Hawksley Workman has formed a new all-Canadian group called Mounties.
Hawksley Workman always gets his man. The pop-rock chameleon has formed a new all-Canadian group called Mounties, with Hot Hot Heat front man Steve Bays and Limblifter/Age of Electric producer-musician Ryan Dahle corralled for the project.
The charismatic Workman originally broached the idea of the threesome as a band at the Vancouver Junos in 2009. Four years later, the trio's first single – no album is planned, though more than a dozen songs were worked on – is Headphones, a groovy iPod anthem for those plugged in and blissfully tuned out – "I got my headphones on from the minute I'm up, till the minute I go to bed."
A lyric video posted this week on YouTube uses clips of Téléfrançais Canadiana, with an all-bones skeleton-puppet band suggesting that music listeners of past generations are as unhip as an old-fashioned hi-fi. Headphones, however, ends with an ancient bit of percussion figuring prominently – manners wane and technology ceaselessly advances, but cowbells never die.
Brad Wheeler