Le même discours
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.
Montreal's Bleu Nuit have unveiled "Le même discours," the first track from their upcoming full-length Le jardin des mémoires. The sharp percussion really stands out here, with the band building a cool post-punk tune atop that propulsive beat. Despite clocking in at just 2 and a half minutes, the band still finds space to take a couple of off-kilter diversions (there's a wild bridge at around the minute mark). If you're dialled into that moody Preoccupations vibe, you'll find a lot to love here. The band describes the new track as "un hymne à la soumission et à la dévotion."
This recording features vocals, guitar, bass, and synths by Yan Skene, additional guitar by Nicolas Gaudreault, and drums by Laurent Saint-Pierre. Producer Julien Mineau (of Malajube and Fontarabie) gets credit for other noise on the track as well. The band recorded at The Bottle Garden Studio in Montreal with Peter Woodford (that's where Tough Age recorded Shame).
Bleu Nuit is following up a five-song EP from 2017 and the "Féminin Masculin" digital single from earlier in the year. Le jardin des mémoires is due in the spring from Michel Records, home of like-minded francophone noisemakers Corridor and VICTIME. Parisian label Requiem Pour Un Twister will carry the release overseas.
Listen: Bleu Nuit - "Le même discours" @ Bandcamp
Last Thursday I premiered a new song from Montreal garage-punks PRIORS over at Punknews. "Sunshine" will appear on the band's upcoming 14-song sophomore LP New Pleasure, which arrives November 16 on Slovenly. This time out PRIORS features Chance Hutchison, Drew Demers, Seb Godin, Alan Hildebrandt, and Stuart Buckley, members who've (currently or formally) played in Sonic Avenues, New Vogue, the Steve Adamyk Band, and The Famines.
Slovenly asked Eric Davidson, frontman of the legendary New Bomb Turks, to say a few words about the new PRIORS record. He commented, in part:
Slovenly Recordings zooms into a new universe somewhere between their trademark trashy echo-poonk and future-shock squalls with New Pleasure by Montreal quintet PRIORS. Hailing, scaling, and wailing from a long-scrambling Canadian scene whose rep is not as revered as it should be, PRIORS furiously scrunches together lacerating fuzz riffs, maniacal snare drum abuse, skittish analog shivers, and savagely scared shouting that's sometimes double-tracked into microchip-loose robot nervousness.
I dig that description. The band's following up their 2017 self-titled LP (released by Twintoe, Brain Gum, and Pentagon Black). The new record also follows a recent digital single for the song "Grease" that dropped earlier in the year.
Listen: PRIORS - "Sunshine" @ Punknews.org
PRIORS Slovenly labelmates Tommy and the Commies are currently on the road in Europe supporting their debut LP Here Come.... The Buzzcocks-indebted power-pop act recently shared a video for the song "Permanent Fixture," directed by Pacer's Shawn Kosmo.
Based in Sudbury, Tommy and the Commies features the titular Tommy backed by brothers Jeff and Mitch Houle (Strange Attractor, Statues).
Watch: Tommy and the Commies - "Permanent Fixture" @ YouTube
Montreal pop-punk group Pale Lips announced their sophomore full-length last week with a teaser video previewing several songs from the record. The album's titled After Dark and is due on January 31 through God's Candy in Canada, Alien Snatch! in Europe, and Spaghetty Town in the States. The band last released the Should’ve Known Better 7" through Resurrection and Surfin’ Ki Records in 2017.
Pale Lips have a record release show scheduled for February 2 at the Turbo Haus in their hometown before they head to Europe for a month-long tour.
Watch: Pale Lips - After Dark Teaser @ YouTube
Psychedelic Vancouver electro-pop act Old Man Canyon premiered another song from A Grand Facade last week, the hazy and laid-back "Run Away." Lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Jett Pace spoke about the track, commenting:
"This song is written as a conversation between someone and their future self, a version of themselves that’s attained all they wish to be and know. It’s the inner dialogue that follows a revelation, and that compulsion to run and abandon everything to avoid real resolution."
A Grand Facade is a 7-song set that will serve as Pace's second release under the Old Man Canyon name. He recorded much of the album in his home studio before heading to California alongside members of the band Wake Owl to wrap it up.
Listen: Old Man Canyon - "Run Away" @ Bandcamp
Saint-Lambert rock band Zen Bamboo detailed their upcoming EP Volume 4: Retour aux Sources. The five-song set will arrive on November 2 and finds the band once again working closely with Thomas Augustin (of the above-mentioned Malajube). They lead track from the record, titled "Kanye," can be streamed below. I doubt they're going to get a response from the song's subject, as he seems preoccupied of late.
I've been following Zen Bamboo since seeing them rock an alley in the rain at FME two years ago. They've been slowly releasing a double album's worth of material spread across four EPs, each of which thematically follows a stage in the career some fictional parallel band (from a scrappy rock'n'roll start through success and maturity, diverging solo careers, and an eventual return to form). Of course, that's my bad Google Translate read on what they're up to. The first volume, Juvénile, was released in the summer of 2017. Plus mature, plus assumé and Carrière solo later followed.
Listen: Zen Bamboo - "Kanye" @ Bandcamp
Calgary's Preoccupations are headed out on a co-headlining tour with Detroit's Protomartyr in late November, but before that the bands will release a split 7" titled Telemetry at Howe Bridge. The record will feature Protomartyr reimagining "Forbidden" from Preoccupations' 2016 debut, while the Albertan act performs their version of "Pontiac ’87" from 2015's Protomartyr's The Agent Intellect on the reverse.
Protomartyr’s vocalist Joe Casey commented on their cover:
"There’s an old adage that goes something like, ‘if you’re going to cover a song by a beloved Canadian band, it’s best to pick the second shortest one.’ So, ‘Forbidden’ it is. We all really liked the outro part and had the brilliant idea to extend it. And that, my friends, is how you make musical history."
Domino will release the split on November 16. You can check out Protomartyr's take on "Forbidden" below.
Listen: Protomartyr covering Preoccupations' "Forbidden" @ YouTube
Last month Toronto "western noir" rock band Run Coyote released a new single titled "Night Rider." The band wrote the tune following a coast-to-coast tour in support of their 2014 LP Youth Haunts. Guitarist/vocalist Sam Allen commented:
"This song was inspired but countless hours spent on the road, driving home from shows in the early morning hours on deserted highways. That experience gave me this wild sense of freedom, so that’s the story I wanted to write; one about a guy working late hours and drifting between his job, his family, and the pull of adventure."
The new song follows a pair of singles the band released in 2017: "Young Canadians" and "Yellow Roses." Run Coyote has a number of shows scheduled throughout Ontario in November, both as a full band and in a stripped-down solo configuration. You can find those dates at Facebook.
Listen: Run Coyote - "Night Rider" @ Bandcamp
So I'm pretty good at ignoring Record Store Day, if for no other reason than the exclusives rarely interest me enough to join the lines (my self-imposed focus on small Canadian bands really leaves me out to dry here). This year's big event came and went, and I fully expected to float past the Black Friday version as well... but alas, Dine Alone, you know my weakness.
There'll be two limited Attack In Black releases from the label on November 23. First up is a 10-year anniversary edition of The Curve of the Earth, the infamously lo-fi, eclectic follow up to the band's (relative) commercial breakthrough Marriage, released months apart. Curve seemed to voice the Welland quartet's restlessness. It aggressively counter-programmed the crowd-pleasers from their carefully produced debut and stated in no uncertain terms what kind of art they wanted to make. It in many ways foreshadowed the diverging genre roads and home recording process that Romano, Romano, Burton, and Kehoe would embrace in the subsequent decade. This version of Curve has new cover art by Danny and comes in a couple of limited 180-gram pressings.
Dine Alone will also release Got Live: If You're Interested, a career-spanning 10-song live record recorded at various Attack In Black shows across Canada. It features three songs that never saw studio versions: "Time," "Find me a Guided Line," and "Homeless Language."
The real question is, if I'm already waiting in line like a sucker to snag these two records, do I also break down and grab Arts & Crafts' Live at Massey Hall Vol. 1 comp solely for the Constantines song? I've been known to make worse financial decisions.
