NEW WEST CREW

This is for all the Albertans following me.

High Jinks is a band that has a special place in my heart, so it’s hard to right about them in an unbiased manner. They played their first show in my parents’ basement in 2005. Funny story about that, I wasn’t living there at the time but they were out of town and a couple Vancouver bands needed a show. To this day my folks have no clue that there was Hardcore show in their basement.

High Jinks, or High Jinkz, as they were initially called started out playing goofy ‘get low’ Hardcore, but quickly outgrew that and moved onto something greater. The ‘05 Demo (which I believe was first available at the infamous Drayton Valley show) is, in retrospect, not very good at all. The ‘06 Demo started to move things in the right direction, but still left a lot to be desired. At the time, I’m pretty sure nearly everyone in Edmonton, myself included was losing their mind over these demos. That owes a lot to the fact that there was a band that was doing something different, they weren’t a metalcore band or a Figure Four wannabe band. There was one band playing NYHC style stuff that was well loved locally as well, but High Jinks was doing something that no one had done on a local level, and as a result kids loved them. When they really stepped it up another level, was with their third demo. A four song demo tape that had versions of songs that would eventually end up on their s/t 7”. I can’t recall when this tape came out, I want to say late ‘06 or early ‘07, either way, it was a giant leap forward. The lyrics were serious, with well formulated ideas, and the music was FAST. It barely sounded like the same band. If you listen to their discography in chronological order, this improvement comes out of nowhere. Also, I really doubt this demo is available online anywhere, so even if you have all the other stuff, you should download this anyways. The songs are listed under their original names and not what they were called on the 7”. The only song on here that got wide release was the track that ended up on the Foreign Exchange comp 7”. I believe these were the first recordings with ‘Wild’ Steve Laughton on bass.

A while after the 3rd demo, came their first proper release. The self titled 7” on the ever sketchy/unreliable xTruex records. Despite the label name, they released mostly non-Edge bands, so don’t get the Idea that High Jinks were a Straight Edge band. This record is great! It’s fast, it’s raging, it’s 10 tracks on a 7” and it’s hard to keep up with. Again, great lyrics, fast music. Pretty much essential if you like fast Hardcore.

Finally, we have their final release. A Split with Sunset Riders. I remember not being crazy about the High Jinks stuff on this release when it came out, but when I revisited it recently, I changed my mind. The intro alone is worth the whole record. The other two songs are much stronger than I remember, total ragers. 

All in all, I’m not sure how important this band was to Edmonton Hardcore. They were important to me and my peer group, but looking at that scene now, I can’t see an obvious impact at least not musically. That probably has more to do with people leaving than anything else, myself included, as well as a lot of dropouts. 

This is a band that I think could have blown up with their last few releases had they not been from the middle of nowhere, and I strongly urge anyone who likes fast Hardcore to get this. All it takes is the click of a button.

http://www.mediafire.com/?3bs90isn5fk9m8f