Let us know if you blogged about Mongrels or read a blog about Mongrels or whatever.  In the meantime, here's some stuff people said about us and our record...

4 Stars from HOUR's Dave Jaffer.

..>..>..>..>..>..> ..> ..> Montreal's Mongrels are a much beloved band, and records like Oshawa show why. Instead of buying into the wispy thin anti-rock rock thing, this lot crank out eight hot tracks of big, deep-voiced, van art-smelling rock'n'fuckin' roll. Like the namesake Southern Ontario town, this record reeks of roadhouses, tough broads and cold beer, but unlike that decidedly awful burg, there's warmth, sex appeal and love here to match the overflowing buckets of rock bravado. Essential track: City Living, Amy Dynamite's siren song.
 



The Toronto Star's John Sakamoto picked us for his Anti-Hit List.
Read the whole list here.

MONGRELS

"Hanged Dirty"

Though they're part of Montreal's burgeoning music scene, and their resumé includes Tricky Woo, Local Rabbits and Soft Canyon, none of that has much bearing on what this six-piece sounds like: a female-fronted, two-drummer revision of the bludgeoning acid rock of the late '60s and early '70s. Songs about wizards aside, it is not only loud but extravagantly loud, thick with history yet delivered without self-consciousness. (From Oshawa, myspace.com/mongrelsmtl)

Chris Rolfe from EYE Weekly in Toronto chose our album as his favourite of 2007!!!!!...beating out Turbonegro AND Queens of the Stoneage.  I know... we're as shocked as you are... read EYE's whole list here.

MONGRELS

Oshawa (Weirdbeard)
Enough with the sulky chamber pop — Montreal's got something meaner. With his mighty Tricky Woo on hiatus, guitarist Andrew Dickson takes a decidedly more prog-o-delic, blacklight-poster direction. Enter heavy Strat riffage, a generous dash of weirdness and vocals à la Heart care of Amy Torok. And with two drummers hard-panned left and right, it's a pretty old-school affair. But unlike the more compact Woo, the Mongrels happily celebrate the trippy indulgences of '70s B-listers Rainbow and Captain Beyond on "All In My Head," "Set Me Free" and "City Livin." Wow, if only every album this year ended with something called "Contemplating the Wizard." CHRIS ROLFE

1. Mongrels, Oshawa
2. Queens of the Stone Age, Era Vulgaris
3. Turbonegro, Retox CR

Bob Vinyl - TooManyVoices.com

"Mongrels is like a one band embodiment of late 60s Detroit, bringing heavy garage rock and raw soul together into a near perfect mix. Sure, there are other bands doing this, but few are doing it as well as Mongrels."

From METRO:

Mongrels

Album: Oshawa

Label: WeirdBeard Records

Guitarist Andrew Dickinson from Juno-nominated Tricky Woo and his earnest lineup goes in the wayback machine to the late '60s when psychedelia met the earliest incarnations of heavy metal. Picture Sabbath and Jefferson Airplane looking for a fight after getting blitzed together, and you're somewhere close to the sound with which this double-drummed Montreal six-piece outfit wants to subjugate the planet. Own this now, damn you!

Brian towie/Metro toronto -- METRO also did a full feature on Mongrels.  Read it here.

From The Montreal Mirror:

Mongrels
Oshawa
(WeirdBeard/Sonic Unyon)

A motley mutt as a whole, perhaps, this Montreal sextet boasts a
half-dozen finely pedigreed sons of bitches, exceptional talents at
their tasks—last known whereabouts include Tricky Woo, Local Rabbits and
Bliss. Their loud, long-haired, lysergic blues-rock bump 'n' grind,
leavened with soul and psych-pop sweetness, and anchored in place by
double drummers and Amy Torok's force-of-nature vocals, makes for some
fabulous furry freak music, feathered roach-clip rock, full-bodied,
fierce and funky in the original, olfactory sense. Lest they lose their
way in the mists of time, guitarist Andrew Dickson in particular keeps
the freshness sealed in with novel, nuanced noodling.
8/10
(Rupert Bottenberg)


From NOW Magazine:

MONGRELS
Oshawa
(WeirdBeard)

There was always a concern over what sort of havoc Andrew Dickson might
wreak if the Tricky Woo guitarist ever got hold of a bigger sound
system, a few extra axe-wielding members or, god forbid, both. Now that
Dickson has been joined by the hairier members of Local Rabbits, Bliss
and Blood Sausage they've released their debut disc.

It appears there wasn't much to worry about even with that Grateful
Dead-style double-drumming set-up. Instead of bulldozing supergroup
bluster, the Mongrels deliver impressively tight, riff-heavy boogie
blues rock with a tendency to veer off on proggish tangents
characterized by frequent rhythmic shifts, blazing guitar solos and
banshee hollering by ballsy chick singer Amy Dynamite. This is what
Broken Social Scene might've sounded like had they come from Montreal
and listened to Av'nir, Offenbach and Black Oak Arkansas instead of
Pavement and Neutral Milk Hotel.

Tim Perlich

The Link's DB Meyer gave us a perfect score too!!

The debut album by these Montreal rockers is a refreshing kick to the head-knocking loose the vestiges of cookie-cutter bands and generic riffs that seem to dominate the hard rock scene. A powerhouse of pedigree, Mongrels offer listeners an unrelenting auditory experience from beginning to end. Oshawa is driven by clear psychedelic tendencies infused with a soulful funk sensibility that prevents it from coming off as a tribute to classic rock of yore. The fierce vocal stylings of Amy T. are accompanied by the driving rhythm of dueling drummers and bass lines so phat they'll make your mama cry. Add to the mix the luscious licks of Andrew Dickson's guitar and you've got an album that makes you wanna shake your ass and thank God that rock'n'roll ain't dead. A definite must have for the New Year.
5 Lighters in the Air Out of 5


From ICI Montreal:

MONGRELS
OSHAWA
WeirdBeard
Voici une excentricité bienvenue dans le
paysage musical montréalais, mais pas tout à
fait nouvelle. On s'explique: tributaires d'un
acid rock fin sixties à la Jefferson Airplane,
préférant une approche quand même plus rentre-
dedans que psychédélique, Mongrels
affichent un je-m'en-foutisme qui n'a d'égal
que leur bagage musical, ce qui les aiguille vers
des pièces puissantes et grouillantes dirigées
par l'inoubliable voix de la sulfureuse Amy T.Le
groupe a par contre les défauts de ses qualités.
En portant fièrement un pot-pourri d'influences
sur ses manches de guitares, il frôle par
moments le déjà-vu. Bref, du rock intense qui
se prend pour du rock intense. On les prend
comme ça ou pas. (EC)


From DurhamRegion.com:
(read the full interview here)

Oshawa

Mongrels

Weird Beard Records

This outgrowth of Montreal's rawking scene is a supergroup of sorts with Tricky Woo's Andrew Dickson on guitar and it's a disc of riff smacking goodness. A little bit Priestess, a little bit Pride Tiger, a little bit Black Mountain and a whole lot of the Shwa's Spirit Of Christmas due in part to its prog rock overtones. Voxy Amy Dynamite (aka Amy Torok from Oshawa, hence the name) holds nothing back and her bluesy over-the-top style keeps pace with the epic momentum created by the two drummers, Dusty Rails and Colin Burnett. Add in some solo noodling, organ, synth and lap steel and it's a peculiar Gallic-flavoured enterprise from Rawk's new centre of the universe. Maybe a smidgen more cowbell though! Fourth track 'All In My Head' is head-banging magic and the closer 'Contemplating The Wizard' is an interesting mash up of Rush and Voidvod.

CJAM - Windsor:

Mongrels "Oshawa"
Without reading the liner notes, it's clear that Andrew Dickson (of TRICKY WOO, SOFT CANYON fame) is playing guitar. Basically he's amazing. You'll also discover that he is joined by 5 others to create music that reminds me of BLACK MOUNTAIN meets BLACK SABBATH, with flourishes of R&B and a little bit of soul too. Very enjoyable and fun. Also, it appears that all the drumming in the left channel of the mix was performed by one player, and the drums on the right side are coming from someone else. Very cool.

VUE Weekly out of Edmonton wrote this review in Haiku form.  Awesome.  Read their latest batch of Haiku-style reviews here.

Mongrels
Oshawa
WeirdBeard

Epic riffage with
Grace Slick being ripped in half!
Only waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better

Mathew from i (heart) music says:

Albums like Oshawa make me wonder why I don't wait until February or March to do my year-end list. I know there's something to be said for wrapping things up alongside the calendar, but there's invariably so much you end up missing for one reason or another.

With Mongrels, I'm not sure what that reason was, but I'd definitely file them into the category of "should've made my top 21". I'm not saying they'd top it, of course -- I'll leave that to NatCapRock -- but I'd definitely put it up there. This is due in equal parts to 1) the fact that frontwoman Amy Torok has an amazing set of pipes (see "Needs Got Needs" for proof) and 2) the band has two drummers, and knows how to use that to their loudest, rocking-est advantage, as they demonstrate in "Contemplating The Wizard". Every song here is an exhilarating embrace of '70s rock in both sound and spirit, and Mongrels show that Priestess aren't the only hard rockers from Montreal who know how to make the sound seem fresh and invigorated.

Caped crusaders

>> Rock 'n' roll renegades Mongrels fly
the freak flag high with their debut LP Oshawa






BEES IN THEIR BELFRIES: Mongrels

By JOHNSON CUMMINS

Psychedelic rockers Mongrels live up to their name, as these patchy mutts don't seem to have any association with what people think of when they think of the Montreal music scene.

Sporting dual drummers à la Grateful Dead and Allman Brothers (former Local Rabbit Jay Tustin and Colin Burnett of Bliss handle the skins), Mongrels do sneak in some '60s acid rock influences, but despite their deceptively gaudy garments, they hardly play the hippie card. A fuel injection of '70s arena rock, guitar heroics (Andrew Dickson's department), psychedelic panache and a dirty sense of dementia all show up, but what really makes Mongrels stand out from the cookie-cutter bands is the soulful howl of Amy Torok, who delivers spot-on Betty Davis/Tina Turner fury, served up with punk rock vigour. Blood Sausage bassist Steve Ludvik and recently inducted keyboardist Dave Lines, once of the Mother Funkers, round out the line-up.

Mongrels have little to do with the proven formula of the local success stories, and as their brilliantly titled debut record Oshawa clearly states, they couldn't give a toss about what tastemaker blogs have to say about them.

"I guess we're like the NDP of rock," says guitarist Andrew Dickson. "Just the fact that we play rock 'n' roll music is enough to separate us from any kind of scene, because there's really only a handful of us doing it. I think also the careerism aspect of why we are doing what we do is a lot different from what I see in the indie rock scene right now. I don't think we could really be part of any kind of scene because the band is made up of socially inept kind of outsider people, and I think that has really been the basis of what the band is about."
Dodging the douchebags

Further distancing themselves from any kind of scene, Mongrels have chosen to release their debut record on WeirdBeard Records, headed by local promoter Greenland's Caroline Bognar, with her husband Dickson pitching in and rolling up his sleeves as well. Upcoming releases on the homespun label include a collection of rare Tricky Woo tracks, many of which will be seeing the light of day for the first time, as well as releases from other like-minded bands. In case Dickson's name hasn't already rung any bells, he's a Montreal music stalwart, having cut his teeth with the ever-evolving Tricky Woo and the psychedelic pop of Soft Canyon.

Having watched the honeymoon of label relationships deteriorate with both bands, Dickson is now celebrating the independence of co-owning a label for the first time, and couldn't be happier. "In just about every aspect, there is more freedom putting records out on your own label. I guess the most exciting factor is that I just don't have to deal with douchebags anymore. It took me about five years to figure out that most people in the music industry are douchebags. Tricky Woo was a victim of the great rock 'n' roll myth of how things are supposed to work, and I've learned from my mistakes."
Mantle illness

If Mongrels are challenging people's current conception of what is indeed rock, they definitely like to twist the knife a little bit more through use of headbands, hippie garb, obscenely short cutoff jean shorts and Dickson's custom-tailored cape, which would put any fan to the test.

"I guess the cape really came from a fascination with medieval things like Lord of the Rings, Dungeons & Dragons and stuff like that," muses Dickson, "as well as other caped people I admire, like Sly Stone. I would always see bands that I liked, but if they would look like Johnny Winter with a cape, they would just automatically be better."

If Mongrels do come across as a little, um, different, these miscreants insist it's about time somebody unfurled the freak flag again and waved it high and proud. "I think most people should just be more comfortable about being total freaks, and if we can be a role model for that, then great," says Torok. "I think mental illness is really one of our biggest influences. We feel like there is a swarm of bees in our heads that we have to let out and that's what becomes our music. That's pretty much Mongrels right there."


CD launch with Kickers at Club Lambi on
Saturday, Nov. 24,9:30 p.m., $10 (incl. CD)


NIGHTLIFE Magazine:



Band members Andrew Dickson (from left), Steven Ludvik, Dusty Rails, Amy Turok (rear left) and Tim Dwyer in their rehearsal room. "We could just play middle-of-the-road songs, but we don't want to do that," Turok says.
Photograph by : ALLEN MCINNIS THE GAZETTE

"I think I sounded like this when I was about 10," said Amy Turok, who was born to live up to her last name.

It was 11 o'clock Tuesday morning, and over coffee and cigarettes, and in a throaty morning voice, Turok was explaining how she came to front a supergroup featuring veteran members of some of Montreal's top rock acts.

Mongrels are the brainchild of Tricky Woo singer-guitarist Andrew Dickson and Bionic drummer Tim Dwyer, who enlisted bassist Steven Ludvik (Blood Sausage) and drummer Dusty Rails (Jason Tustin, of the Local Rabbits). Yes, that's two drummers. These guys (and girl) mean business.

"Andrew comes to me and says, 'I wrote this song, now you sing it'," Turok said, recounting their initial musical encounter. "I don't know how much interaction you've had with Andrew, but he doesn't talk much. He didn't need to. It was all very organic. At first, it was just me and Andrew, then me and Tim and Andrew, and it kept going to become this monolith."

Turok's hefty wail is the icing on the cake. Mongrels are not so much a rock band as a rock-out band. Freed from vocal duties, Dickson can concentrate on tearing it up on guitar, backed by Ludvik's busy bass and the in-tandem rhythms of Ludvik and Rails.

"(On our recordings), they're hard-panned (one on the left channel, the other on the right)," Turok said of her drummers." If you listen, you can really hear their styles. Dusty is looser; Tim is the locomotive."

Mongrels' gritty, unbridled rock is entrenched in the spirit of '70s psych and metal, with strong grooves and elements of straight-up rock 'n' roll.

"There are five people with five distinct musical approaches," Turok said. "(Our sound) is a hybridization. It's heavy rock, but my vocals come in and you can hear the soul and R&B influence, I hope. Steve lays the funkiest bass line you've ever heard on top. We could just play middle-of-the-road rock songs, but we don't want to do that."

What stops them? I asked.

"First of all, we have Andrew Dickson in the band. We just work on it and work on it and work on it. We take a song and change the arrangement 10 times, until everyone says, 'Whoa!' Till then, we bust our asses, change parts and work on it until it sounds like nothing we've ever heard before."

Performing a late-night show at Pop Montreal in October, Mongrels held nothing back, and were obviously having more than a little fun.

"Somebody referred to them as my backup band," Turok said. "I had to laugh. I prefer to think of them as my frontup band. Being on stage with them is amazing. Aesthetically, it's neat. There are two lefties and two righties, with me in the centre ... The guys are doing their thing, and all looking at each other, so it's just me and the audience."

Though this is her "first rock band proper," Turok is a natural onstage, throwing herself into the songs with everything she's got. And she welcomes hecklers.

"I want you to come up front and talk to me - shout," she said. "That's where I get it ... As much energy as you give me, I'm willing to give back."

Mongrels perform tonight at 9 at Petit Campus, 57 Prince Arthur St. E., with the Adam Brown and Chariot of Shame. Tickets cost $8. Call 514-844-1010. For more information, go to www.myspace.com/mongrelsmtl.