Releases
KID SNIPER Landlocked (2002) buy from highschoolchampion
KID SNIPER Vantage Point (2001) (out of print)
Status
Currently dormant
Personnel
Jonny Dovercourt (guitar, bass, vocals, keyboards)
with rotating guests:
Paul Boddum (synth, drums)
Dean Wales (drums)
Alex Durlak (bass)
Matt Collins (bass)
Craig Dunsmuir (bass)
Sara Montgomery (guitar, backing vocals)
Bruce Lynn (guitar, keyboards)
Steve Shiffman (bass)
MP3's
About
Kid Sniper is the songwriting vehicle of guitarist/bassist Jonathan Bunce (not-so-secretly identified as Jonny Dovercourt), 10-year veteran of Toronto’s noise-pop (A Tuesday Weld) and math-rock (Secret Agent) scenes, and curator/editor of the popular Wavelength music series and zine. A cast of collaborators has conspired with Jonny — a key figure in a musical community that has launched Do Make Say Think, Peaches, Mean Red Spiders and Southpacific — since taking KS from the 4-track to the stage in early ‘99.
Post-punk electro-pop? Indie dub experimentalism? A new take on space-rock? Kid Sniper’s overlapping of existent music scenes is demonstrated by the diversity of comparisons elicited: Sonic Youth, Stereolab, The Sea And Cake, Mission Of Burma, Kraftwerk, Pavement, Can, Wire… But in a break with indie-rock tradition, two basses and warm-toned synths take the lead that guitars would carry, while jazz-schooled drums go for the flow.
To document the quartet (rounded out by Christiana’s Paul Boddum on synth, The Connoisseurs’ Alex Durlak on bass/synth and retired Secret Agent Dean Wales on drums) that played these songs live from 1999 to 2001. More than just a random collection of songs, Landlocked is an old-fashioned Album — a thematic mood piece, intended to be listened to from start to finish. Pop choruses are discarded in favour of stream-of-consciousness lyrics and deep ambient textures. Possible touchstones: Bark Psychosis’ Hex or Talk Talk’s Laughing Stock.
Landlocked was the title of a shelved Beach Boys album ... electric guitar only appears on two songs … given permission to use cover of Can’s “Moonshake” … recorded entirely in ProTools by Alex Durlak and mixed by Jeff McMurrich (Picastro, Rockets Red Glare) ... Kid Sniper’s debut Vantage Point (limited-edition release of 200 copies) reached #42 on Canadian college radio and played often on CBC’s Brave New Waves ... band webpage linked to from that of the discerning Trail Of Dead.
“Kid Sniper bashes out burbling electro-pop with the odd sweet burst of noise.” -- Ben Rayner, Toronto Star... “[An] unreal knack for great, catchy guitar and keyboard driven choruses, and equally tasteful and hooky vocals.” -- Stephen Dohnberg, burningink.com... Vantage Point: “An extraordinarily well-developed debut.” — David Young, View
current artists
catalogue
KID SNIPER
BODDUM, DUNSMUIR, WALES, DOVERCOURT, MONTGOMERY
