All Systems Go
 I’ve
got a confession to make. I normally never ever do
anything like this, but at an All Systems Go show at The Brickyard
in Vancouver a few years ago, I, er, stole the band’s
set list. I have no excuse except to say that I was drunk
and it seemed to be the right thing to do. I still have it
somewhere.
During that tour, singer/guitarist John
Kastner seemed to be bridging his old band, the Doughboys,
into his new one, with songs from the last two Doughboys records
sprinkled through their set. All Systems Go I guess didn’t
have quite enough to fill a set of their own, so it was rounded
out with some oldies. But when they broke into “Fix
Me”, a single from the Doughboys’ 1993 album Crush,
it just felt different, and became clear that Kastner
was moving on from one of the most beloved Canadian underground
bands ever.
All Systems Go’s beginning seemed
almost as anti-climactic as the Doughboys’ end. After
ten years of making records and relentless touring, tensions
arose in the band, members came and went, and it didn’t
seem as fun anymore. “When we started having all the
pressure of all the record company people and singles and
all of that, after all we’ve been through with that
band we couldn’t handle it anymore,” recalls Kastner.
But it never resulted in any major band
blowout after which each member packed their bag and left.
“We never actually sat down and said we’re going
to break up.” he says. “All the relationships
between everybody was just too unhealthy and I think everyone
is much happier now.”
Indeed. In 1998, after the Doughboys
came off tour with the Offspring, Kastner moved to Toronto
and started thinking about a new band. He hooked up with Mark
Arnold and Frank Daly, late of the Southern California pop-punk
outfit Big Drill Car, a band cut from very much a similar
cloth as the Doughboys, and All Systems Go was born. The band
released a CD in 1999 on Bad Taste Records out of Sweden.
On it were two Kastner gems, “All I Want” and
“I’ll Be Your Radio”. Another track that
got jaws yapping was “Vodka Sonic”, which featured
Frank Daley on vocals. But after joining the 1999 Warped Tour,
Daley quit only a few gigs in, saying he’d had enough
of touring.
The band went through several line-up
changes, most notably on bass. Finally, they settled on Thomas
D’Arcy, whose only previous experience was playing in
a band called The Carnations. His high-pitched, slightly screechy
voice provides a nice counterpart to Kastner’s raspy
tenor. “It’s good to have that kind of [difference].
It mixes things up a lot.”
That’s for sure. On Mon Chi
Chi (Aquarius) the differences are immediately apparent,
particularly in songwriting styles. Kastner is more of a traditionalist,
where his songs are straightforward blasts of loud rock, but
D’Arcy is a little more quirky, slightly off-key singing
and clever, English-major type lyrics.
But at the same time, Mon Chi Chi
has more energy than any record that Kastner has released
since perhaps the Doughboys’ first few records. The
first track “Taking Up Space” immediately makes
a statement. It starts with a scream courtesy of former Doughboys
guitarist and current leader of Bionic Jonathon Cummins and
a dirty guitar to grab your attention. The CD emphasizes more
rock than the pop that much of their first release was. Although,
there are a couple of tracks that are a bit more poppy, like
the first single “Tell Vicki” and,particularly,
“Normal Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”, which
sounds a little out of place. It probably would have fit on
a Doughboys record better, but it’s still a good track
nonetheless.
One of the reasons the record sounds
rough around the edges is the lack of time spent making it.
“We made this record in two weeks. We didn’t want
to spend a lot of time editing it and didn’t want to
overcook it,” Kastner explains.
November 2003 Update: The
band announced that bassist Thomas D'Arcy has left All Systems
Go to concentrate on his own band, The Carnations. According
to the band's Web site, he's been replaced by Karl Alvarez,
from the Descendents and All. They plan to get back on the
road to promote Mon Chi Chi further, but with a new
Descendents disc due to drop early in 2004, it'll be interesting
to see how things shape up.
-- Keith Powell
Related: http://www.asgcentral.com
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