There's a thread on the TLOBF Community forums at the moment about various "reasons to be in Canada". One reason that I don't think was mentioned was to go and see The Dudes, a band from Calgary, Alberta who appear here on Brain, Heart, Guitar. At the moment though, it would seem like a good prospect. This album, whilst flawed, is a worthy addition to the flow of strong music emerging from Canada at the moment.

Musically, Brain, Heart, Guitar is a pretty conventional rock album. The guitars are loud but also varied and consistently interesting - this is an album where the core things are done well, rather than a scrappy but experimental one. There are no lunges into breathtaking musical originality here. Where The Dudes put their specific stamp on things is often in the lyrics, which cover topics from accidentally injuring someone on a dancefloor to being hunted down "for something that I must have did". One of the interesting things about the album is how subjects that most bands would write tongue-in-cheek, joking songs about are dealt with surprisingly seriously. On "Don't Talk", a song about being frustrated with a lover who's too chatty in the bedroom, The Dudes inject quite a lot of angst and unease into a subject matter that I think a lot of bands would just play around with, if they dared try to write and perform a song about it at all. It's a little bit jarring in a way, but simultaneously refreshing.

Another example would be "Mom 100m" in which we hear that "there's your mom outside hiding / I see her lurk in the shadows / Looks like she's reading for battle" with genuine seriousness, complete with a throbbing chorus - "I'm running from your mom / She just keeps coming..."

Other highlights include opener "They're A Comin'", with its whimsical tone and twinkling background guitar and cymbals. Handclaps rise out over emerging drum rolls, before the song's muscular but fun main riff takes the driving seat again. Elsewhere there is "Done Is Done" which continually switches between a mournful verse and a gritty, driving chorus which solemnly proclaims, "you get no second chance".

At 13 tracks, not including the unreleased demos included here as well, Brain, Heart, Guitar feels quite overlong and there are few songs that really leap out and grab you - nevertheless, this is a solidly put together album of conventional indie rock. It has brains, heart, and definitely guitar. Job done.
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The Dudes on MySpace