Sandman Viper Command

By Alex HudsonAs recently reported, Ontario garage pop purveyors Sandman Viper Command are returning with a new single this spring, and now you can check out its tracks a little bit early. "Feel Is Good" and "Clean Inside" will officially arrive on May 14, but you can stream them both right now at Exclaim.ca.

"Feel Is Good" is a lethargic rocker about summer laziness that blends gritty guitars with a bleary mid-tempo beat. As for "Clean Inside," it's more upbeat but no less raggedly angst-ridden. These songs will initially be released on a limited-edition coloured cassette, with a vinyl seven-inch to follow sometime in the summer.

For now, you can check out both tunes below.

As previously reported, Sandman Viper Command are currently on tour around Canada and the U.S. See their schedule here. - Exclaim!

Sandman Viper Command, out of Burlington, Ontario are not named after a GI Joe play-set, surprisingly.

"We were a little embarrassed getting our band name from the movie Outbreak," says Rob Janson, singer and guitarist for the lo-fi rockers. "We have a couple movie buffs in the band and they don't want to give the impression Outbreak is their favourite movie of all time."

But with growing interest as a buzz band in Toronto's rock scene and a new seven-inch, all the questions about its name will become common knowledge soon enough. "Early on in our career it was our MySpace, the one interview we did, and the script from Outbreak was the third thing on Google. Now that we have a bit more presence, hopefully it's buried down on the list," jokes Janson.

The four-piece began playing together in their parents' homes, followed by four years of playing around southern Ontario. Performing ramshackle sets with high energy has lead to early 2000s garage rock comparisons. Resembling Two Hours Traffic at their softest and The Danks at their hardest, Sandman Viper Command creates fuzzy-pop hits that hint at indie rock of the '80s and '90s.

With a set of tunes from its first album, Everybody See This, and the upcoming Rough Love EP due out in March, the band returns to Halifax before embarking on a cross-country tour. Hopefully they'll have an easier go at it this time than at an October Khyber show which was cut short due to a boozy power failure.

"During our set Dan, our guitar player, kicked over a pint of beer all over his pedals. They ceased to work, and it was a pretty hectic experience," says Janson. "But those kinds of things tend to happen to us while we're playing. We're pretty used to it at this point."

Sandman Viper Command

Saturday, March 5 - The Coast

More casual and refined than your run-of-the-mill garage rock noisemakers, this Canadian quartet takes early-aughts-era rock and spins it around a few times, dizzying the sounds once made popular by bands like Hot Hot Heat and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, then straightens it out to mash their own stamp into it. You could find reasons to call it retro, and indeed there are nods to days past (check the Brian Wilson-ness of "Using Everybody"), but once you dig in deeper, you'll find this is best nailed down as just good guitar rock, slathered with the kind of raw freneticism and screw-all attitude that can only be truly flexed by a group of twenty-something dudes who can afford to live it. And live it they must be, because the honest energy in these songs in palpable, sure to make you sway and nod from that fidgety, all-encompassing takeover you can only get when you're surrounded by the sound of guitars that seem ready to burst. - Brad Bush, Editor
- CD Baby

A band that developed some real attention for their debut CD in
2009 could become the band to watch in 2010, even if their name
still throws some people off.............
.............Recorded with Dave King at The Barn Studio, SVC conjures up
references to Sloan or that band’s influences like the Beatles – but
in a way that is still fresh. Sandman Viper Command aren’t
reinventing the wheel, but for a debut recording, this is a
standout on so many levels.
- View Magazine

....Janson and his bandmates -- bassist Aaron Harvey, guitarist Daniel Reardon and drummer Matt Damon Meyer -- met in Aldershot high school. It wasn't until after graduation that they decided to take their music seriously and begin performing at local clubs. Dave King, a veteran producer and owner of The Barn studio in Caistor Centre, caught a Sandman Viper Command set at Burlington's Red Rooster, and invited them out to record some demo tracks. The invitation turned into a 12-track album, Everybody See This, released last spring.
The finished product has a lively indie, alternative-rock sound with just enough pop sense on songs such as Strawberry Quick to gain regular play on CBC 3 and campus radio stations.
"We definitely have a bit of a traditional sound, " says Janson, a big fan of the Beatles. It's a sound that allowed them to share the stage last month with veteran blues-rocker David Wilcox. But it makes a better fit, however, with other local indie bands such as Huron and the Arkells.

In recent months, Sandman Viper Command has toured Ontario with Huron and has performed two high-profile shows with the Arkells, including a sold out concert at Lee's Palace in Toronto. "All the musicians we run into seem to get what we're doing, " Janson says. "That's the thing about Hamilton. Everybody helps everybody out. It's like family. Once you find your place, you feel comfortable."

- The Hamilton Spectator