May 20, 2008: As written by Paul Myers on http://pulmyears.wordpress.com/2008/05/20/cheerleading-the-new-odds/

Today is the release date for Cheerleader, a new record by a newish band called The New Odds, which as the name totally gives away, is three quarters of the Vancouver nineties band Odds with a new guitarist named Murray (which in his wake is now officially a very rock and roll name).

Comrades in Rock: Meet The New Odds

(l to r: Doug Elliott, Pat Steward, Murray Atkinson, Craig Northey)

I am sure some of you knew of the Odds music (heck some of you, like myself, know them personally!) in Canada they had hits like “Someone Who’s Cool”, “Love Is the Subject”, “Eat My Brain”, “The Truth Untold” and “Make You Mad”. Well, they’ve been dormant since 1999 and in the interim, three of the band members Craig Northey, Doug Elliott and Pat Steward have all continued to support each others projects. A while back, these three started writing new songs that sort of fit the Odds sound requirements. Pat and Doug had been playing with Murray Atkinson, (a younger guy by about ten years who had recently won the Seeds contest, a talent contest put on by Vancouver rock station The Fox) and he was invited to add some chordage and solo-age to the sound. Barenaked Ladies invited them to rock at their Ships & Dip concert cruise, and they hastily called it The New Odds (with a nod to Spinal Tap’s New Originals). The name has stuck, although I noticed that they’ve recently started using the shorter TNO (like BTO) on their communiques and road cases.

Back in the Nineties, when a Bush was running to replace a Clinton and not the other way around, Odds were my favourite band that wasn’t my own. When I first heard their album Neopolitan, a little after it came out in 1991, I superficially compared them to my friend Matthew Sweet, since both of them were signed to Zoo Entertainment and they both liked power pop tinged rock songs with real world lyrics and a lot of compression on the vocals, but they were totally different bands and by the time of Bedbugs, and the sledgehammer crunch of “It Falls Apart”, I was sold for good. Around that time, my friend Kevin had a party and the Odds were there, Craig and I got talking and we haven’t stopped since. They made more albums, Good Weird Feeling and Nest, and then, just as the first Clinton was handing off the Whitehouse to the second Bush, it was over. Craig put out some solo work that I have also been a fan of, and I even got to play with Northey, Elliott and Steward in a session for our friend Blair Packham in Vancouver a few years back (the song, which I wrote with Blair, is called “Mr Bitter” and it’s on Blair’s Could’ve Been King CD)

As “comebacks” go, what makes Cheerleader interesting and exciting for me is that while they do indeed recapture their trademark harmonies, crashing guitars, sinewy bass lines and thunderous drum fills (Pat’s nickname should be “Hot Pocket”) they break NEW ground as well. Fans of the first Odds will immediately identify that sound in “Breakthrough”, “My Happy Place” and the Who-ish “Write It In Lightning.” But there’s a bunch of newer stylistic flavours in songs like “Leader’s of the Undersea World” that pits a reggae motif against a straight up rock gallup, or lopers like “Come To L.A.” with its Memphisy horns and Beck-like casual vocals against what sound like slack tuned guitars. It’s a VIBE man!. For me, though, a couple of highlights are in some of the newer spacier tunes. “Getting My Attention” tells a suburban story of graffiti vandalism and the futility of misdirected teenage rage over a calm and open groove that features guitars leaving spaces between the chords, spaces to think, spaces to play in, spaces to spray slogans in lime green spray over. “Always Breaking Heart” is an awesome, almost country-ish ballad about the liquid state of emotional imbalance. “River Is Cried” has a chorus that would make Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo cry. But my favourite moment on the album is the beautifully pragmatic romance (uh huh) of “Feel Like This All The Time” which tells the universal dirty secret of small town ambivalence, bordering on contempt, for one’s home town. I personally know what he’s talking about in couplets like “To melt the ice / There’s sand and salt / To rust the cars, and stain the asphalt / Past the franchise chicken joint / Out beyond the vanishing point / The best thing about this place is the sky….”

Have you ever felt that way? This ain’t no John Mellencamp.

Don’t know if you can get Cheerleader in the USA yet, but its available online, internationally I think, here.
Let me be among the first to lead the cheer, welcome home (such as it is) to the New Odds.

Have you heard the new Odds album? Have you heard The New Odds album? In order to fully appreciate the duality of this question as it relates to Cheerleader, it might be necessary to recap a bit about this band’s remarkable past.

1987: the Odd-yssey begins…

In 1987, four highly individual Vancouver musicians put together a guitar-based, power pop strike force to write catchy melodic songs built on crunchy rock guitars, full-voiced harmonies and walloping drums. Original members Doug Elliott, Craig Northey, Steven Drake and Paul Brennan worked the bar circuit and honed their sound. After a long, hard slog at some flea-bitten dive bar gig, they found themselves asking the musical question: “What are the odds of us ever escaping bullshit gigs like this?” That weekend they became simply, Odds, and proceeded to do what a lot of frustrated Canadian acts had done before them: they headed to L.A. and got a major label deal. Shortly after the release of their self-produced debut, Neopolitan (Zoo Entertainment 1991), they were recruited to back up Warren Zevon on his Mr. Bad Example tour. They channeled this master class into their next recorded work, Bedbugs (Zoo 1993), and raised their profile further when their comedian pals, Kids In The Hall, appeared in their video for the irony-laced single “Heterosexual Man.”

After Paul Brennan’s departure in 1995, Doug Elliott invited his longtime friend (and former Bryan Adams drummer) Pat Steward into the band, resulting in a weightier wallop and groovier groove for their next release, the platinum-plus selling Good Weird Feeling (Warner Music 1995), which featured the hits “Truth Untold” and “Eat My Brain.” After their involvement in the Kids In The Hall’s feature film, Brain Candy, for which Northey composed the original score, the band released their final album as Odds. Nest (Warner Music, 1996) yielded the chart-topper, “Someone Who’s Cool,” (which enjoyed 8 weeks as the number 1 song at Canadian rock radio and went Top 40 in the U.S) and the hit single “Make You Mad.”

2007: Meet The New Odds

The original Odds members were busy as bees up until today. Cranking out more music than in their life as the Odds, Northey, Elliott and Steward collaborated on projects by Strippers Union with Rob Baker of the Tragically Hip, Northey Valenzuela with Jesse Valenzuela of the Gin Blossoms, Northey’s solo album Giddy Up, several Colin James albums, session work for Jeremy Fisher, Matthew Good, Payolas, two feature film scores ( Kids in the Hall in Brain Candy, Dog Park with Luke Wilson) and the themes for CTV’s hit Corner Gas. It’s obvious that although they had been on a “walkabout” from Odds, the core unit — Steward, Elliott and Northey — never really “split up.” It is this nucleus, along with new guitarist Murray Atkinson, which forms (and informs) The New Odds (TNO) on their “debut” album Cheerleader.

“One day, Pat and Doug pointed out that it felt like it was time to put on the band hat,” recalls Northey, “just like in 1999 it felt like it was time to take that hat off.”

“Since the last of the Odds shows,” adds Doug Elliott, “Pat and Craig and I have done hundreds of shows together under all sorts of different names. The best ones always seemed to feature Craig Northey songs and Odds songs. This is where my soul is. This music is in us; it just flows out.”

Northey, Elliott and Steward started jamming out new songs in much the same way the Odds had done ten years prior. Around this time, their old friends Barenaked Ladies invited them to debut the new songs live, during one of their Caribbean concert cruises.

“How do you say no to that?” Northey asks rhetorically. “They asked us what we were going to call it and we flippantly told them, The New Odds. We didn’t realize it was going to print that day!”

“But I do think,” adds Elliott, “that since three of us had built up a certain amount of equity as the Odds, why not have a name that sort of tilts toward a history we’re extremely proud of.”

Initially hesitant to add a fourth member, they soon realized that a second guitar was needed in order to attain their signature band sound.

“Pat and Doug had been gigging in another band with Murray Atkinson,” Northey recalls, “so it seemed obvious that it should be him. I taught him some parts that I’d written and he instantly made them better.”

“Murray’s cut from the same cloth as us,” says Elliott. “His personality and his musicality fit in with us totally.”

While a decade younger than his bandmates, Atkinson – a rock guitarist raised on grunge, funk and KISS, and a talented solo artist in his own right – instantly fell in with the former Odds members.

“We all share a deep love of KISS,” says Atkinson, “as well as Stax and old R&B. Plus, they’re all such super nice guys and world-class musicians. It’s the best band situation I’ve ever been in and I feel lucky to be learning so much from them.”

The New Odds is a whole new thing, with the soul of the Odds of old propelling the collective eagerness of a brand new band.

2008: Four Men and a Cheerleader

“Cheerleader,” says Elliott of the new release, “is the culmination of the music that we’ve created in our lives up to this point, and I think it’s the best music we’ve ever made together. I believe in Craig so much as a songwriter; his songs come from the same place I’m coming from. But there’s no real leader of this band. We’re all in this together. We all share in the work and we all share in the wealth.”

“The music is something we all create together,” says Northey, “The beauty of pop music is that you can sing some pretty dark or intense lyrics, then put a bit of jangle and a nice melody on it and everybody dances to it. When we were looking for a title, ’cheerleader’ was one word that encapsulated what the music was. It’s almost comical when you put it up against the underlying lyrical themes of the songs.”

The “walkabout” years provided the New Odds with a broader, fresher outlook when it was time to come home to their “happy place.”

“The idea that ‘it was good once, so let’s do it exactly the same way,’ always leads to disaster,” says Northey. “So we all went out to get new ideas and make other kinds of music. And while we’ve returned to the comfort foods of power-pop music, I would hope that we’re coming back with a lot of those outside experiences in our DNA. All of that, plus all of Murray’s experiences, make it possible for this music to happen this way, at this time.”

Finally, Northey is adamant that what’s going on here is “more than your typical rock band reunion.”

“We never really felt like we went away! We were always working together under different names and trying different things. So we just came back to the old rock band way of working together and added a new guy. That’s not a reunion; it’s just the next phase of a long and musically rewarding relationship.”

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Some quick facts:

Odds first appeared under their bar band pseudonym Dawn Patrol at the Roxy in Vacouver. It was a gig where they would all wear kilts, glasses and wigs, be as rude & crude as they wanted to be to the audience in faux-Brit accents, and played 1960s & 1970s cover songs. Each member even had their own persona. Craig was Don Feely, Steven was Don Science, Doug was Don Swinger and Paul was Don Icker. Even the guest players had Don names. Ladies were "Dawn", of course.

The entire band played a Who cover band (the Quadrapheniacs) on an episode of "Booker," a spin-off of "21 Jump Street" starring Richard Grieco entitled "Who Stole Lucille". They recorded the Who tracks, "I Can See For Miles" and "My Generation." Tawny Kitaen was the guest star for that episode.

Doug Elliott was in the movie "Cousins" starring Lloyd Bridges and Ted Danson. He is in a wedding band in the movie and has big rock hair in it. Trust me, it's pretty freaky. Check it out in "Audio/Visual."

Pat Steward has played for Matthew Good, Colin James, Glen Stace, Limblifter and Bryan Adams (among many, many others). Pat also appeared on the classic Canadian album "Reckless" by Bryan Adams and its music videos for "Summer of 69" and "Heaven."

Steven and Craig played a cheesy lounge duo in the movie "Mystery Date" (before the credits). In the same scene with Ethan Hawke and Terry David Mulligan (of all people). Once again, check it out in "Audio/Visual."

Speaking of the Who, "Write It In Lighting" was originally written for the Who while Pete Townsend was looking for some outside writing help. However, the song remains unreleased by The Who. It has since appeared on Craig Northey's solo record Giddy Up and Rex Goudie's debut album Under the Lights, in addition to Cheerleader.

Craig wrote and performed Bret "the Hitman" Hart's first WCW theme entrance song (along with Doug, Pat and Keith Scott) right after the infamous "Montreal Screwjob" incident.

The song "Love of Minds" from the album Bedbugs is about Bucky Wunderlick (the rock-god protagonist of Don DeLillo's 1973 novel "Great Jones Street) and his doomed girlfriend, Opel.

"Wendy Under the Stars" from the album Neopolitan was based on a true story. Steven Drake lived it. It took place in Winlaw, BC. You can guess the date. You can also guess the girl's name.

"Someone Who's Cool" from the album Nest was the theme song to the short-lived CBS music industry comedy Love Monkey, starring Tom Cavanagh, Jason Priestley and Teddy Geiger. Cavanagh personally convinced music supervisor Nic Harcourt to make "Someone Who's Cool" the theme song.

Craig accompanied the Kids in the Hall on their "Tour of Duty" throughout North America as its musical director and main musical act.

May 23, 2008
Vancouver band The Odds are back with new album, new moniker
Cassandra Szklarski, THE CANADIAN PRESS

TORONTO - More than a decade after scoring radio-friendly hits with such sugary-pop gems as "Wendy Under the Stars," "Eat My Brain," and "Heterosexual Man," Vancouver band The Odds is back with a new album, and an updated name.

Now known as The New Odds, they return with a new guitarist, Murray Atkinson, in lieu of mop-topped singer Steven Drake, but hold on to the same catchy hooks and quirky sense of humour that made them '90s favourites.

The decision to reunite was a no-brainer, says singer Craig Northey, who notes that although band members had retreated from the spotlight in recent years, they've remained friends and musical collaborators.
"We hated the word reunion because we didn't feel like we ever stopped working with each other," Northey, 46, says by phone from his home in Vancouver.

"We always felt band-like and then when Murray came along, the new guy, we added the 'new' for his sake. And because it was a good 'Spinal Tap' joke at the time."

Jokes have always been a key ingredient to the Odds' musical formula, one that mixes cutting lyrics with infectious melodies and full-voiced harmonies.

Back when music videos were big, their tongue-in-cheek shoots included an outer space-themed storyline for '95's "I Would Be Your Man" and drag outfits for '93's "Heterosexual Man," featuring members of the Kids in the Hall.

These days, their upbeat sound is synonymous with CTV's comedy smash "Corner Gas," for which they provided the theme song.

Northey says he co-wrote the song with Jesse Valenzuela of the Gin Blossoms over the phone, a favoured technique of which the only drawback is that "it's just hard on your neck because you're holding the phone on your ear" while playing guitar.

Northey says he's a longtime friend of "Corner Gas" star Brent Butt and is working on a new song requested by the funnyman, who announced earlier this year that he was wrapping up the series next spring.

He wouldn't say what the song was for.

But writing songs for film, television and other performers has provided constant work for Northey, who says it was an unexpected career detour that he never sought out.

"I went into that game of songwriting by fluke, by accident, by being asked by somebody for a song - Rosanne Cash, actually, which came out of nowhere - and I just sort of kept going," says Northey, whose film projects have included the Kids in the Hall movie "Brain Candy" and Bruce McCulloch's feature directorial debut, "Dog Park."

Since leaving the Odds, Drake meanwhile has made his name as a record producer, shepherding discs for The Tragically Hip, 54-40 and Static in Stereo.

Northey says he's talking with McCulloch about doing another album with him, after they collaborated on McCulloch's musical comedy disc "Drunk Baby Project" in 2002. If they can find the time, that is.

"He's quite a prolific guy and he's got a TV series that just finished and two more in the making," he says.

Northey is busy, too, working on new songs for an upcoming Colin James album, the next Gin Blossoms disc and material for the Rob Baker (Tragically Hip) side project, Strippers Union.

With so many requests for his hook-laden tracks, you'd wonder if he's ever tempted to sock away a few for his own musical endeavours. But Northey says that rarely ends well.

"I realized early on you have to give your best stuff if somebody wants it," he says.

"Especially if you're with that person at the time you're writing, you really have to do something that you really like. You can't kind of stockpile things for yourself. You just keep giving it away and understand that there's always a new good idea."

The New Odds album, "Cheerleader," came out this week.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

The New Odds - Cloud Full of Rocks