Pitchfork

What a bad time for Canadian indie rock bands with names starting with "D". Like their fellow Torontonians Death From Above 1979, blues-punks the Deadly Snakes have called it quits.

Last week, Pitchfork spoke to multi-instrumentalist Maxwell McCabe-Lokos aka Age of Danger, about the end of the band, various side projects, and his foray into the world of acting. Before everyone gets caught up in their new ventures, however, the Deadly Snakes have a final show scheduled at Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern on August 25.

"The main reason is that it's been like 10 years and...it's not fun like it used to be and it's not enough of a career to justify the lack of fun that we're having," McCabe-Lokos said. "It's not excruciating by any stretch, but I think that we're all getting a little tired of going on tour and playing in Ozona, Texas for two or three people. Some people can do that until their eyes fall out.

"I think we went about as far as we could with this band...and we're all still friends and the main thing is that we were friends before, and we wanted to remain friends after, so we decided to call it a day.

"The thing is, people that will read this will think that it's the end of something, but...we're band people, but we're not really...like we didn't ever really make it such a huge part of or lives that it's a big deal to end it," he continued. "For the past five years, I've been saving up money to buy a house, and I live with my girlfriend, and now I have the acting career, and I'm renovating a house right now. There are so many things in my life that don't include being in a band that it came time to make a choice, you know--should I be in the Deadly Snakes and let it interfere with all these things, or even just let it stress me out and take up my time, or should I just take a break from that? It's not so much that we're quitting--it's just going on with everything else in our lives."

Danger hasn't set a post-Snakes side project in stone, though he hopes to continue playing with bandmate Matthew Carlson. "We wrote some songs together. We're going to just see what happens with it. I'm going to try practicing piano playing more...something a little quieter," Danger explained.

The other Snakes are all also busy with other projects. As previously reported, fellow Snake Andre Ethier will release his new solo album, secondathallam, on Paper Bag Records tomorrow, August 8. Chad Ross and Andrew Gunn tracked down a metal drummer and have started a new band with him, while Jeremi Madsen's new career path remains up in the air.

As for that last show, "[It's] going to be really emotional for me," Danger said. "But without sounding patronizing or condescending to even myself because I will continue playing, I kind of don't want to be thought of as "the guy in the band" for a while. I don't want to feel like, you know, like 'Max Danger from the Deadly Snakes', like I'm a fucking show, and take care of some other things before coming back again."

Although the band is currently up for the Polaris Prize (Canada's version of the Mercury Prize) for their last album, 2005's Porcella, Danger said, win or lose, the Deadly Snakes are no more. Fans can, however, expect one last release-- a recording from the upcoming Horseshoe gig with some B-sides tossed in.

Finally-- Danger in Hollywood? Not quite. He does, however, plan to concentrate on his acting career a little more now that the Deadly Snakes have come to a halt. He said, "I've done some movies in Canada and I did some stuff in Europe and the States in the last few years, and it pays good when you get it, but it's few and far between. I might as well give it a shot."