People in the indie punk scene in Canada can usually be linked by six degrees of separation. I’ve never met Golden Shitter guitarist Matt Ellis IRL but I became acquainted with him when he played in the short lived Plastic Heads with Jon Sharron. Having played with everyone from Chokehold to Brutal Knights, along with the criminally underrated Valley Boys, Jon is the current guitarist for Career Suicide, so for the sake of this metaphor Jon is basically Kevin Bacon. I don’t actually remember who introduced me to bassist Dave Tyson- who multitasked with mixing and recording duties as well- I’m thinking Mikey from Imploders or Rob from Mononegatives, but either way I’m glad they did. When one of my bands played Hamilton, Ontario (the new Toronto!?) a couple years ago, Dave and his wife Hayley put us up and showed us the best time. For someone who’s been sleeping on people’s floors and couches for 30 years, that means a hell of a lot so I can honestly say I owe Davey some hospitality. That said it is by no means out of any feeling of debt that I say the Golden Shitters are the shit.
Dave was introduced to me as a member of Sam Coffey and the Iron Lungs but it was his band at the time Dark Trip that we played with. Dark Trip sounded like The Spits sans synth. If you don’t know what The Spits sounds like stop reading this right now and go listen to “Let Us Play Your Party” or better yet go see them live any/every chance you get. Matt Ellis I’m most familiar with via his 2021 album Full Moon Fever which was full on Ramones worship. I’m avoiding the use of the term Ramonescore here because a lot of that stuff dips a bit too deep into 90s pop punk which in turn was heavily influenced by the greatest band of all time but emulating a band that was inspired by the Ramones isn’t the same as emulating the Ramones. Basically, consider the difference between Screeching Weasel and The Riverdales. That said some of Matt’s songs sound like early Screeching Weasel, but others like “Everything Sucks” and “Tolerate Being Alive”, sound like 90s Seattle punks Head, a personal fave who did a bang up job of sounding like a buncha glue sniffin’ pinheads.
Even tho the remaining member of this power trio is Kyle Fisher from the Dirty Nil, calling Golden Shitters a supergroup seems cliché so I didn’t bother taking the time to see how many degrees of separation by which he and I are connected. I also wanted to add something about Paperface’s scathing recent Eulogy for Egg Punk but to be honest this here is no more Egg-y than it is Ramonescore. Sure there’s some synth, unlike the aforementioned Dark Trip but that just makes them sound even more like The Spits. Some might say they sound a bit too much like The Spits (or Head). But I say not enough bands sound like The Spits (and Head)! I asked a couple mutual friends to ask Sean Wood if they have any new releases on the horizon to which I received no reply, neither they or Head have released anything post Covid and Ben Weasel hasn't released a good song since Jughead left but fear not ladies and gentlemen, the Shitters have pinched out 11 gold nuggets under 2 minutes (and one slightly over), I present to you Brutal Planet.
