CUFF THE DUKE

“When we started out, our ability as musicians was a little limited. None of us had any idea how to write songs. We were figuring everything out on the fly,” explains Cuff The Duke vocalist Wayne Petti of the Toronto band’s start almost a decade ago.

Petti, along with bandmates Paul Lowman, Dale Murray and Corey Wood have certainly gotten the rhythm down with their own unique take on alt-country.

Improving on their writing and performing skills with the release of every new record, the band also give props to one of their current producers, Greg Keelor of Blue Rodeo, for his influence.

“We met Greg when we opened for Blue Rodeo in early 2008. He invited us to come record sometime at his farm for fun and see how we like it,” Petti says. “His style of recording is something that really makes sense to the guys and I. We’re all very much on the same page.”

That album, the just-released Morning Comes, focuses on the “loved and lost,” while an already-in-the-works sixth record will continue the story, which involves coming to grips with the heartache and how the process helps to continue life’s journey.

“We had never done anything like that before,” Petti explains. “We thought we had a lot of solid material and that we should do something a little more interesting.”

Cuff The Duke play the Park Theatre on Friday, Oct. 21. Doors open at 8 p.m. with fellow Torontonians Hooded Fang starting things off around 9 p.m. Tickets are $15 in advance at the Park Theatre, Into the Music, Music Trader and www.ticketbreak.com/parktheatre, and $20 at the door.

- Pamela Roz

FRANK TURNER

Frank Turner, one-time front man of British hardcore act Million Dead, is a one-man music machine.

Having played his 1,000th solo show this past April at the Strummerville Festival in Shoreditch, London, as well as releasing his seventh disc in five years, the fun-loving, kick-in-the-nuts England Keep My Bones, Turner is well on his way to joining the ranks of Joe Strummer and Billy Bragg as one of England’s greatest songwriters.

Oh, and he has yet to celebrate his 30th birthday.

England Keep My Bones is a disc filled with cheeky stabs at fame (Eulogy), big rockers (I Still Believe) and beautiful ditties (I Am Disappeared).

“If I wasn’t pleased with it, I’d still be working on it,” Turner told Virgin Red Room this past spring.

“We recorded way too many songs and we had to edit it down, which was a very painful, emotional process for me. It was like stepping onto a life raft from a sinking ship and choosing 12 of my 15 children to come with me.”

As well as recording more than enough songs for a box set, Turner plays an average of 250 to 300 gigs a year.

“I feel like I could do more,” he says. “I often get to the end of the year and subtract the number of shows I’ve done from 365 and wonder what I was doing with the other days of the year.”

Check out Turner at the West End Cultural Centre on Saturday, Oct. 22 for just $22.50. Tickets available through Ticketmaster.

Visit www.frank-turner.com.

- Nicholas Friesen

THE RIPPERZ

A second record in 10 years? That seems about right for a Winnipeg band. For The Ripperz, it’s all about the subtleties of straight ahead rock ‘n’ roll.

“The Ripperz isn’t anything that we’ve ever had to force. I think we’ve grown into ourselves a little and figured out what our expectations are of each other,” says Chris Sawatzsky, who is joined in the Ripperz by Travis Warkentin and Mark Wiebe.

“I used to kind of cringe when I told people I was in a band called ‘The Ripperz.’ It’s still a bad name, but it’s been long enough that the meaning has changed and solidified for me. I might even be kind of proud to have accomplished this much with such a bad name.”

With this old name comes a new record, the live off the floor recorded You Are the Moon, produced by John Paul Peters (Comeback Kid), an old collaborator of the band.

“John has recorded us for a long time, he was around when we were that polished pop punk band, so he’s kind of a fourth member,” Sawatzsky says. “We were just more relaxed in the studio - (we) didn’t rush anything. I think the songwriting has changed - this album is a little more mellow than our first one.”

Come check out these new tunes for yourself at the You Are the Moon CD release show, Thursday, Oct. 27, at 8 p.m. at the West End Cultural Centre with The Vibrating Beds and The Down Home Boys (Regina). Tickets are $10 in advance, $12 at the door and are available at Into the Music, Music Trader and www.ticketworkshop.com.

Visit www.theripperz.com.

- Nicholas Friesen

Published in Volume 66, Number 8 of The Uniter (October 19, 2011)