The Holy Gasp

Upbeat, charismatic and a little bit off-kilter; The Holy Gasp is decidedly unique and on their way to becoming a known staple of the Toronto music and art communities. What we’re listening to right now is the next single from their newest album (yet to be released) called “We Really Mean It”. After listening to the first single (available on bandcamp), “How I Get Down” (which you should really check out if you get the chance-below), I cannot wait to hear what else they have in store for the full-length record- set to be released in early 2015.

Conceived in 2011 as the brainchild of poet and composer, Benjamin Hackman, the band has expanded over the past few years to include Daveyoso, Sebastian Shinwell, Christopher Weatherstone and James McEleney to become what is now known as The Holy Gasp. Initially in an attempt to fuse “Afro-Cuban rhythms with American protest folk and punk rock” [TWiMFeST], the band oscillates from one musical idea to the next while still maintaining an overall sense of theme and vibe.

The newest single is called “The Last Generation of Love” and it sounds like it’s the soundtrack to a late 60’s Ken Kesey lucid dream. While tunes like this tend to harken back to beatnik era, the band is far from nostalgic- implementing their influences with new energy fit for today’s curious listener. - Tunes for Tea

Toronto psych-pop outfit THE HOLY GASP first came up on our radar back in April of this year when they released the two-song Bedbugs EP. Fast forward a few months and the band has just dropped a brand new single.

One of the things that makes THE HOLY GASP so unique is that it’s rather difficult to classify their music into any one genre. That said, check out the rather infectious The Last Generation Of Love in the embed below and have a listen for yourself. You won’t be disappointed. The song is the third single off of their forthcoming debut record, We Really Mean It. - The Indie Machine

Toronto is a hotbed for tons of new and interesting talent so it doesn’t surprise me these days when something wicked out of Canada’s largest city rolls through my email. I never quite know what it will be, but I can almost promise it will entice me in some way. Seconds into listening to “Bedbugs”, the debut single from The Holy Gasp, I knew the city I was born in had done it again.

Though it is only two tracks, this thing packs an intellectual punch. The first track, “Bedbugs”, is extremely interesting and possesses a New Orleans, Tom Waits kind of feel. The song is a somewhat comedic musical take on the plague of having bedbugs, an extremely common occurrence especially in the city of Toronto. Arrangement wise it’s really cool and the musicianship and writing is extremely original. It is a fun song that makes you want to move around in a tribal sort of way, possibly because you are so high you think you’re actually covered in bed bugs.

The second song “Stomp out the Man” is lyrically punk rock, and the fact that the song is so strange genre wise it makes it that much more punk, taking direct attacks at Toronto mayor Rob Ford and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The title alone invokes the feeling that this is some sort of a protest song, and in it’s own way it is. The instrumentation is again tribal in sound, which gives it a groovy back beat. This song reminds me a lot of something Frank Zappa could have done, which is a huge compliment to the track.

All in all, this short offering from this new band is strong and deserves a listen if you are into different type of music, not just your straight ahead “punk” or “metal” album. This music really doesn’t have a genre, which I think is part of what makes it so great. - My Freakin Ears

I missed the first band – sorry people! – but got to the venue just as The Holy Gasp were starting their set, and I’m happy to report that the hype was completely valid. This noisy, clanging, carnival-esque 5-piece is one that you should probably see at your earliest convenience. While the whole band is incredibly skilled and they play a tight show, the performance is clearly centered around singer/percussionist Benjamin Hackman. With his Krusty the Klown hair, multiple piercings, and a voice that sounds like some ungodly mixture of Tom Waits, Serj Tankian, and Jello Biafra, he’s the clear source of the band’s power. Theirs is a one-of-a-kind performance, a sort of afro-cuban party music filtered through a punk rock lens and soaked in a couple casks of old blues whiskey for good measure. Honestly, they were such a strong early act that I was worried the rest of the night would be a bit of a wash. - Cadence Canada

Okay, maybe you’re sick of me talking about The Holy Gasp, but I’m going to continue to do it anyway. As I’ve mentioned in the past, there’s much to say about the band – self described as “a damn-the-Man beatnik revival conga revolution, a boxcar and a jug of wine, a groove, daddy, and the farthest thing from a king sized bust” – and their frenetic live performances. I will get it out of the way now, and re-state that you must make it out to one of their upcoming shows to really see what they are all about.

Thankfully though, for those of us who have seen the shows and are clamoring for more at-home listening material, the band has recently announced their upcoming album – which will be titled We Really Mean It and should be out later this year. While you wait for that to arrive, you can get started by checking out the first released track off that album here, titled “That’s How I Get Down”.

The song – which the band frequently plays live in their sets – is a start-stop freak-out punctuated by Benjamin Hackman‘s yelped vocals and laughs, with plenty of squealing saxophone, vaguely surf-y guitar strums and atmospheric stabs, that all builds to an immensely satisfying crescendo. Again, this stuff is incredible to see live, but thankfully as I also noted in a previous post on the band’s Bedbugs EP, the production is superb – which allows the track to sacrifice none of the unpredictability nature that makes The Holy Gasp so exciting. - Modern Superior

Kanadensiska The Holy Gasp spelar en märklig, egensinnig musik som är svår att placera. Här finns allt från punk och surfrock till jazz och bossa nova. På den nya singeln, den ilsket politiska "The Last Generation Of Love", finns influenser från både beatpoesi och det psykedeliska sextiotalet. Låten är den tredje singeln från det kommande albumet We Really Mean It. - Rockfoto (Sweden)

I don’t think I can put it any better than the band puts it themselves. According to Toronto based quintet: “The Holy Gasp is a damn-the-Man beatnik-revival conga revolution, a boxcar and a jug of wine, a groove daddy, and the farthest thing from a king size bust! We make music for fans of theatrical, off-centred, darkly comical, genre-defying entertainment, and we try and make it all sound like a bunch of hopped-up jazz junkies singing Surfin’ Bird with a bad case of the shits. Our forthcoming LP, “We Really Mean It,” is scheduled to release early 2015.”

“The Last Generation Of Love” comes across like The Mars Volta wearing berets after reading too much Kerouac. It’s an intense, rhythmic, stream of consciousness diatribe that spews forth with absolute and complete reckless abandon. Congas are pounded, the upright bass takes the melody for a walk, while saxophone punctuates the entire endeavour. Quirky, odd, bizarre, unique; there really is not an adequate adjective to describe this cacophony. Impressively, regardless of the seemingly mental approach the band take to their music, there is always a hook to keep the whole boat afloat.

Equally batshit crazy and completely awesome. - Overblown

The singer sang as kooky as bongo rock sounds. He sung with a guttural vibrato in a cartoony expression of deep emotion. He was balding with a fro and wore sunglasses. The sax, double bass and bongos all wore sunglasses. The songs were like a tribal craze of jazz infused fury. There were some improvised jazz bits where the band lost their tightness but it still sounded good. Jazz, right? I’m not sure if the drummer was really needed as the bongos keep the beat. The bongo player did get a little eccentric and reminded me of the monkeys from the Basement Jaxx – Where’s Your Head At music video. They had a song called Fucking that really killed my libido. I don’t know if it was named that ironically. The dancing girls were into it though. The song was sad emotionally. A sad fuck. Still better than a sad wank. They had amazing stage presence and great musicianship. It’s too bad the crowd from before couldn’t handle the quirkiness of the whole thing. The band had some great crowd participation. My favorite part was when the singer tickled the guitarist. The singer got in an ‘argument’ with the sax where he yelled and the sax player retorted with a blast from his sax. They were all engaged in the jam with each other. It was beautiful to watch and a crazy show in general. The singer made jokes about the crowd looking so young, like they were playing a bar mitzvah. The crowd found it hilarious. These guys know how to entertain. Next time don’t leave before they play. You know who you are. - The Scene Magazine

We, the curators of Christie Pits Film Festival, are mounting our second live-score production this summer, following the huge success of Del Bel’s original score for Nosferatu in 2015. This year we’ve been collaborating with Toronto musicians The Holy Gasp for a production of the silent comedy The Freshman (1925), featuring the brilliant Harold Lloyd. We sat down with Benjamin Hackman, frontman and composer of The Holy Gasp, to chat about the band’s inspirations on this original score project.

The Freshman will screen with The Holy Gasp’s original score performed live on June 25, 2017, as the opening night film of Christie Pits Film Festival’s 7th summer season. It will have an encore presentation at Parkway Forest Park on August 26, 2017.

CPFF: We chose The Freshman as the opening night film for our Eyes on the Prize programme because it comically explores themes of competition, perseverance, camaraderie, and the drive to win. How did you approach these themes in your original score?

BH: Sebastian [Shinwell, The Holy Gasp’s co-composer] and I were particularly interested in the disingenuousness with which Harold Lamb approaches his first semester at Tate University. We saw in his character a series of choices made solely for the desire to fit in and be regarded as popular. Of course the moral of The Freshman is not difficult to see, or even predict: it is best to live one's life true to one's own character. Thus we approached the score as truth tellers - friends of Harold's who could be counted on to say what sometimes hurts to hear, but which is necessary to tell someone when you love and care for them. We approached the score with a desire to draw attention to that which is both genuine and disingenuous within Harold, and to show viewers both how he sees himself, as well as how he is seen by others. Whenever possible, we strove to show how those two modes of being intersect and contradict. Compositionally this was achieved in two ways - by allowing thematic melodies to cohabitate, and by dressing up motifs in motley arrangements.

CPFF: What musical styles are you inspired by in your composition for The Freshman? What vibe should the audience expect on opening night?

BH: True to The Holy Gasp, we've continued fusing punk rock sensibilities with Beat jazz, surf guitar, and Tropicalia. Film-goers might also recognize influences from Danny Elfman's theme song to The Simpsons, Henry Mancini's theme song to The Pink Panther, and Primus.

CPFF: At this point, you are intimately familiar with The Freshman, having watched it numerous times while composing. Has this repeated exposure revealed any profound insights or hidden truths about the human condition?

BH: What I learned from watching The Freshman repeatedly for two months. I don't know if I agree with everything, but this is what I learned:

- People in 1925 have hideous hands. Just bad finger nail health in general.
-The facial and gestural expressions of Harold Lloyd is more technically proficient than those of most modern day actors. This feels hard to dispute. Watch the movie. He's freakishly talented.
-Avoiding sexuality makes for innuendos more graphic in nature than explicit conversations about sexuality. The Freshman is a very subtly perverted film. Freudians, take note.
-Popular young people are often at odds with their popularity, and feel trapped by their reputations. The desire to freak out and be groovy exists and must be given space for expression in young people.
-At the end of the day, be yourself. Every other option is a bad one.
-Bullies have great influence, especially upper class bullies.
-Ending up with the kind of girl your mother must have been is, in some ways, inevitable.
-You can judge a man's character by the company he keeps.
-When somebody offers to buy you ice cream, it's in bad taste to invite a friend. - Christie Pits Film Festival

Christie Pits Film Festival's theme for this year's Sunday-night screenings is Eyes On The Prize, films about "competition, camaraderie and the drive to win." The festival opens June 25 with Harold Lloyd's silent classic The Freshman, with a live musical score by the Holy Gasp. This series is free/pwyc, with a suggested donation of $10. - Now Toronto

Christie Pits Film Festival
Sundays in June, July and August, Christie Pits
This weekly starlit screening is perhaps the city’s most popular, propped on the pleasant slopes of Christie Pits. This season’s lineup—all films about competition and camaraderie—opens with the 1925 silent comedy The Freshman, with live accompaniment by genre-bending weirdos The Holy Gasp.
Watch This: The Freshman (June 25), West Side Story (August 13) - Toronto Life

Toronto oddballs the Holy Gasp will return with a new album in early 2018, and the first listen has arrived with a brand new single titled "Beat Wave."

Blending "big band punk" and "orchestral hardcore," the new tune is a fun-sounding throwback that channels some serious B-52s vibes. It was the first song written for the upcoming record, but also the first song frontman Benjamin Hackman's wrote following a recent divorce.

In a statement about the song, he says:

When my wife and I split up, I needed to make an extreme lifestyle change. I moved out to Toronto Island and started work on a new record. I started with "Beat Wave." I was real depressed at the time. And real lonely, too. Most days I couldn't get out of bed. I'd lay there on my stinked-up sheets, weeping... wishing for my old life back... They were dark days indeed. I needed to write it out, to laugh at myself, and to take the edge off and find a way to cheer myself up. Divorce shocks the system bad, you know. It makes you ask a whole lotta questions about how you're gonna live your life and who you're gonna be in your post-married world. You set out to build a future with someone, and when you call it quits on a marriage, you call it quits on that future too. So you gotta rewrite yourself entirely.

Despite the extremely personal nature of the tune, Hackman enlisted the help of plenty of other musicians for the recording. He credits bandmate Sebastian Shinwell with being a major source of support, and expertly finding the perfect place for every contributor on the song — and there were a lot of them. Amongst the impressive 17 players on the track are Toronto music industry fixtures like Karen Ng, Jessica Upton-Crowe (Beliefs) and Nixon Boyd (Hollerado).

"Word on the street is if you play the track in reverse it gives you step-by-step instructions on how to brew your own kombucha," Hackman adds. "That may or may not be true."

Find out for yourself taking "Beat Wave" out for a spin below. Just scroll past the list of the Holy Gasp's upcoming live shows and hit play.

Tour dates:

11/14 Sherbrooke, QC – Bar Le Magog
11/15 Moncton, NB – Plan B
11/16 Halifax, NS – The Seahorse Tavern
11/17 St. John, NB – Pepper's Pub
11/23 Quebec City, QC –Le Cercle
11/24 Trois Rivieres, QC – Zenob
11/30 Ottawa, ON – House of Targ
12/02 Toronto, ON – The Smiling Buddha
12/07 Peterborough, ON - Catalina's
12/08 Hamilton, ON - Mills Hardware
12/09 Windsor, ON – Phog Lounge - Exclaim!