Then You're Gone

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.

Alas, Toronto's Century Palm isn't long for this world. Without a lot of fanfare, the band let the word slip on Twitter, mentioning that their recent show with fellow Torontonians Peeling opening for Wand would be one of their last. Drummer Jesse Locke told me "We've decided to amicably call it quits. No hard feelings and everyone has other projects on the go. Currently planning our final show!" I'd look for that to be December in Toronto, but nothing official's been announced yet.

If you've not yet checked out Century Palm, the band has a pair of 7" EPs and a single LP to their name. You can get down with their entire discography without a lot of effort. On record, Century Palm recontextualized some moody new wave elements into a lean post-punk sound. There's some Simple Minds in there, some Wire, Krautrock, and, yes, a bit of Joy Division (although that's been overstated). Century Palm's material never felt nostalgic though, at least not to me. This was always a very modern band. Their visual aesthetic (all clean lines and stark whites), felt very much their own as well. From the start, Century Palm felt fully formed. Their look and sound was clean, cohesive, and current. They are -- were -- just a cool band.

Watch: Century Palm - "King of John Street" @ YouTube

Watch: Century Palm - "New Creation" @ YouTube

Of the group's lineup, everyone's at work on something new. Penny Clark and Jesse Locke are two-thirds of Tough Age and are set to release their new LP Shame on the 20th. Paul Lawton recently unveiled his new band Don't Bother. I'm not entirely certain what Andrew Payne's up to, but the former Zebrassieres frontman's sure to re-emerge sooner or later with something new. (Update: Andrew's making electronic music solo as Vanity Phase).

Of Note

Speaking of Tough Age, I bamboozled my family into taking a weekend trip to Toronto so I could attend both of the band's Shame release shows (the LP on Friday night at Baby G and the cassette the next afternoon at the Dupe Shop). I'll have more on those shows later, but if you missed them you'll still need to wait until the 20th to get your mitts on a copy of the new record. As you wait, check out "Piquant Frieze," which premiered at Tiny Mix Tapes last week.

Listen: Tough Age - "Piquant Frieze" @ SoundCloud

After a 30 year hiatus, The Hot Nasties are back with a (short) new song. "Hey There Girl" will appear on The Ballad of the Social Blemishes, an EP set for release soon on Ugly Pop Records. The band, notable for featuring a young Warren Kinsella before his career in politics, formed in Calgary as The Social Blemishes in `76, so there's some history wrapped up in that title. You can hear an outtake of the EP's title track online now as well.

Watch: The Hot Nasties - "Hey There Girl" @ YouTube

Toronto's garage-pop act Twist has shared a stylish and cinematic video for the song "Freak" from their recently released Buzz Records EP Benefits. It was produced and directed by Jacq Andrade and Brittany Lucas. I suppose it's notable now that this was financed by the now-defunct video funding engine MuchFACT, so enjoy this sort of thing while it lasts. In an interview with Noisey, Twist lead Laura Hermiston commented:

"The video showcases the places the mind can go. It shows the illusions that people can create for themselves that turns into a world of obsession, mania, and, ultimately, regret. In relation to the song, I think this drives home the idea of feeling manipulated and figuring out how to leave a situation— regaining your control."

Watch: Twist - "Freak" @ YouTube

Was the last Rural Alberta Advantage record as hooky as the material from The Wild? 2014 feels like a hundred years ago. Everything the Toronto indie rock act's released to preview the new record's stuck with me, and "Toughen Up" continues the trend. The Wild arrives on October 13th via Paper Bag.

Listen: The Rural Alberta Advantage - "Toughen Up" @ YouTube

Stomp Records has shared a pair of new tunes from Burlington's The Penske File. The three-piece punk rock act unveiled "Come What May" (which isn't an Attack In Black cover, if you were wondering) and "Oh Brother." These are the band's first new material since their 2015 full-length Burn Into the Earth. Tour dates through November with bands like Mobina Galore and Arms Aloft can be found at Punknews.

Listen: The Penske File - "Come What May" @ Bandcamp

Dundas, Ontario's The Dirty Nil made their first network television appearance this week with a performance on Last Call with Cason Daly. Given that this is a US TV network I'm going to assume that there'll be some asinine content restriction to prevent you from watching this in Canada, but you're certainly welcome to try.

The debut EP from Vancouver's Corner Boys is now streaming over at Noisey. Just Don't Care will arrive on October 20 via the UK's Drunken Sailor Records. The three-piece features Patrick Bertrand of Hosehead Records, Joel Butler of Nervous Talk, and Wade from Stress Eating. Bertrand told Noisey:

"When we started we set out to make a 45 that would be somewhat believable to have been released in 1979 by a band in Vancouver, BC. Vancouver had a lot of excellent bands at that time, and our record collections are pretty well steeped in it, so I hope that shows."

METZ' new record Strange Peace is pretty awesome, and I'm digging all the random supplemental media that's still tricking out post-release. The latest is a mostly dialogue-free montage of footage of the band working in Chicago's Electrical Audio studio with the Steve Albini. The new record came out last month on Royal Mountain and Sub Pop.

Watch: METZ making Strange Peace @ YouTube

Halifax-based garage rock band Gun Jr. is gearing up for the release of their debut full length this Friday, titled The Shakes. Among their first batch of songs you'll find "Autumn Rose," which you can stream below. This follows the release of a song called "The Wolf" earlier in the year. There's a gritty quality to these guys that works really well on pop songs like these.

Listen: Gun Jr. - "Autumn Rose" @ Bandcamp

Weird Canada shared a handful of underground music from across the country this week, and from that batch I learned of Lethbridge, Alberta's WINT. The brainchild of Brandon Saucier, WINT operates as a trio live and they play sharp, angular post-punk. They're also pretty damn prolific all of a sudden, following up a single 2015 release with (as best I can follow) four releases this year. That includes this summer's Memory//Paranoia and a new full length titled Information that's listed for release this month. You can read up on the band at a Beatroute article from this April and listen below.

Listen: WINT - Memory//Paranoia @ Bandcamp

Dominionated shared the recently released debut full-length from St. John's indie-pop trio Lo Siento. I wouldn't have expected to find a Spanish-language twee-pop act out of Newfoundland, but what do I know? The band, which is fronted by the Buenos Aires-born multidisciplinary artist Pepa Chan, put out the 7-song Bingo Bango at the end of August.

Listen: Lo Siento - Bingo Bango @ Bandcamp

Montreal indie rock quartet Ought has signed to Merge Records internationally and Royal Mountain here at home for the release of their next LP in 2018. That'll be the band's third, following the Constellation-released Sun Coming Down in 2015. Ought is currently on tour in the States and is set to play alongside Waxahatchee throughout November.

The Burning Hell's Revival Beach is now out, and the band shared a detailed write-up from author Matthew Pateman on the new album, commenting "No one on this planet has ever written anything so in-depth about any of our albums as this." You can read the piece at the Pateman's Ponderings blog. Revival Beach was recorded and mixed by Al Harle at Big Jelly Studios in Ramsgate, UK this past June and released at the end of September on BB*ISLAND.

Calgary's Chad VanGaalen premiered a short animated film last week through Pitchfork, titled TARBOZ. Here's what he had to say about the trippy sci-fi piece, which he's been toiling at for two years:

TARBOZ was planned as the first episode of "Translated Log of Inhabitants", and was an experiment to see if i could make a long-form improvised animation and still get out alive. I barely did!

The "Translated Log of Inhabitants" was conceived as a guide to the origin story of many different species. I imagined myself doing dozens of these episodes, focusing on a new life form very time — very much like a page from "Barlowe’s Guide to Extraterrestrials". It expands a universe that I had already been developing in my own music videos, as well as ones for other bands. The videos for "Peace on the Rise" as well as ones for Black Mountain and Shabazz Palaces all exist in the same world (at least in my head).

VanGaalen released this Light Information LP on September 8 via Flemish Eye in Canada and Sub Pop everywhere else.

Watch: Chad VanGaalen's "TARBOZ (translated log of inhabitants)" @ YouTube

This month Some Party is sponsored by the new book The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern: A Complete History by David McPherson. The Shoe will mark its 70th birthday on December 6th, 2017. The Queen Street bar and venue, which opened as a country music club, has been an integral part of every era of the city's rock'n'roll history, including a special place in the emergence of punk rock and new wave in Toronto as the scene of the Last Pogo. We're giving away a copy of the book, along with tickets to see D.O.A. play the Horseshoe on Saturday, October 14 over at Punknews.org.

Finally, everybody loves Victory Lap. That includes the Edmonton Oilers, who took to the ice in their season opener against the Calgary Flames with Propagandhi blaring over the PA (1:15 or so into the video). Noted Leafs fan Chris Hannah was not amused.