I'm gonna skip the preamble part about how No Gold (formerly Yukon) came to be, since: a) it never occurred to my naïve reporting instincts to ask them about this and b) because I prefer to imagine them in a Jungle Book-esq fashion to have been fostered by a tribe of Pigmies somewhere deep within the dark heart of the Congo after surviving a plane crash in which all of their parents suffered fiery deaths. It was there that they learned of the sacred relationship between drum sticks & maracas, the spiritual significance of face paint, and were visited in hallucination by a young Paul Simon, who was channeling rave themes from the future through violent primal djembe drum circles. It was also there that they eventually were acquainted with Mowgli himself, who after becoming tired of being raised by wolves, murdered his entire pack deep in its slumber, skinned each member one by one, and traded the pelts to Leonardo Di Caprio for some precious stones and a schooner bound for Alaska. No Gold pounced upon this rare opportunity to journey to the new world but once ocean-bound, realized the severity of their companion's murderous and in a bout of mutiny deftly apprehended the murderous man-cub. This was followed by a spontaneous detour to New Zealand where the prisoner was bartered for a third slave-member of their now newly completed posse. Mowgli settled in the ghettos of Auckland and eventually formed a pop/hip-hop group called OMG that went on to write an autobiographical hit song about his travails called: "How Bizarre?" and it really was.

No Gold's time in Canada has been equally peppered with odd occurrences and endurances. Take for instance their entire rehearsal studio having burned down to tinders not hours after their having played this years Victory Square block party, or perhaps their unfortunate collision with a moose while touring in Ontario. Those last two anecdotal details are in fact legitimate, and please forgive me for having wasted the previous paragraph of your life. The real issue at hand is one of great importance: Who or What is No Gold and why (and how) have they been making noteworthy impressions on Vancouver's music scene?

We find the young fellows in the alley behind Brad Gogh studios after their performance on Sept. 15th, 2007 at the CBC 3 Bend Sinister & The Clips tour kickoff party, at which they opened with a handful of shimmering and shaking songs. They have just wowed another crowd with a sound that has been frequently likened to Paul Simon in his Graceland era, but contains more contemporary elements of dance and pop. The 'afro-beat' reference has also been thrown around, but NG prefers more of a 'rave' affiliation (and to avoid confusion, this is without the 'neu'; a-la the whole Klaxon misnomer predicament). For not having yet released an EP and only posting one song on their myspace, the band has managed to generate a considerable amount of local credibility and press, most of which can be attributed to their dazzling performances, and some of which to the difficulty in trying to pin down NG's style through cheap and simple influence (or genre) comparisons indeed, something more complicated or perhaps paranormal is going on here. In my own quest for explanations, I decided to do away with speculative remarks and instead sent a simple querying email to the lion's den itself. The following is a transcription of their own responses to some questions I posed to the band over the past couple of months:

No Gold is inspired by:

-RnB music, specifically TLC, Aaliyah, 112, Mariah Carey, R Kelly, Rhianna

-The image of an ancient pharoah walking across the deserted parking lot of an IGA on the way to the liquor store to buy a 40oz.

- Gardening

- Fruit. the look of it & the colours & the taste.

- Casinos in Vegas that are themed (the pyramid one, the volcano one etc....)

- ATVing across a vast desert

- New age moms

- Herbs and spices

- Plus other artists and musicians and bands like phil collins, orange juice (edwyn collins' solo stuff too), adrian orange/thanksgiving, twin crystals, eric dolphy, a-ha, television, robbie basho, old bridge, zamfir, pet shop boys, yanni, roy orbison, arthur russel, zamfir, king sunny ade

- All colours ever known

(personal aside: All of this to me screams Dune on acid... awesome. Surprising Mr. Lynch isn't mentioned. Also, the last point: "all colours ever known" tickles my fancy. Does this imply that there are colours yet to be discovered in our universe. If so, could No Gold possibly possess the secret skills needed to unlock these magical new visual frequencies? Riddle me this: what immense wizardry that would be!)

No Gold aspires to:

-Make gangster rave-rap style baseball caps with local band insignia.

-Replace all studio gear lost to the tragic shed fire.

-Do more swimming in lakes.

So now we see that there was a clear point to the introduction of this article. We have been teleported to another dimension, one in which a Harrison Ford wearing face paint and glow sticks has helped us to unearth and re-mystify these ravers of the lost arc. Of tantamount importance in the findings of my very thorough investigative report was that this band makes wonderful, soulful music, which is welcomingly deviant from the formulaic scenster-status-quo. If you're sick of the next indie whos-who band using one million-something guitars all washing out the same 3 chords to get that oh so mundane 'epic' effect, then I deplore you take the No Gold challenge and treat your ears to a level of substance and attention to melodic intricacy that they've been so sorely missing out on. They deliver more than most for a 3-piece troupe. I should also mention that these individuals, or pseudo-humans, or aliens, are really quite nice and intriguing on a personal level, and their relaxed approach towards the 'scene' is suggestive of great things to come.

You can catch No Gold playing live in local Vancouver dens and eventually hear them on a recording being produced by Jordan Koop of Twin Crystal fame. If you live in the NW of the U.S. keep an eye out for them, as they intend on slipping below the 49th sometime in the next few months.