The Mohawk Lodge – Damaged Goods

I Wanna Get So High With You

The Mohawk Lodge is a band formed by accident. In the early 2000s, when Canadian frontman Ryder Havdale recorded a bunch of songs with his other bands that weren’t fitting well on their albums, he took the out-of-place songs and created a whole new band that would cater to them, The Mohawk Lodge. Since then the band, which includes Havdale and about a dozen rotating members, has released four albums, the most recent being Damaged Goods. And if that wasn’t enough, Havdale also took it upon himself to found the band’s record label, White Whale Records.

Damaged Goods begins well with its first two songs, but that only accounts for a combined three minutes and nineteen seconds of goodness. Opener “Howling At The Moon” kicks off with some lo-fi guitar and Havdale whaling, “I wanna get so high with you,” which manages to fully energize the listener. And its follow-up track “Wild Dogs” is one minute and twenty seconds of fast-paced punk rock goodness.

But then the album begins to lose momentum, and its riffs become slower and simpler. “Using Your Love” is very repetitive lyrically (“Just another using your love…”). The title track “Damaged Goods” is the same way. But after a couple listens, the rock ballads grow on you and you’ll find yourself singing along and trying to emulate Havdale’s twangy, powerful voice (which is pretty difficult to do). And it’s not that repetitive lyrics have always been a bad thing, but the other elements in the songs don’t make up for or accentuate the repetition.

Despite Damaged Goods being The Mohawk Lodge’s shortest record at a mere thirty minutes long, Havdale says this one is his favorite because it’s exactly how he wants it to be. He’s not interested in the business of music or making shitloads of money; he just wants to play his songs under the radar and continue to meet influential people: exactly what a good musician should concentrate on.