Vancouver band Juice has been on No Echo's radar for a minute. The quintet's sonic approach has been rightfully compared to such heavy-hitters as Cro-Mags, No Warning, and Bitter End, and they were included on our 12 Hardcore Bands to Check Out yearly feature this past January.
Juice features members from such groups as The Enforcers, Poisoned Seeds, World of Pleasure, A Mourning Star, and Odd Man Out. "Taylor and our first drummer Riley invited me to come play bass for a Clevo-meets-Dmize-style band," says vocalist Tony about the formation of Juice. "Vancouver and Canada in general didn’t have much in the way of that at the time. We wrote and recorded the demo in 2018 all the songs were about 'D boy' lifestyle shit. Rav joined the band for our first show shortly after recording the demo and has been with us since."
With Juice's debut album, Festival of Fools, coming out next month, No Echo has partnered with the band to premiere their music video for the track "World War 3." Tony explaines the concept behind the clip: "I just wanted to do a gravy Seal ass video. Canada has Draconian gun laws.
"I think everyone should own a firearm. I think people should stop voting and start a militia. I’ve been to rural Oregon, those guys are ready to go and I think if people were serious about emancipatory change they would be doing the same."
"World War 3" was directed by Chris Merrell with Rob Zawistowski handling the cinematography and editing:
No Echo asks Tony to give us some thoughts behind the making of the Festival of Fools album. "We lost a couple members and Rob Foster (The Enforcers) who recently moved to Van, and Jeff (World of Pleasure, Seasons Worn) joined for the 7” on Demolition Records and Festival of Fools.
"We were notoriously slow with writing songs and Rob came through with a bunch of rippers that were a little trashier which felt like a natural progression. Rob recorded everything at his studio (Good Looking’ Out Studio) which helped move things along probably wouldn’t have put this record out if he didn’t join when he did."
Everything from the promo shots to the music video to the album art above certainly follows a theme, so Tony explains the Festival of Fools aesthetic. "I wanted to do a contemporary schizo spin on stuff like S.O.D or Sacred Reich. Infowars and Peter Dale Scott on a bad acid trip. US military guarding poppy fields in Afghanistan, demonic deep state ghouls drinking children’s blood, the Pentagon running a secret domestic terrorist gladio style program.
"I think it’s cool when extreme bands sing about extreme things in contrast to singing about your boy who you’re not cool with anymore or how you’re depressed or whatever. Tucker Carlson was doing a documentary with Fox about how Canada was a totalitarian country.
"The US and American Oil are funding sucessionst movements in the prairies. Our entire political horizon is overdetermined by proximity to the US. I’m not exactly a nationalist but I can sound pretty damn patriotic when it comes to Canada being turned into some lumber and gas colony."
Tony continues to explian the Festival of Fools concept. "My dad is from the States, and I grew up in part time in Michigan. I love the States but it’s run by a cabal of psychic vampires. Chew, an artist from Toronto, did the cover and layout. I just told him make it geeked out and he delivered.
Finally, No Echo asks the vocalist how Juice landed on the WAR Records (what a fitting label name for their band!) roster. "I think Andrew [Kline] has always been close with PNW and had his finger on the pulse in terms of what’s going on up the coast. Forever grateful for him putting this out for us."
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Festival of Fools will be out on July 12th via WAR Records. The pre-order will kick off on Friday June 14th at 10:00 AM PST at this link.
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