hockey / music

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hmmm don't know what forum to put this in, it's more about music than hockey so i'll put it here.... kinda cool

Hockey star Boyd Devereaux plays music mogul too

The Toronto Maple Leaves center joins a pal from Reprise Records in service of hyper-obscure noise-rock.

By August Brown, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

WHEN Toronto Maple Leafs center Boyd Devereaux caught a set from the Canadian psych-rock group Black Mountain at a Phoenix record store in 2004, he was so blown away that he let the band stay over at his house that night. The group was grateful for a place to crash but was taken aback by Devereaux's day job, then a member of the Phoenix Coyotes.

"At the end of their set, the band asked if there was anyplace they could stay, so I told them they could come back to my place. When they got there, they saw all these pictures of me with the Stanley Cup and were like, 'Um. . . do you play hockey or something?' "

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Indeed, Devereaux is probably the only pro athlete with both a Stanley Cup and an avant-garde record label to his name. Elevation Recordings, a project with longtime friend and Warner/Reprise promotions manager (and former Dirtbombs member) Joe Greenwald, is a new label specializing in small-run EPs from established (if definitely fringe) bands plying crushing drone-rock (Nadja), haunted folk (Blood Meridian) and ear-shredding proto-punk (Residual Echoes). So please, no Ron Artest rap album jokes.

Greenwald and Devereaux had kicked around ideas for various bands and projects since meeting backstage at a Pearl Jam show in Detroit five years ago. Greenwald managed Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron's side project Wellwater Conspiracy, and Boyd came with Red Wings teammates Steve Yzerman and Sergei Fedorov.

Neither Greenwald nor Devereaux had many colleagues to geek out over obscure Sunn 0))) records with, so they did what any closet noisenik would -- start a boutique label where experimental bands can get even freakier.

"The goal is to let artists stretch their wings in their form," Greenwald said. "If they want to do a 20-minute cover and completely deconstruct a song, we'll say go for it."

Elevation doesn't plan to press more than a few thousand copies of any EP, keeping with the time-honored noise tradition of making fetish objects of beloved records. But for serious fans such as Devereaux, the emotional payoff is worth the crate-digging in the off-season.

"I'm a Boris freak," Devereaux said, citing his favorite Japanese avant-metal act. "When I'm in my truck on the way to the rink, that's the time to blast whatever I want."

[Northern Wish]

I lived with Boyds brother Mike for 2 years at university in Waterloo.

Great guys, who I think hail from Seaforth?

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seaforth is correct. boyd went to high school with me and dated some hottt girls here, hehe