What can I say here? The Mohawk Lodge – a Canadian collective led by Ryder Havdale – remain firmly rooted in the reverb laden guitar driven lo-fi backwoods of the record business throughout their album “Damaged Goods”.
The lyrics suggest a heart on the sleeve approach to getting their message across and those pounding drums and three chords to the max guitars provide insistent proof that The Mohawk Lodge went the extra dollar and ordered large. There are even choruses that might well induce you to wave your lighter in the air like you were at a Bruce Springsteen concert and you will find them aplenty in “Hard Love” and “Gold Rivers”. On reflection, that’s it. This is blue collar rock and roll in the Springsteen – of old – style that will, no doubt, do or die on stage and while it is perhaps wise to wonder what drove the creation of these songs it is less wise to draw the conclusion that all is as bleak as it outwardly seems.
The relentlessly crushed sound often irritates but that sonic fault is balanced by the refreshing rock ‘n’ roll honesty of the lyrics and the larger than his shadows persona of Ryder Havdale. He’s keeping it real, as they say.