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Epic Punk Night

Edmonton’s Ten Second Epic delivers at CD release party

By Nicole Fitzgerald

What: Punk Night

Who: Ten Second Epic

When: Sunday, Oct. 8

Where: Garfinkel’s

Tickets: $5

They have a reputation as a punk band, but if you listen closer to the new tracks off of Ten Second Epic’s first full-length album on the Blackbox/Universal label, you are only left with the feeling of being punked. Hear for yourself at the band’s album release party Sunday, Oct. 8 at Garfinkel’s as part of Punk Night.

“I think we get the reputation as a punk band because we followed the traditional route of punk bands in terms of marketing ourselves,” said frontman Andrew Usenik . “We are a pop rock band. I think maybe people are almost afraid to admit they like pop rock; a lot of them call us emo or punk. Maybe it just gives them more of a justification for liking something that is not mainstream.”

Usenik adds the band has a lot of punk influences, the five Edmonton boys growing up on it.

“We were not put together as musicians, just a couple of buddies who thought it would be a good time and it turned into something more serious than that,” Usenik said.

Serious music with the Suck It Up Princess video garnering major MuchMusic rotation, the bestowal of 2006 Best Band in Edmonton by See Magazine, 2005 Vans Warped Tour and Taste of Chaos Tour time and, most importantly, the band’s new album, Count Yourself In , was produced by Garth Richardson whose past credits include Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine and Hedley.

Ten Second Epic entered the recording studio as musicians and exited as songwriters.

“Our goal of our first (indie) album was to just get something recorded; we were a bunch of teenagers who played instruments and tried to put something to together in four minutes and call it a song,” Usenik recounts. “We morphed into songwriters instead of musicians on this new album. Now we are more of a group, rather than separate musicians. We needed to gain experience before taking it to a new level.”

The relationship with Richardson opened the doors on good songs to make them great, touching on the theme of the title track Count Yourself In.

“It’s a general invitation to almost boarder on confidence to arrogance as this is something you want to pay attention to,” he said. “Not to just wright if off as something you have heard before. We want you to take time to listen to all 10 songs and let them soak in the entire experience of it.”

With a major label to the band’s credit, the five boys Usenik, Dan Carriere, Sandy MacKinnon, Craig Spelliscy and Pat Birtles, are sitting back to soak it all in — maybe just for ten epic seconds — before the release of the new album later this week and then a cross-Canada tour.

“In the short term, I see the band evolving from a do-it-yourself touring band that has gotten us a reputation we are very proud of, to becoming a bigger name in the Canadian music scene,” Usenik said.

A Textbook Tragedy will join Ten Second Epic for Punk Night.

Tickets are $5.