Meet The Band: Sandman Viper Command

It's not every kid from Burlington who gets into Pavement and Sonic Youth while they're growing up, but thankfully that's exactly what happened to the four guys in Sandman Viper Command.  And as a result, they've formed a fuzzy, rocking band who have spent the last couple of years building a reputation as one of the better live acts in the GTA. Over the next few months, they'll get plenty of chances to prove it as they hit the road from coast to coast including a stop at Canadian Music Week in March (playing on the Thursday night at  Sneaky Dee's as part of the Audio Blood showcase) and Edgefest in July (really? there are still Edgefests?). We recently got frontman Rob Janson to answer a few questions for our latest edition of "Meet The Band":

How do you describe your music to someone who hasn't heard you before?

The love child of fuzzy garage pop and a bottle liquid smoke.

What was the craziest live show you've ever played?

It's hard to pick just one, but most recently we played a pretty wild one while on tour with our buds in Dinosaur Bones in the fall. It was at the good old Jimmy Jazz in Guelph, a tiny room of a bar. The place was packed twice over and I was probably the sweatiest I have ever and will ever be.

What's your favourite song to play live? Why?

Lately at shows we've been debuting our track "Rough Love" that's going to appear on our new 7 inch out in March. It's always exciting when you get to play something new for a crowd, especially when you get a good reaction. It also incorporates some intricate guitar work to keep me on my toes and a huge crashing ending that we all get to lean into to. It's definitely been one of the most enjoyable to play these days.

What was the first record you ever bought? When was the last time you listened to it?

I think the first disc I ever owned was probably either Dookie by Green Day or Much Music's Dance Mix 95. Haha this may explain my apparent affinity for angsty lyrics and pop sensibilities. I blame the roller garden in our home town. No six-year old can resist the deadly combo of "1, 2, 3 Train With Me" and roller skates. I listened to Dance Mix '95 the last time I wore roller skates.

Say, for some strange reason, all the music in the world is going to be destroyed, but you can save all the songs from one decade. Which decade's records would you save?

To be super predictable, I'd say we would have to save the music from the 60's. So many of our favourite albums come from that time period and even if we only succeeded in saving The Band's catalogue it'd probably be worth it. For the record, I'm putting my money on this "strange reason" having something to do with the computerized artificial intelligence of the future deeming it worthless. 

If you could switch places with another musician in some type of "Freaky Friday" type incident, who would you want it to be?

Snoop Dogg, dude lives the life.

If you could have one musical superpower, what would you want it to be?

The power to make hit records.

If you were going to be a groupie for one band, who would it be?

I speak for all of us in the band when I say the Pussycat Dolls.

Seriously, how much do you hate your hometown? 

We actually don't hate it that much at all. Even though we've mentioned some of our differences with a few of its nightlife options before, Burlington's been pretty good to us over the years. We've managed to squeeze quite a bit of entertainment out of all the green space and suburban trappings and without it we as a band probably wouldn't exist. Haha that's got to count for something.

Here are Sandman Viper Command playing live at North By Northeast's Nacho House. Or you can listen them on MySpace here.

Photo: Sandman Viper Command