South African Stoner Rock Firebrands Ruff Majik Pay Homage to Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
South African Stoner Rock Firebrands Ruff Majik Pay Homage to Scott Pilgrim vs. The World With Two Exclusive Cover Releases
(Christelle Duvenage Photography)
Ruff Majik, the notorious heavy stoner rock band known for their thunderous riffs and explosive performances, release their tribute to Scott Pilgrim vs. The World today. The band, led by the indomitable Johni Holiday, have recorded versions of Threshold and Black Sheep, two iconic tracks from the movie’s soundtrack in anticipation of the new Netflix series launching on November 17th.
Johni has long been an ardent fan of both the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World movie and the original graphic novel by Bryan Lee O’Malley. These influences played a pivotal role in shaping the band’s identity and musical direction from the very beginning.
Commenting on the project, Holiday expressed his deep connection to the source material “I saw Scott Pilgrim v.s. The World at the tender age of 18 – a high school loser with high hopes for getting my band out of the garage one day. My teenage mind completely missed the plot of the movie (or the fact that there was even any graphic novels before it) and just cared about the gnarly garage rock emanating from the soundtrack, thanks to fictional bands ‘Sex-bob-omb’ and ‘The Clash At Demonhead’. My fate was pretty much sealed after that, as I dug into every last piece of novelisation and memorabilia, I could get my hands on. Weird as it may be to say, I think the soundtrack of Scotty P. is one of my greatest influences of all time – we still say “we gotta play now & LOUD!” to each other before Ruff Majik takes the stage. So here you go, a love letter to my favourite fictional universe.”
The release features Ruff Majik’s unique take on two tracks that have become anthems in their own right.
The horned infant known as Ruff Majik emerged from the primordial ooze when the band moved from the historical town of Lydenburg in 2012 to the capital city of Pretoria, where they honed their craft for a few years before finally entering the studio to record for the first time. Now, with a number of EP’s and two lauded albums under their belt, not to mention a megaton of local and international touring, they return with what might be their defining work in the shape of ‘Elektrik Ram’.