THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The long-awaited seventh studio album from Canadian rock veterans Odds, Crash The Time Machine is a vibrant painting of struggle and the community that both feeds it and transcends it. The bandmembers go in new and exciting musical directions while retaining the darkly ironic signature that has earned them a place in the hearts of listeners for over three decades.
“We’ve been waiting a long time to share this album,” says singer-guitarist Craig Northey, “and we’re all really proud of it. We’ve been playing it for some of our musical inner circle for a while and it truly buoys our spirits when somebody says it sounds like Odds, but it also sounds new.”
Northey and his fellow Odds — bassist Doug Elliott, drummer Pat Steward and guitarist Murray Atkinson — certainly know a thing or two about balancing past and present. Founded in 1987 in Vancouver, Odds burst onto the scene in 1991 with their rambunctious, self-produced debut Neopolitan. Their 1993 gold-selling followup Bedbugs featured the single It Falls Apart and kicked off a run of successful and critically acclaimed releases — including 1995’s platinum-selling Good Weird Feeling, and the 1996 album Nest, featuring the hit singles Someone Who’s Cool and Make You Mad.
Completing the first chapter of their recording career on that high note, they continued touring until 1999, then began an extended hiatus until 2007, when Northey, Elliott, and Steward eventually regrouped, with Atkinson replacing founding member Steven Drake, to begin the second chapter with the 2008 release Cheerleader.
Over the years, as the band have taken extended detours into the world of film and television (including soundtracks for The Kids In The Hall and Brent Butt’s Corner Gas series), it sometimes seems as if their minds have been, as the song goes, “on other things.” But now, after a series of EPs (compiled on the full-length release Universal Remote), Odds are thrilled to finally unveil Crash The Time Machine. The single Walk Among the Stars is a musical map pointing to fond memories of camaraderie and creativity. It’s set in the town of Bath, Ont., and it’s a tribute to friendship. Kindred spirits raise a toast on the frozen lakeshore. It’s a rock ‘n’ roll landscape painting.
As the title implies, Crash The Time Machine finds Odds firmly embracing the future and the possibilities of catharsis.”
