Run Chico Run

After schooling together in Victoria BC, Matt Skillings and Thomas Shields formed the band in 1997. The name is taken from the title of a book about New York weed addicts by a "beat" writer who probably never visited New York City or sampled the dank sacrament. After dicking around with a long string of unreliable bass players and lead guitar showboats, the fellas got serious and kicked everyone out of the band but themselves; but not before releasing the rarely heard albums “Lofimofo” and “Melée.” At that point it was necessary to develop a new style that would make it possible for two skinny guys to make as much noise as four skinny guys and sometimes five. The solution was synth bass with one hand and drums with the other. It is a solution that has left some wondering “what the fuck?” and still more wondering “what’s the point?” In 2003 or so the band released “A New Peak in Lowdowness” on Magic Teeth records. They then embarked on a series of questionable Canadian tours that saw them playing everything from empty rooms to mostly empty rooms. When that was over, the not so young anymore dudes got way deep in their awesome studio and emerged with the totally wicked album called “Shashbo,” which was released by Boompa records. Enthusiasts, besides those that liked their music and music in general and kindness and magic, began to take notice. Sadly they only began to take notice and didn’t get much further than that before they went back to abusing animals and bleaching their dentures. No biggie though, the Cheeks were rockin’ with serious momentum and they barely noticed that the empty rooms had become mostly empty rooms and the mostly empty rooms had become half empty rooms. They wasted not much time at all and cut another mostly sweet album - "Slow Action" - mostly in their own studio and partly at the Hive. Sadly, the resulting, somewhat hi-fi sound had little effect on the band’s inevitable bell shaped career tangent. Mostly empty rooms became empty rooms and empty rooms became long drives to the next empty room. Left over tracks were cobbled together and released by Reluctant Recordings as the super cleverly titled E.P. Rocket Surgery. Almost immediately, Reluctant Recordings folded, bringing the total of record labels bankrupted by the band to three. Satisfied that they were doing real good and could totally take their time recording the next album, RCR totally took their time recording their next album. Not only that, they also accepted that playing bass and drums at the same time is a cheap and distracting gimmick; which is disrespectful to proper musicians. As a show of good faith to the proper musician community, Run Chico Run uses not one but two living, breathing bass players (Michael Collinge, Dallas Budd) on their new Album “Beastly Paws Control the Levers.” Although the album was laboured and sweated over for at least five years, it doesn’t sound over produced. In fact, some people will no doubt observe that it sounds like it was recorded in about five minutes by a bunch of brain damaged howler monkeys.