Long Ago Gardens
Some Party is a newsletter sharing the latest in independent Canadian rock'n'roll, curated 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.
Fucked Up"Long Ago Gardens"
Preview and purchase at Bandcamp
When I wrote about Year of the Horse back in 2021, I referred to the Zodiac series as a parallel but separate through-line in Fucked Up's unlikely career. It's an avenue for the band to indulge in every maximalist, over-the-top impulse that strikes them, unincumbered by both the critical expectations saddling their proper LPs and the physical constraints of their innumerable singles. As an "album band," Fucked Up's wrestled, quite overtly, with the strong personalities penning their songs and their oft-competing proclivity for both cut-to-the-bone hardcore and audacious genre-hopping. A new Fucked Up LP always gives fans a chance to re-evaluate the state of that tension, spurring the latest tedious round of armchair psychiatry (of which I'm certainly guilty). The Zodiac series floats in above this, unincumbered by the pressure that dogs the Toronto act's mainline full-lengths. It so intently leans into the popular caricature of this band (love it or hate it) that it feels beyond criticism. The plot of these grandiose fantasies manages to supersede our tiresome focus on the band's meta-narrative, and I'm sure they don't mind in the least.
Despite the inherently calendrical nature of this whole exercise, Zodiac volumes surface seemingly at random. There was always a decent chance the band would fuck off before crossing the finish line. Perhaps with an eye to their own shelf life, but perhaps in recognition that it's been 20 damn years since Year of The Dog, the goal's now in sight. Zodiac will conclude between now and the fall of 2026 with its final three volumes released under the umbrella title of Grass Can Move Stones. The three-album, 10-sided final push starts this December with Year of The Goat, arriving December 5 on Tankcrimes Records. Look for Year of The Monkey in the spring and Year of The Rooster to wrap it up next autumn. That's nearly five hours of new music, some of which recontextualizes selections from the previous nine entries.
The overarching narrative of Grass Can Move Stones loosely adapts Journey to the West, a 16th-century Ming dynasty novel. You can hear the half-hour opening salvo, "Long Ago Gardens," at Bandcamp now. It features vocals from Fucked Up regulars Damian Abraham, Jonah Falco, and Mike Haliechuk and guest spots by Tuka Mohammed, Tamara Lindeman (The Weather Station), and Dwid Hellion of Cleveland hardcore legends Integrity. Jennifer Castle contributes to the record's B-side, "Rivers and Lakes."
The band recorded this material over five years in multiple Toronto studios, helmed by engineer Alex Gamble. You can follow along with the first track in a lavishly designed libretto-styled PDF at the band's website.
Fucked Up's current lineup features vocalist Damian Abraham, guitarists Mike Haliechuk and Josh Zucker, bassist Sandy Miranda, and drummer Jonah Falco. The new material arrives four and a half years from the previous Zodiac entry, 2020's Year of The Horse. A nonexhaustive list of the band's material since then includes the recent Sub Pop single. Disabuse, and a string of thematically linked full-lengths: Someday (2024), Another Day (2024), and One Day (2023).
TV FreaksBlue Genie
Preview and purchase at Bandcamp
TV Freaks' 2020 LP People is one of my favourite records, and it's clear from the title track of Blue Genie that they're sticking to the trajectory I connected with. While the forthcoming record's out in full next week, the band has the title track(s) available to preview now as a two-part digital single. "Blue Genie" parts one and two relish in the psychedelic sprawl that's become more prominent in TV Freaks' sound. Although separated by six songs on the full-length, the two halves of "Blue Geanie" combine here into nearly 12 minutes of hypnotic rock. The band's locked in, boasting an unhurried, blissful swagger; the comfort of years in each other's heads. Sweet Dave's vocal journey from unhinged garage yelper to Damned-style crooner feels entirely natural. Blue Geanie is TV Freaks by way of The Feelies, jamming over long grooves you'll be happy to get lost in (not dissimilar to songs I adore by Tough Age and The Courneys, come to think of it - I may have a type).
The album again features David O'Connor, backed by guitarist TJ Charlton, bassist Vee Bell, and drummer Nathan Burger. The quartet recorded in 2023 and 2024 at O'Connor's home studio over a bed of drum tracks Burger laid down at Hamilton's Boxcar Studio with Sean Pearson. Dave's vocals later tied everything together in a session with Dead Tired's Marco Bressette at Deadquarters. Eddy Current Suppression Ring's Mikey Young mixed the set from their home base in Australia.
The nine-song Blue Genie is the band's fifth full-length since 2011. It follows People, issued through Schizophrenic Records in 2020. Shortly after that release, O'Connor issued the Now More Than Ever LP in his Sweet Dave solo persona, while Charlton and Burger recorded as two-thirds of the punk trio Anxious Pleasers with Matt Ellis. Look for the new record streaming on October 30, with vinyl yet to be announced.
Dirty CheetahBuzz Cult
Preview and purchase at Bandcamp
Last month, Montreal garage act Dirty Cheetah returned with Buzz Cult, a 13-song full-length of gritty, high-octane rock'n'roll. The set packs 13 songs into 25 minutes, interspersed with samples from Arthur Lipsett's Oscar-nominated 1961 short Very Nice, Very Nice. The band describes the work as an unintended concept album. It finds them grappling with modern anxieties and rife with post-post-pandemic malaise.
Buzz Cult takes a sardonic look at our dependence on digital outrage. The band talked through that sentiment in their Bandcamp notes, sharing:
"...it didn't take long to realize: even if you quit nicotine, cut back the booze, laid off the psychotropics — your hourly dopamine hit just shifted somewhere else. Welcome to the Buzz Cult, where rage-bait is king. Trapped by algorithms, addicted to the next grotesque headline, possessed by your own demons. You want to escape the grind. But guilt haunts you—your carbon footprint, your privilege, your silence."
That point's driven home on songs like "I'm the Product," which pairs a grim look at our sorry state with a sleazy groove that channels Iggy at his finest.
The band recorded at The Stuzzio with Ryan Battistuzzi (Les Breastfeeders, Boids) engineering and mixing. The quartet features vocalist/guitarist Patrick "Pat Panic" Morissette, guitarist François "Dirty Frank" Letourneau, bassist Luc "Don Lucas" Binette, and drummer Lynn "Linda Kicks" Poulin (Pale Lips, Taxi Girls). All four share vocal duties in the record, with Poulin notably singing lead on the single "Wake Me Up!" Midway through the album, you'll hear the brisk "Third Wave," a gang-vocal shout-along that the band immediately revisits in both French and then Spanish (the third cut, titled "Encerrados," helmed by guest vocalist Osvaldo Aguirre of Montreal electro-pop act Papish).
The new album follows Dirty Cheeta's 2024 EP Polite as Fuck and their 2020 debut Never Too Late.
Odonis Odonis"Hijacked"/"Come Alive"
Watch "Come Alive" and "Hihacjed" on YouTube - Preview and purchase at Bandcamp
Chameleonic post-punk duo Odonis Odonis are back with a new full-length, offering up a late-career self-titled record for their first outing with Royal Mountain Records. The set arrives November 14, delivering nine new songs and the Toronto band's first full-length set since 2021's Spectrums.
Royal Mountain's promising a set that reintegrates elements from across the band's genre-fluid career, revisiting their early twist on shoegaze while synthesizing the darkwave, industrial, and electronic elements explored over the past decade. You can hear this in the record's two lead singles, "Hijacked" and "Come Alive." The former takes an aggressive stand from the shoulders of New Order, while the latter wraps the listener in trip-hop haze. In the "Hijacked" video, directed by Ryan Faist, you notably see the band on stage, wielding guitar and bass. It's both a throwback to their roots as a conventionally structured band and a distinct departure from the sweaty club-ready electronica of recent outings. The clip accompanying "Come Alive" presents a striking animated vision by Shawn Chiki, inspired by the Metabolism movement in Japanese architecture of the 1960s.
The new record follows Odonis Odonis' 2023 EP ICON, which featured team-ups with A Place to Bury Strangers, SUUNS, and ACTORS, among others.
Hélène BarbierPanorama
Preview and purchase at Bandcamp
Montreal avant-pop artist Hélène Barbier returns next month with Panorama, a nine-song full-length due November 14 through a newfound partnership with Bonsound. The bilingual set follows the France-born artist's 2021 LP Regulus, delivering what the label describes as "gooey jangle pop riffs, haunting melodies, and tangled grooves." The press materials playfully suggest the record sounds "as if The Shaggs had taken guitar lessons from Tom Verlaine in Montreal in 2025, before forming a band by divine accident."
You can preview the record now through the lead single "Lapin" and the recently unveiled album-opener "Kindness in a Cup." The latter sneaks up on you, slyly creeping along Barbier's hypnotic bass lines only to blossom into short, cathartic swirls of dizzying guitarplay. On it, the artist revealed:
"It's about the desire to keep your head above the water, while flirting with the idea of letting yourself sink, but there is a soothing presence in the song that ensures the story ends well."
Barbier recorded with a slate of familiar faces, anchored by longtime collaborators Ben Lalonde and Retail Simps' Joe Chamandy. The record features contributions from Claire Paquet, the Simps' Thomas Molander, Samuel Gougoux (Corridor, VICTIME), Wes MacNeil (Night Lunch), Mélanie Venditti, Alexandra Levy (Ada Lea), and Meg Duffy (Hand Habits). Emmanuel Éthier (Corridor, Population II) produced the record.
Barbier will celebrate the album's release with shows at La Toscadura in Montreal on November 27 (as part of Festival Triste) and Le Pantoum in Quebec City on November 28.
Hobby"Major Highway"
Preview and purchase at Bandcamp
Hobby is legit.
Downtown Toronto shouldn't feel unlikely as a source of Americana, given the evidence. This is where The Band got their legs, and that should be enough to close the debate even if you ignore modern legends like The Sadies. Still, the town's low-key modern indie scene feels a little too weird to deliver what Hobby accomplishes. The group's latest LP, Clear Blue River, lands November 7 with ten new songs. The band's new label, Telephone Explosion, has the sepia-toned lead single "Major Highway" available now, described as a "grand" and "cinematic" take on the genre in the fine tradition of the Dead and The Byrds.
Hobby features guitarists Stephen Pitman (Only God Forgives), Cameron Fraser (Luge), and Kurt Marble (Twist), backed by bassist Duncan Wardlaw and drummer Foster Marshall-Medeiros. The group recorded with Louie Short. That's a lot of art-punk cred in the room, so it's impressive just how genuine Hobby feels. There's nothing ironic or postmodern about a track like "Major Highway."
Time's been incredibly kind to the group's 2024 full-length Born Again, at least judging by its lengthy stay in my playlists, so I'm thrilled to see them back at it and working with one of my favourite labels.
Home Front"Street City Kids (In A New Dark Age)"
Preview and purchase at Bandcamp
I know I just wrote at length about Home Front, but the band's write-up for their recently shared cover is so packed with nerdy punk Canadiana that I couldn't resist. The Edmonton duo applied their electric mix of new wave, street punk and Oi! to "Street City Kids" by Montreal underground favourites Inepsy. The original appeared on the band's 2003 album Rock'N'Roll Babylon. Home Front's full-throttle reimagining updates the title to "Street City Kids (In A New Dark Age)."
Writing on Bandcamp, Home Front vocalist Graeme MacKinnon shared:
"What more can be said about the importance of Inepsy on Canadian Punk. Just like DOA or SNFU, I would strongly argue that Inepsy is just as trailblazing and relevant today as they were when they blew the doors open in the early 2000s. Legacy aside it boils down to the simple fact they are great people who made great music and great art... As this world spins us into this new dark age, Chany's Post Apocalyptic lyrics and imagery feel more real than ever. As we 'live (our) lives in the night' and in the day 'sleep to forget the bomb' we look for those little escapes to not lose the fight."
Fucked Up's Jonah Falco plays a solo on the track (a performance described by MacKinnon as "if Fred 'Sonic' Smith had discovered Quebec PCP"). Home Front connected with Inepsy's Chany Pilote this past September while playing Béton Armé's release party for their Renaissance LP. Pilote ended up contributing a massive (and extremely metal) oil painting that now serves as the track's cover art. Check it out at Bandcamp. You can pick up the song as a flexi disc hitched to the forthcoming 79th issue of New Noise Magazine.
Home Front, featuring MacKinnon and Clint Frazier, are deep into the press cycle for Watch It Die, their sophomore full-length due November 14 through La Vida Es Un Mus. You can now see a video for the record's second single, "Eulogy," on YouTube.
Inepsy's Chany Pilote runs Gatineau's Pils Records these days, notably helming the Pils Sessions series, documenting the contemporary Quebec punk scene.
