With the buoyancy that comes from a groove that encroaches slightly on a pop-punk sound and a drive that explodes with the euphoric energy of contemporary alt-rock at its finest, “Etiquette” is one hell of a song. But it is its subject matter that is the real talking point here.
For all its big, bombastic, and bravado-driven spirit, the song comes from a more genteel place and is about being matched up on a golf course with someone who doesn’t observe the rules, written and otherwise, who doesn’t conduct themselves with the appropriate manners, who is oblivious to sport’s etiquette.
Now, I’m not sure what that says about where rock and roll is today, or perhaps what it says about the bands home country of Canada…and I mean that in the best possible way… but, after all, Alice Cooper is one of many golf-obsessed rockers (his biography “Golf Monster,” it’s a brilliant read) but I can’t imagine him writing a song about it, or guillotining a sand wedge live on stage.
Then again, this is a band that has a whole album of golf-themed songs, the brilliantly titled Songs in the Key of Golf, to their name. But even if the subject matter takes a bit of getting used to, this is excellent music, alt-rock writ large, and to be fair, it isn’t as if they hold back on their feelings about said etiquette breakers.
Well, if we can have Pirate Metal, Chap-Hop, and Vapourwave, why not Canadian golf rock? The more I think about it, the more sense it makes.
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