A Story About a Song About The Story of Anvil

If you love great documentaries, rock music, underdog stories or Canadian pop culture, you’ve probably seen Anvil!: The Story of Anvil. If not, I assume you’re in prison and you’re not reading this anyhow – there’s just no other excuse for not seeing one of the greatest music docs/Canadian films ever made. Sacha Gervasi’s award-winning tale of the 30-year-old lovable but Spinal Tap-like hoser metal band Anvil has been getting a lot of love everywhere to the point where it’s becoming a genuine pop culture phenomenon.

I heard proof of this tonight while listening to Alan Cross’ Explore Music show on the radio (essential listening if you’re a music lover). He talked about a new song by Toronto hip hop artist D-Sisive (pictured in the mask), based on Anvil!: The Story of Anvil. On the show, which is archived on the Explore Music site, D-sisive talks about how he watched the film and fell in love with it. He even recognized some of the locations and figured out that he basically lives in the same neighbourhood as Anvil singer Rob “Lips” Kudlow, and even started driving by the singer’s house.

Eventually this minor “stalking” resulted in the song “Anvil.” It uses samples from the documentary, opening with a clip of Lips saying, “The way I look at it, really, is that it can never get any worse, so even if it never gets better, that’s the way it is” and ending with musing that “The reality of it is, we’re not getting any younger” so you gotta play music while you can. “Anvil” is a reflective song, in which D-Sisive raps about his own career and how he works hard but still doesn’t have that much to show for himself.

In the interview he admits to laughing at the band at first, but then professes respect for them; you get the sense that he sees the group as both a kindred spirit and a warning.

One line compares D-Sisive (real name: Derek Christoff) and his collaborator Rob Baker to Lips and Lips’ childhood best friend/Anvil drummer Robb Reiner: “I mean it when I say, ‘Derek Christoff and Rob-o Baker will never be Lips and Rob-o,’catering kindergarten kids in Scarborough, trying to living the dream, depending on tomorrow.” It’s not quite clear if he’s rapping that he’ll never live up to Lips’ hard working, never-give-up nature, or if he’s saying that he’ll never let himself become a musician who has to work a blue collar day job to get by. I’d say a bit of both.

You can hear for yourself, here, where you can download or stream the track, but be quick because it might not be up there long. Spinner just ran this article saying that the Anvil! camp was not impressed by the unsanctioned sampling (FYI: the song also uses chunks of the track “Werewolf Head” by Dead Man’s Bones, which is actor Ryan Gosling’s band). According to the article, D-Sisive “prepped a remix of the song, replacing the Anvil clips and references with content from classic hoser comedy FUBAR.” The new version of the song is embedded in the article, apparently, but it doesn’t seem to play.

For more on D-Sisive, go here; for more on Anvil! The Story of Anvil, go here, and for more on FUBAR, go here.

For a picture on an actual anvil, go here.

 

 

-Dave Alexander

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