Club Nites
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.
Vancouver's Dumb may wear the sonic trappings of slacker-rock, but their newly announced LP is such a quick turnaround from their first record I worry that they're not truly embracing the lazy inaction that the label implies. The Mint Records band just released Seeing Green last summer, and they're already back at it with the follow-up. A 14-song set titled Club Nites will arrive on June 7. It's a self-produced effort tracked in the band's Vancouver studio over the first few months of the year. Mikey Young of the Eddy Current Suppression Ring and Total Control is mastering the record (he recently worked on the latest from Dumb's label-mates Lié).
In a press-release Mint described the new record:
"As the title indicates, Club Nites is a collection of narratives drawn from the nightlife ecosystem. Attempting to break from the typical romanticized version of 'the club' as seen on TV, the album instead depicts a bleak social setting, where we zoom in on seemingly petty details in order to reveal the cracks that Hollywood forgot to fill."
The band announced the LP along with a Quincy Arthur-directed video for the title track. Vocalist Franco Rossino commented on the new single:
"Social interaction often gets institutionalized by the club, and this song breaks down some of the anxieties and joys of being at the club/thinking about the club, but as if we are at the club whenever we are in public. At the club at night-time, we are permitted to loosen our language and become uninhibited, we do what we want rather than what we are required to. A light is shed on previously hidden motives, and our daytime secrets become revealed embarrassingly."
I want to note that this record closes with the song "CBC Radio 3," and I'm just dying to hear it from the title alone. For now though, go dig into the "Club Nites" single, it's great and has the best sarcastic use of the word "buddy" in Canadian music.
Watch: Dumb - "Club Nites" @ YouTube
Let's stick with the west coast... Last week saw a new single from Vancouver shoegaze/punk combo Kamikaze Nurse. The band's planning to release Bucky Fleur, their debut LP, sometime later this year. The single "Sun Song" arrived online recently with a video directed by Karen Zolo. You can check it out below.
Kamikaze Nurse features vocalist/guitarist KC Wei (hazy, Late Spring), drummer John Brennan, bassist Sonya Kim (Necking), and guitarist/vocalist Ethan Reyes.
Watch: Kamikaze Nurse - "Sun Song" @ YouTube
Long back before Some Party was a mildly unsuccessful newsletter it was the title of an entirely unsuccessful 2012-era podcast (that you should continue to mercifully ignore). One artist I recall showcasing on that show was the Welland-based singer-songwriter Julianna Riolino. While she's been quiet these past few years, it's great to hear her finally return with new material. "Be My Man" is the propulsive first single from an upcoming EP from Riolino, who's now playing under the stage-name J.R.
In the premiere at Indie 88 Riolino comments:
"This song is about making the same mistake over and over, hoping that you learn from it... 'Be My Man' is a plea to let go of the past and believe in the present. At the time of recording, an abusive relationship had depleted my confidence and amplified my self-doubt. This song is a reflection of that period in my life and my response to an angry man."
Justis Krar's IMMV Productions assembled the accompanying video for the track. I've got it on authority that these recordings feature instrumentation from Hamilton singer-songwriter Dan Edmonds, Edmonds-collaborating drummer Jason Bhattacharya, and Ross Miller of The Dirty Nil and SIDEMAN.
Watch: J.R. - "Be My Man" @ YouTube
Montreal hardcore act GAZM is preparing their debut LP for a May 31 release. Heavy Vibe Music will arrive from 11PM Records and features the new single "Put The Pedal Down." Speaking to No Echo, the band commented on the track:
"The song is largely about the situations we've been in where the gig seems fine on paper but upon arrival, the vibe is totally off and we all know that something weird is going to happen and that we've got to play the gig and get moving before something goes down"
The group's planning on a full North American tour in July, but not before they take part in this June's Sitting On The Outside weekend in Ottawa alongside Piper Maru, Scorpio Rising, CELL, PRIORS, and many others.
Watch: GAZM - "Put The Pedal Down" @ YouTube
The Ontario psych music festival Crystal Lake will return this year for its third edition. The event's bringing some big names in substance-abuse rock north for the event, including the DC stoner trio Dead Meadow, NYC's volume-enthusiasts A Place to Bury Strangers, and the experimental Oakland group Lumerians. The Canadian presence at the festival features names that regular Some Party readers should recognize, including Toronto prog-pop act Absolutely Free, the masked alt-country star Orville Peck, prolific Montreal garage rocker Paul Jacobs, Toronto psych-pop producer ZONES, and Montreal's mod-influenced indie rockers The High Dials. They'll be joined by many others including Hot Garbage, Wine Lips, Walrus, Mimico. Further additions to the lineup are expected as well.
The two-day festival takes place on July 26 and 27 at the Frontier Ghost Town campground in West Grey, Ontario. I really want to see if I can make it out to this one, as it looks wild.
Here's a tune from Toronto psych-dance trio DOOMSQUAD, from their upcoming LP Let Yourself Be Seen. The experimental group will be among the performers at Crystal Lake this year.
Listen: Doomsquad - "General Hum" @ Bandcamp
Melodic Montreal skate-punk group Down Memory Lane have a new single online titled "Déjà Brew," it's set to appear on the band's upcoming EP Catch. That set will arrive soon digitally, and will later be paired with material from last year's Release EP to make up the appropriately titled Catch & Release LP sometime later this year. Look for it on Thousand Islands Records.
Down Memory will also soon take part in an international four-way split with Bare Teeth (France), Nerdlinger (Australia) and SHAMES (Japan) titled Bridging Oceans. That record arrives on April 26 from Thousand Islands and will feature three exclusive tracks from each band. You can preview a song from each act over at Bandcamp.
Listen: Down Memory Lane - "Déjà Brew" @ Bandcamp
Vancouver four-piece pop-punk band Swear Jar has a new video online for their song "Jawbreaker." The Connor McGuire-directed clip plays out like a horror movie trailer. "Jawbreaker" is one of seven songs to appear on the band's self-titled 2018 EP.
Swear Jar recorded this material for that EP throughout 2018 at Rain City Recorders and Flash Recording.
Watch: Swear Jar - "Jawbreaker" @ YouTube
Halifax-based D-beat hardcore act Cutie has played their final show, calling it quits at the at Halifax not for profit art collective Radstorm this past weekend. They leave the scene with a digital release of their nine-song self-titled EP, recorded this past March with Charles Austin. It was released this weekend.
Cutie, while they lasted, featured vocals from Jessica Bates, Johnny Evans on drums, and guitar and bass from Future Girls members B and Matty Grace.
Listen: Cutie - Cutie @ Bandcamp
Toronto "western noir" rock band Run Coyote has a new single online titled "The Chase." It's set to appear on the band's upcoming full-length In Shadowlands, which drops April 26 on So Sorry Records.
The band commented on the track's place in the concept album's narrative:
"It features the antihero of our forthcoming new album... Feeling betrayed, she tries to take justice into her own hands and is pursued by a private eye across city and desert, under the night sky. In Shadowlands is the marriage of our love for Film Noir and Spaghetti Westerns through late night rock'n'roll songs. 'The Chase' is a perfect representation of that."
Listen: Run Coyote - "The Chase" @ Bandcamp
Toronto live music documentarian Mechanical Forest Sound published a wealth of new material this past week. Included in Joe Strutt's latest batch of field recordings are three songs from lo-fi punk act Moul D. The band played live at the comic and graphic novel store The Beguiling as part of a #DefendThe11 fundraiser on February 2.
Moul D is a four-piece that features indie cartoonists Michael DeForge and Patrick Kyle among its ranks. DeForge is known for the Instagram webcomic Leaving Richard's Valley along with his print work. Kyle's published several books including Black Mass, Distance Mover, Don't Come In Here, and Everywhere Disappeared.
Listen: Moul D. - "Anti Trust/Timing Problems/Body In Pain" @ Mechanical Forest Sound
Grey Matter 2 is a compilation of music from some of our favourite SK artists. All proceeds from this complication will be split between Prairie Harm Reduction and The Lighthouse, two Saskatoon organizations that are working to make the province a better place for everyone.
Album artwork by Jane Revae McWhirter.
Limited edition of 75 cassettes
