Local Favourites

Some Party is a newsletter sharing the latest in independent Canadian rock'n'roll, curated more-or-less weekly by Adam White. Each edition explores punk, garage, psych, and otherwise uncategorizable indie rock, drawing lines from proto to post and taking some weird diversions along the way.

You can stream featured songs from the latest editions of the newsletter via the Some Party Playlists, available on Apple Music and Spotify.

It was never my intention to have Some Party be a comprehensive chronicle of the comings and goings of the Canadian music world. It would of course be impossible to do so as one person. This project's more interesting to me as a reflection of my own interests and obsessions anyways. Yet here I sit looking at the week in Canadian music news and I find it dominated by two names I had consciously decided not to cover.

This summer sees new releases from both the Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene.

Don't get me wrong, I don't have a particular problem with either band. In fact You Forgot It In People and the early Arts & Crafts roster were all pretty instrumental in getting my head outside of the punk silo. That said, both bands are so ubiquitous and well-covered that it doesn't seem all that useful for me to provide pithy little updates on them here. Their exclusion isn't meant to be a hard rule. This newsletter could be entirely comprised of Win Butler fan fiction if it strikes me, but I'm not there at the moment. I'd love some feedback on this though, as I'm curious what's useful to you the subscriber.

So this is my formal acknowledgement, for the record, that the are some pretty damn massive Canadian indie rock records coming out this summer and you should probably check them out. Anyways...

Of Note

Punknews premiered the new video for the song "D.O.A." from Vancouver baseball punks The Isotopes. The track, which doesn't appear to have anything in particular to do with Joey Shithead, is the second single from the band's latest LP for Stomp Records, 1994 World Series Champions. Check it out:

The Isotopes are taking their shtick across the pond this August when they tour to support CJ Ramone in the UK. You can find those dates at the Punknews link. If not for the strike, by the way, the 1994 World Series champions totally could have been the Expos.

Gritty Saint John punk four-piece Right Shitty (who I wrote about quite a bit back on the second Some Party issue) are putting out a split release with Whitby, Ontario noise-duo Deathsticks. The New Brunswick band shares a pair of new songs while the Matt and Laura contribute "Local Favourites," an epic 9 minute wall of crunchy noise, distortion, and shouting. You can stream or buy the whole thing at Bandcamp or on cassette at select shows.

I watched Deathsticks perform at the Pentagon Black showcase that was part of this year's Ottawa Explosion. They were loud as fuck. My wife, fresh from an afternoon of relaxing solitude at some Gatineau spa, arrived at the the tiny Avant-Garde Bar mid-set. I have never seen a person more reluctantly enter a show, and the look of concern she shot me as she paid at the door was truly something special. Deathsticks were great though.

Mint Records has unveiled that the sophomore album from Edmonton's Faith Healer, titled Try ;-), will arrive on September 8th. Formerly the solo stage name of Jessica Jalbert, Faith Healer has now expanded into a proper band with the addition of drummer and multi-instrumentalist Renny Wilson. Their collaboration has resulted in fuzzy, complex pop songs like "Light of Loving." It's the second of nine tracks that will make up Try ;-) this September.

Young Guv, the indie pop persona of Fucked Up and No Warning's Ben Cook, has shared a video for the song "It Could Be Me." It's, like the other Young Guv material, totally lovely and provides an incredible contrast to the types of bands Ben otherwise plays in. The song appears on the recent Traumatic 7" released on Slumberland Records.

Jim Di Gioia at Dominionated wrote highly of the new self-titled EP from angsty Regina post-punk act Blue Youth, which came out this past May on Grind Central. It was the first I'd heard of the three piece but there's a ton of energy and potential there. If you're partial to wound-up At The Drive-In style punk, you'd best check out the whole five song set over at Bandcamp.

A few weeks ago I mentioned that revived 70s Hamilton psych-rock act Simply Saucer had appeared on Dawn Loucks and Mike Bell's CJSW show Saved By the Bell during Sled Island. A video of their performance of the song "Bullet Proof Nothing" is up on YouTube now, and as an added bonus it's one of those 360 degree deals so you can explore the room as they play.

The lineup of this year's Music 4 Cancer has been unveiled. The fundraising music festival in Sainte-Thérèse, Quebec is entering its seventh year and will bring a number of international punk acts together for the cause. There's a number of headliners to be announced, but look for Guttermouth and Voodoo Glow Skulls atop a bill that also features Montreal's ska-punk veterans The Planet Smashers, and frenetic Saint-Hyacinthe solo act Pépé et sa Guitar. Furthermore, the bill boasts reunions of a number of now-defunct Montreal's punk bands, including Twenty2, Fifty Stars Anger, and Human Breed.

Exclaim has previewed the next release from Toronto dream pop act Moon King. Hamtramck '16, named for the Detroit neighborhood where Moon King principal Daniel Benjamin resided in 2016, is set for release as a cassette on August 4th via Arbutus Records. It's Daniel's first release since guitarist Maddy Wilde stepped away from the band and it finds him exploring elements of underground dance music. You can find more details and upcoming tour dates at Exclaim.

Finally, this week saw the reveal that all four members of the beloved Toronto punk act PUP will be making a guest appearance in the video game Dream Daddy. The game, set for release this coming week, is described in a CBC writeup as "a dating simulator where you play as a hot dad, and your goal is to meet and romance other hot dads." PUP, unlike real life, are unromancable in the confines of the game but do appear as characters along with their song "DVP." You can check the in-game depiction of the guys and an interview with the creators over at the mother corp.

Thanks to Warehouse concert hall for sponsoring this month of Some Party. Recently opened in downtown St. Catharines, Ontario at 11 Geneva Street, Warehouse is becoming the go-to event space in Niagara for live music. This coming week will see New Swears with Strange Shakes play Warehouse on Friday, Camper and Heart Attack Kids on Saturday, and the Northlane / Intervals tour arrive on Sunday the 16th.