Toronto’s Hacksaw has been shaking foundations for about five years. A few credits for these punkers who enjoy playing straight-forward, sweaty rock and roll include: two seven-inch singles, one six-song CD and four tours (usually down the east coast as far as Tampa Bay).

Celebrating the release of their latest LP, Turned Up Way Down, and seven-inch, Wasted Summer Blues, the band rock out at a free show Saturday Feb. 23 at the Bovine Sex Club. The Varsity recently sat down for a chat with members Chad and Jeremy.

Varsity: You can call a lot of things post-punk now—there’s country revival, rock revival, blues revival. Where’s Hacksaw?
Chad: Maybe we started off like that five years ago, but we’ve gone pretty separate from the whole punk rock thing. When we tour, we play with a lot of hardcore and punk bands. Even when we play those shows I still don’t feel a part of that. Sometimes I don’t want to be at those shows. As Hacksaw has got older, we’re more into rock music.

Varsity: What about things like the blues and soul on labels like In the Red Recordings, which I would view as a new direction of punk?
Chad: I think we’re more in that direction. Like a resurgence of old rock music and old soul. I think that’s valid as another style of punk rock, and maybe that’s closer to the roots of punk rock, like blues-based.

Varsity: You can hear a lot of blues in your music, which influenced rock. How much are you guys influenced by rock?
Chad: I was totally into Led Zeppelin, then I got into punk. But now I feel that with all the stuff in the mainstream like Blink-182—that has nothing to do with punk rock. It’s totally watered-down pop music played with guitars.
Jeremy: I kind of got into music pretty late. I think I started out with a lot of bad skate punk. Shit like pop punk. I got into a lot of art rock after that. I listened to a lot of sad music at the beginning of college, like Palace [Brothers] and Slint. I got back into rock when I joined this band.

Varsity: What’s the best thing in the so-called post-punk scene in the last few years?
Chad: I go through phases when I’m jaded and unhappy with all of it and I don’t necessarily want to do it anymore. But then sometimes you see bands that kind of inspire you, [but] I honestly can’t think of one thing that I would go out and buy. I’d rather go to an old record store.

Varsity: A lot of bands out there that do a rock thing or something old are referred to as “ironic.” Does it piss you off if people mistake you for an ironic rock band?
Chad: [A friend] called our band “non-ironic garage rock,” but I don’t know if I know what he meant. I know that there’s lots of bands out there with shticks, like makeup and matching suits…. I kind of like bands that dress in their normal clothes, [that are] being themselves and playing really good music. It’s more interesting.

Varsity: Any tour stories?
Chad: The funny thing about our tours is that we go to shows not knowing where we’re going to stay, because we rarely make enough money for hotels. So it’s like staying with strange people and sleeping on hard floors.
Jeremy: Like sometimes we end up paying to play.

Varsity: Complete this sentence: Hacksaw are…
Chad: In debt. A lot.
Jeremy: A bunch of guys who like playing music.

Check out www.hacksaw.ca.