Internet Human
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.
Windsor punk outfit Psychic Void are set to release their sophomore LP Skeleton Paradise this Friday through New York's Vanilla Box Records. The set, which follows 2018's killer debut Terminal Vacation, features eight new cuts that marry the influence of 80s hardcore and Detroit protopunk with some spacey psych-rock flair. The reverb-drenched vocals go a long way in that regard. The band's Joshua Kaiser recorded, mixed, and mastered the new set.
You can now preview the new tracks "Internet Human" and "Alley Dweller" over at the band's Bandcamp site, with the track "Boneshaker" available to preview from the label's end. Vanilla Box has the songs pressed as a 10" LP on red and purple vinyl.
Without saying too much, I'll continue to vaguely tease Psychic Void's part in an upcoming Some Party project. It's driving me crazy to keep it under wraps, but I'll have more on it very, very soon. In the meantime, snag a copy of Skeleton Paradise. Along with the recent Flesh Rag and Protruders records, 2019's made a pretty strong showing in this subgenre.
Listen: Psychic Void - "Internet Human" @ Bandcamp
Sticking to a theme, the Toronto art-punk quartet Weaves returned last week with a twitchy, Devo-indebted new single titled "Internet Tears." The track arrived alongside with a positively wacky video skewering the brain-deflating inanities of online life. It premiered last week at The Fader with throwback CGI effects galore. In a statement to the site, vocalist Jasmyn Burke commented:
"I was watching something on the Internet that made me cry and started thinking about how ridiculous and funny and peculiar it is that we can sit alone staring at a screen and feel such strong feelings of happiness or sadness or anger while just browsing. It's like imposed feelings or something. Maybe you can relate."
The track serves as the band's first new music since 2017's LP Wide Open. That Buzz Records release saw the group land on the Polaris Music Prize shortlist.
Weaves are also my daughter's favourite band, if the endorsement of a 7-year-old means anything to you.
Watch: Weaves - "Internet Tears" @ YouTube
The oft-haunting Nova Scotian indie rock duo Construction & Destruction recently appeared in a session for the Concordia-affiliated Montreal community station CJLO. In the October appearance, Dave Trenaman and Colleen Collins performed four cerebral new songs for host Zak Slax' program Slax Trax.
You can watch the pair performing "Come Back," "Darling Starling," "Calamity," and "Wood Smoke" over on YouTube, or grab the audio at SoundCloud.
Based in Port Greville, Construction & Destruction last released Revolution C, a three-song collaboration with Steven Lambke of the Constantines. It followed the band's 2017 full-length Noli Timere and a recording that saw both members playing as part of the electronic group Delta Blip. Both Revolution C and the Delta Blip EP set were carried by Guelph's Out Of Sound Records.
Watch: Construction & Destruction - Slax Trax session @ YouTube
The emerging rock trio Motorists recently wrapped a weekend of touring, playing shows in Ottawa, Montreal, and at home in Toronto in support of Detroit's Deadbeat Beat. The band promoted that trek with the release of their second digital single, titled "Instant Replay." It follows the band's debut track "Displacement Time" from the summer. You can hit it on Bandcamp.
Motorists features Feel Alright principal Craig Fahner, Jesse Locke of Tough Age (plus Century Palm, Rotten Column, Chandra, Simply Saucer, etc.), and Matthew Learoyd (also of Feel Alright, along with Calgary bands like Stalwart Sons, Lab Coast, and Cold Water).
Speaking of Jesse, his recently launched Come For a Ride podcast, co-hosted with Lavender Bruisers' Kritty Uranowski, has its second episode online. This time out, the duo's chatting with electronic music producer and vocalist Victoria Cheong about Hardly Working, her brand new EP as New Chance.
Listen: Motorists - "Instant Replay" @ Bandcamp
Toronto's eclectic alt-country/garage/stoner-rock hybrid Mean Life recently premiered a new single and music video titled "Ready 2 Spark." While the song's long been a live staple for the group, this studio incarnation's sat on the shelf since 2011. The group only recently revived the recording (with a fresh set of vocals) this past year.
Fronted by Jackson Fishauf, Mean Life recently released a full-length titled Bad Vibes in the Womb. It arrived in August, and you can find it over at Bandcamp.
Watch: Mean Life - "Ready 2 Spark" @ YouTube
Matty Morand of the Toronto power-pop act Pretty Matty recently shared a three-song EP recorded with Ian Shelton of the Seattle power-violence outfit Regional Justice Center. The set features Shelton providing instrumentals with Morand contributing vocals and lyrics. Sean Sakamoto recorded the tracks.
Pretty Matty recently released their debut self-titled full length on Get Better Records.
Listen: Ian Shelton & Pretty Matty @ Bandcamp
Toronto jangle-pop quartet Ducks Unlimited has another new song online from their upcoming debut Get Bleak. You can stream "Gleaming Spires" below. Speaking to The Line of Best Fit, frontman Tom Mcgreevy commented on the track's sense of disenchantment.
"It's about the emotional energy that gets put into hating a place. I feel like the manic intensity with which I've heard friends sometimes shit on the town they live in is often pretty transparently an exercise in the displacement of issues in other parts of their lives."
The four-song 7" arrives this Friday from the Spanish label Bobo Integral.
Ducks Unlimited will play a record release show on December 5 in Toronto at The Baby G, with support from Mark Grundy's Quaker Parents and Madeline Link's PAX.
Listen: Ducks Unlimited - "Gleaming Spires" @ Bandcamp
80s-flavoured Vancouver power-pop trio Autogramm has a new video online featuring their recent "Bad Day" single. The clip's comprised of live footage shot in the summer by Justin A. Stadig. It captures the band performing at the Astoria. In the premiere at New Noise, vocalist Jiffy Marx commented on the song's purpose:
"I wanted to write a song partly for a friend of mine who has struggled not only with mental illness, but also with different medications that he's been prescribed over the years with varying positive and negative results, but also because I have mental illness in my family history, and I myself struggle with depression and anxiety from time to time..."
There's a lot of negative stigma and misunderstanding, the result of which can be people not seeking help when they need it. Four hundred and fifty million people around the world suffer from some sort of mental health issue, and I assume that is only the reported cases, so it is not unusual or uncommon. We're not a particularly political band but basically just wanted to tell anyone having a bad day that they are not alone."
All proceeds raised by the track are to be donated to The World Federation for Mental Health. "Bad Day" arrived this past summer through Spain's Spain's Jarama 45RPM Recs. It's backed by the b-side "Quiero Estar Sedado," a Spanish language cover of the Ramones classic "I Wanna Be Sedated." Both tracks were recorded and mixed at the Balloon Factory by Joshua Wells and mastered at the North London Bomb Factory by Daniel Husayn.
Autogramm features Jiffy Marx of Hard Drugs and Blood Meridian on vocals, guitar and synth, the globetrotting CC Voltage (of Berlin's Dysnea Boys, London's Loyalties, and BC acts Spitfires and The Black Halos) on bass, and The Silo, previously of Black Mountain, Lightning Dust, and Destroyer, on drums. The new music follows the band's 2018 full-length What R U Waiting 4?, which arrived last fall on Nevado Music.
Watch: Autogramm - "Bad Day" @ YouTube
Speaking of Destroyer, the Dan Bejar vehicle recently shared a second track from the upcoming Have We Met. "It Doesn't Just Happen" follows October's "Crimson Tide" in previewing the new LP, Destroyer's 13th. You can check it through a subdued new video that follows a snowmobile travelling in near darkness.
Have We Met is due on January 31 from Dead Oceans and Merge. The album follows 2017's Ken.
An earlier press release described the album thusly:
"Culled from years' worth of saved writing, set aside for projects "beyond music," and recorded at his kitchen table, Have We Met harkens back to Kaputt-era Bejar stringing together lyrics off hand while lounging on his couch. The resulting vocal sound exists in the sweet spot between two Destroyer worlds colliding: hints of the past, more strident Destroyer mixed in with a relaxed, new-aged Crooning one."
Watch: Destroyer - "It Doesn't Just Happen" @ YouTube
Organ Eyes, the Ottawa-based post-punk recording project lead by Cam Steacy, recently shared a new 12-song full-length titled Handles on Bricks. The set follow's the band's summer single "Once Bitten," and their 2018 full-length Chasing Paper. You can find the album at Bandcamp.
Listen: Organ Eyes - Handles on Bricks @ Bandcamp
The high-concept collectivist BC post-punk unit N0V3L is on the cusp of releasing a split EP with the similarly-spirited Australian post-punk/krautrock act Exek. The two-song 7" (titled SPL1T in the Bandcamp listing, because the revolution will be nothing if not l33t) features the song "Violent & Paranoid" from N0V3L, with Exek contributing "Lottery of Inheritance." The set arrives this Wednesday, November 27.
The material marks N0V3L's first follow-up to their debut EP NOVEL. That 8-song set arrived this past February from Flemish Eye and Meat Machine Records.
