HOT LIVE GUYS

From the coldest corner in Canada... heat up the night with Hot Live Guys... volatile incendiary rawk n roll guaranteed to set off the sprinkler system... eveyone gonna get wet on the night...
For fans of the Woo... the Tricky Woo... for neighbours of the Mark Inside who miss the punky garage teenage heads now that they're put up in a real actual studio. For Whatwavers who can't wait for the next Robots show.. Hot Live Guys are Rawkstars! Nothing supernova about these superstars... they know the Rawk is not in the eyeliner but in the eye patches.
Hot Live Guys will bludgeon you, elbow smash your backbone and finish with a Glasgow kiss to the bridge of your nose.
Hot Live Guys will pulverise the Velvet Elvis tomorrow... its an early show. The owner doesn't want the neighbourhood woken up... fat chance they'll even get to bed... - Will McGuirk

Hot Live Guys 2
One should have guessed that when the drummer for Hot Live Guys tripped down to his kilt-like boxers... this was not going to be your father's rock n roll show. Guitarist Joe Warkentin who earlier in his normal mode told me the band had played to just the barstaff in both Timmins and Thunder Bay were really up for a show that actaully had an audience. Yeah about 8... and not too many from the New Collective either... (Thought I'd point that out).
However these Winnipeg rawkers were so on a cheer went up for the soundcheck... it was such a mutha of a soundwave that hit. While boxer boy belted at his drums, bassist Kurt Wittmier hid under his hair and gregarious guitar and lead vox Julian Bargen charmed his way in... it was the scandalous assault of Joe... seven foot in a Testament T and with enough chord to hang us all he banged, stomped, slid and roared out the front door to the dismay of the sound-police, he played on the bar, on the bar stools, out in the kitchen, in the lap of a local Robot, at the feet of the Robot's gal, he spun right round a couple of Lower Back Tattis and stormed up the stairs all the time grinding at that guitar... hell bent on sawing it right through... it smoked.
The Rawk is supposed to be uncomfortable... its supposed to say the unspeakable... give voice beyond the polite... give vent to the frustrations... its supposed to make you wary and ill at ease... its asks questions... its screams and roars and rages in its quest to unseat... the seasoned rawk vets that were in house were all left gasping, eyeing the exits. The big question was were we ever even gonna get out alive.
The line was drawn in the floorboards of the Elvis. Burnt... branded.
The Rawk is not dead... its just went home for a while... to Winnipeg. The place of its birth.
Hope its passes this way again soon.

- Will McGuirk

Local hooligans Hot Live Guys to release split vinyl-only release with Ian Blurton's C'mon

Jared Story


Local label Transistor 66 and co-op record store/print shop War on Music are set to release a split seven-inch single featuring Peg City rawkers Hot Live Guys and T-Dot heavyweights C'mon.

That's right, vinyl. Oh, how the tables have turned.

Ironically, with the digital audio player threatening the compact disc's very existence, it's been the age-old technology of the gramophone record that's enjoying a bit of resurgence.

"Putting something out on vinyl means you had to put some time and effort into realizing a record, as opposed to 'we recorded some songs and we put them on the Internet because it takes four minutes with MySpace,'" says HLG guitarist Joe Warkentin, 25. "So I'm really excited about pressing seven-inches. I think digital is a really good way to promote bands, but as far as releases go, I think vinyl's where it's at."

If you think about it, vinyl really does kick the CD's ass. It's bigger, so the artwork is that much cooler. It's a major pain to skip through songs with vinyl, thus you actually listen to them. And when NASA launched the Voyager spacecrafts in 1977, what did they include?

"They sent records into space," says vocalist/guitarist Julian Bargen, 25. "By the way, that's the Hot Live Guys project for next year. We're sending records to Jupiter. We're searching for new markets."

"Maybe if there is life on Jupiter they don't perceive sounds," says Kurtis Wittmier, 27, who handles bass duties in the band. "Maybe they just perceive light."

"I think our music kind of transcends things like sound and light," Warkentin adds.

Due to our earthling limitations, we humans perceive Hot Live Guys' music as only kick-ass rock 'n' roll. The Royal Albert regulars have rocked Winnipeg and beyond for almost a decade now, releasing Serve Pipin' Hot (2002) and Robbin' a Bank (2006) along the way. In that time, Hot Live Guys has shared the stage with the likes of Tricky Woo, The Illuminati, Supersuckers and, of course, C'mon. C'mon frontman Ian Blurton - whom you might also remember from Change of Heart, Bionic and Blurtonia - has long been a fan of the Winnipeg rockers. In an interview for PunkTV.ca, the CanRock god had this to say:

"My favorite Canadian rock band is from Winnipeg, and they're called Hot Live Guys," Blurton says. "They're, like, the best live band around. They're just fucking unbelievable. They have great songs and they're just a ridiculous live show. They come out like garagey, but they're really heavy and Joe, the guitar player, is a fucking madman. I've seen him do shit that I've never seen anyone in any band do."

"He's (Blurton) paid us a lot of lip service and we're grateful for that," Wittmier says. "He always has these awesome quotes for us. He has his own blog page and he's plugged us a couple times on that, too. He's been a great supporter of Hot Live Guys."

Sir Blurton isn't exaggerating when he talks about Hot Live Guys' onstage prowess. A devastating live machine, the band's live performances often include nudity, blood and the ever-present possibility that the high-flying, death-defying Warkentin will break a bone or two.

"I get hurt sometimes," Warkentin says.

But neither he nor his band should worry.

"Joe's injuries repair themselves like the T-1000," Wittmier says. "He's kind of immune to any flesh wound or muscular/skeletal injury."

It's that high-energy live show that earned the band a trip to South by Southwest last year, the music festival and media conference that invades Austin, Texas every spring. Apparently, during the 2006 Western Canadian Music Awards in Winnipeg, some SXSW bigwigs stumbled into the Royal Albert Arms and caught Hot Live Guys tearing it up during Transistor 66's showcase.


"I think we had one of the really good venues that night. As the myth goes, on the Provencher Bridge there was a big tent, and there was some schmoozing going on there, and apparently that tent caught fire, so all the people were taken out of there and got in limos that, for some reason, stopped in front of the Albert."

"It was almost like in Wayne's World," Wittmier says. "They're (Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar) at the Alice Cooper show and they find out the big record-company guy will be heading to Aurora."

Party on, Hot Live Guys. As you can imagine, SXSW was a blast for the band.

"We played with a bunch of bands that went on to do far more than we managed to, but we were better," Warkentin says, laughing. "We played with Airbourne and Earl Greyhound. I got lost in a haze of energy drinks, cocktails and American accents."

"And tons and tons of barbeue and Mexican food," Wittmier adds.

While the boys weren't offered million dollar contracts or labelled the next big thing byRolling Stone, they still look back at the SXSW trip fondly.

"It was a real highlight of playing in a band," - Jared Story

Top 25 SXSW 2007 Band Names
1. I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch in the House
2. Elemeno P
3. my!gay!husband!
4. Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.
5. Green Milk from the Planet Orange
6. i heart hiroshima
7. iLiKETRAiNS
8. Architecture in Helsinki
9. Armor For Sleep
10. Awesome Cool Dudes
11. The Berg Sans Nipple
12. Busty Duck
13. Die Mannequin
14. Delicious Food
15. cheeseburger
16. The Gay Blades
17. Lesbians On Ecstasy
18. Les Breastfeeders
19. River City Tanlines
20. HOT LIVE GUYS
21. Simian Mobile Disco
22. Flaming Arrows Mardi Gras Indians with special guest Big Chief Roddy of the Black Eages
23. Holy Fuck
24. Holy Shit!
25. Fucked up
- HEAR YA

Their story may not be entirely true, but it's a good one.

Asked how Hot Live Guys ended up on the bill at this year's South by Southwest Music and Media Conference (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, lead singer/guitarist Julian Bargen says it was the result of a fire on the Provencher Bridge during the Western Canadian Music Awards last October.

"We lucked out, though. There was a tent full of industry people partying on the Provencher Bridge, and the tent caught fire."

After the tent was evacuated, says Bargen, the party moved to the Transistor 66 Records showcase at the Royal Albert Arms, which happened to be featuring Hot Live Guys.

One of the people in attendance that night was a talent scout for SXSW. Impressed with the band's performance, he asked if they would come to Austin for the festival. They immediately said yes.

But what part of the story isn't true? Bargen explains, "I'm told the song that was playing in the tent when it caught fire was 'Mike! Your House is on Fire!' by Quinzy." That's the name of the opening track on the local pop-rock quartet's debut CD, pleasebabypleasebabybabybabyplease. "I'm not entirely sure whether that's true or not, but it's kind of added to the whole myth of the evening."

Bargen and his bandmates Joe Warkentin (guitar), Kurtis Wittmier (bass) and Mike Johnson (drums) will bring their Tricky Woo-inspired brand of rock 'n roll to SXSW on March 16.

In 2005, the band was named one of the Top 30 Winnipeg bands of all time by the Winnipeg Sun, and was chosen as one of 10 local bands to watch in 2006 by the Winnipeg Free Press. The quartet released an eight-song EP entitled Robbin' a Bank last year. It was the follow-up to 2003's Serve Pipin' Hot, their first recording for Transistor 66 Records.

South by Southwest Music and Media Conference is a music and film festival and conference that debuted in 1987. This year's festival, which lasts 10 days, will feature over a thousand performers playing in dozens of venues in downtown Austin. Headliners include The Stooges, Interpol and Bloc Party.

And what does Bargen hope for the band's trip? "I hope we get across the border," he says. "I have a tough time dreaming past a successful border crossing."

Should the band make it to Austin, he hopes for "a nice, busy night at the bar we're playing at, so we can win 'em over. We're an ass-kickin' band. Conquest is on our agenda."

The band will be playing a show at the Royal Albert tomorrow night to raise funds for the trip. Bargen invites everyone to come to the show. After all, he says, "Who doesn't like to get drunk with the Hot Live Guys on a Friday night at the Albert?"

- The Uniter

Pitch that iPod and unplug your CD player, chump. If you wanna bend your ears around Hot Live Guys' latest tunes, you're gonna have to dig out your turntable. That's right, it's an honest-to-Angus slab o' vinyl -- a limited-edition split 7" single with Toronto's C'Mon, to be exact. Cool as that is, the tunes are cooler. The Guys' side serves up two killer slices of nitro-burnin' garage-rock strung with razor-wire vocals. The flip side boasts a pair of hard-hitting stoner-rockers from Ian Blurton and his cronies. Best of all: You won't find it on a Torrent site. (Transistor 66/War On Music)

Darryl Sterdan
Winnipeg Sun - Winnipeg Sun