg. 253.
  3. ↑ Walter 256
  4. ↑ Walter 258
  5. ↑ "SNFU : BeatRoute Magazine". BeatRoute Magazine. July 3, 2013. Retrieved December 20, 2015.
  6. ↑ Walter 259
  7. 1 2 Walter 260
  8. ↑ "SNFU's comeback tour blows through Shibuya". Tokyo Weekender. September 30, 2013. Retrieved October 18, 2013.
  9. 1 2 Walter 265
  10. ↑ Walter 264
  11. 1 2 "SNFU - Never Trouble Trouble Until Trouble Troubles You". Punknews.org. January 8, 2015. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
  12. 1 2 "Never Trouble Trouble Until Trouble Troubles You - Vue Weekly". Vue Weekly. October 10, 2013. Retrieved December 30, 2015.
  13. ↑ Walter 266
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