Some Party

Good Heart Dumb Brain

2026-03-31T00:00:00+00:00

DealbreakerNew Sides

Preview and purchase at Bandcamp

This week, Welland, Ontario's Dealbreaker return with New Sides, their debut full-length. The 10-song set retains the band's early signatures - bodyslamming power-pop delivered with an endearing gravel-growl that heyday-Punknews would have lost it for. This time out, everything's bigger - both in terms of production and sheer confidence.

On the album's themes, the band shared:

"This record is an honest critique of the many different avenues the people in this desperate world take to fail one another and themselves, whether it be due to futility, inaction, willful ignorance or anything in between. Ghosts of the past, present acquaintances, the unseen figures behind closed doors — even the faithful narrators themselves — all are on trial.
There are glimmers of a brighter, different, version of the world hoped after; but it is only in spite of how things have come to be and conditional on its transformation. At the end of it all, at least we can cling to one another."

M.C. Cunningham produced the record, with Vince Soliveri (Pillea, The Dirty Nil) engineering and mixing at Boxcar Sound. Dan Weston mastered. Dealbreaker features Connor Johnstone on vocals, Canyon Carvers' Nick Giammarco on guitar, Bil Huffman on guitar, Josh Van Hezewyk on bass, and Scott Brady drumming.

It's undoubtedly the result of Johnstone's day job as a designer, but Dealbreaker's felt conceptually solid from the start. They've likely spent more energy on that aspect than most bands even bother (save, perhaps, fellow Wellanders Dboy). And while visuals and branding quirks, of course, mean nothing if the audio comes up short, with New Sides that grandiosity feels earned. Dealbreaker may be trying to manifest a greater career than small gigs at the punk bar in downtown Niagara Falls, but I'm grateful I got to see them there.

New Sides is out April 3 through Toll Free Records in Canada and Late Again Records stateside.

New Sides by Dealbreaker

SafewordFortune Teller

Watch "A Lot More Work" on YouTube - Preview and purchase at Bandcamp

Dartmouth indie-pop mainstays Safeword are back with Fortune Teller, their fourth full-length. The eight-song record finds singer/keyboardist Karen Foster, guitarist Daniel Watt, bassist Greg Baller, and drummer Brian Foster working again with producer Charles Austin (Outtacontroller, Prism Shores), who aimed to capture the band's live energy through a largely off-the-floor approach. Francisco Lopes engineered at Ocean Floor Recording, with Alex Burris mastering at Fang.

The band shared a few thoughts on select songs in the lead-up to the release. Reflecting on "Superpower," the band comments that the song finds them:

"...once again thinking about getting older, the purpose of life, comparison (the thief of joy!), envy and shame, driven along by a freight train combination of piano, drums, bass and guitar."

I'm firmly in my mid 40s so indie rock meditations on aging are right in my existential wheelhouse. A younger listener might relate differently, but they've got their own shit to deal with. You can find the track, along with several of the album's tracks, accompanied by visuals on YouTube.

Fortune Teller, available everywhere now, follows 2024's Can't Hate You Forever. Karen Foster also continues to make noise with Nova Scotian supergroup Shoulder Season, who issued a pair of new singles in 2025.

Fortune Teller by Safeword

Misha Bower"Surrender"

Preview and purchase at Bandcamp

London, Ontario's Misha Bower returned in March with "Surrender," her first new single since 2019's Trying to Have It All album. While best known as a member of the beloved folk-gospel collective Bruce Peninsula, Bower's haunting yet beautiful solo material hits just as hard. The "Surrender" players include multi-instrumentalist Derek Durant (OMBIIGIZI, Sub Drop), who also hosted the sessions at his Studio Habalayon, and guitarist Will Kidman of the mighty Constantines. Alex Gamble (Fucked Up, Alvvays, Pony) mixed and mastered the track.

Bower shared some thoughts on how the song came together:

"As so often happens, it was in the midst of a hard time that a song came along and insisted its way into my life as something I could create, develop, nurture - focus on as a path for at least starting to forge a way through. The process of it moving from fragmented to fully realized has been a friendship-deepening collaborative effort with some of the most intuitive musical minds I know."

Bower notes the behind-the-scenes support from her Bruce Peninsula bandmate Neil Haverty, credited with helping her "cross the finish line." Haverty's also been quietly active with new solo work, most recently sharing "Chariot" in December.

Misha Bower's Trying to Have It All arrived in 2019, with Bruce Peninsula's last full-length, No Earthly Sound, following in early 2020 (a sanity-saving quarantine soundtrack for many, including myself).

Surrender by Misha Bower

Bitter FictionsAmethyst & Emerald

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Experimental guitarist Devin Friesen recently resurfaced his Bitter Fictions project with Amethyst & Emerald, a long-gestating LP with pre-pandemic roots. While now based in Calgary, the artist traces the record to an earlier phase of life in Montreal, where he tracked guitar improvisations to vintage cassettes in varying degrees of decay. Friesen revealed:

"Depending who you ask, among artists in Canada it's a punchline and/or a rite of passage. Leaving home and going to Montreal. There's likely more going on than where you're coming from, and even if that's one of the bigger cities, until more recently both post-secondary and rent were more accessible. There's an appeal.
And if you're serious about your craft, the coldness will test and temper you. Some pockets will thaw and welcome with a rising warmth. Others will only reveal more ice to slip on. Whatever made you unique back home? It's a footnote. It's not good or bad, more a reminder. Plenty of time to work through it all Winter."

That winter, 2020, marked the onset of the pandemic and a stretch of profound loss for Friesen. He returned to these tracks, mere skeletons, years later and "tempered by grief, time, [and] experience." Rearranged in Calgary with added synthesizers, the results are a set of pensive, atmospheric instrumentals broken into four weighty tracks.

The audio arrived on March 13 via Friesen's Shaking Box Music with a limited vinyl run.

Friesen last appeared in these pages as one half of Frozen Lake, a duo with Tough Age drummer Jesse Locke. They issued October in 2024. Bitter Fictions released a collection of recordings dubbed Phantoms that same year.

Amethyst & Emerald by Bitter Fictions

Excited To DieSick Til Death

Watch "Compliance Officer" on YouTube - Preview and purchase at Bandcamp

Lo-fi hardcore outfit Excited To Die is back with Sick Til Death, the ramshackle follow-up to their 2023 debut This Is A Life?. The Dartmouth band wastes no time, crashing through six songs in six minutes, boasting a throwback sound that never sounds restrained by the genre's history nor at all concerned with its modern tropes. There's a looseness to the band's attack that feels genuine - a basement show or garage vibe, rather than something tuned for the pit.

Excited To Die features KC Spidle (Diamondtown, Husband & Knife, Dog Day) on guitar, Cody Googoo (Booji Boys, Mutated Void) on bass, James Macneil on drums, and Rod Meade Sperry of Equimerton on vocals. Googoo and Spidle also play together in the garage act Gemstones.

The new tape arrived in early March through Googoo's Don't Wanna Talk Records.

Sick Til Death by Excited To Die

Canyon CarversFour

Preview and purchase at Bandcamp

When it rains, it pours.

The Welland rock quartet Canyon Carvers are back after more than a decade on hiatus with Four, a new four-song EP - available on vinyl through the newly founded Toll Free Records. Despite the time off, the band retains the endearing qualities that made them staples of the Niagara scene: an earnest blend of clean hooks, rugged vocal delivery, and a heart-on-sleeve vulnerability.

Bandmates Nick Giammarco and Riley Simpson engineered the set at Kennedy-Gould Recording Co, with mixing and mastering performed by Vince Soliveri.

As mentioned above, Giammarco is currently serving with the Welland punks Dealbreaker. Canyon Carvers shares a release show with that band at the Niagara Artists Centre in St. Catharines on April 17, alongside the related Welland/Nashville duo Fear Elements.

Canyon Carvers last issued All of This in 2020, an unearthed 2016 collaboration with Julia Allen of Toronto dream pop act For Keeps. The band's last proper full-length, Aside and Beside, dates back to 2014.

FOUR by Canyon Carvers

The Boojums"Karate Man"/"Scott Pilgrim"

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Port Hawkesbury's red-hot garage trio The Boojums pay tribute to their Nova Scotian forebears with a new 7" covers single, out May 15 through Having Fun Records. The 45 tackles "Karate Man" by The Super Friendz (from their 1995 debut Mock Up, Scale Down) and "Scott Pilgrim" by Plumtree (from 1997's Plumtree Predicts the Future). The Boojums explained:

"As rock musicians from Nova Scotia, we stand on the shoulders of many local giants. The 1990's in Halifax spawned so many great bands like Sloan, Thrush Hermit, Jale, Plumtree, and The Super Friendz (to name just a few), who carved a path for kids like us (at the time) to aspire to. This is our little way of saying thank you to those who came before us and gave us stars to shoot for!"

The Boojums features Willie Stratton (Beach Bait) on guitar and vocals, Sara Johnston (Skunk Motel, The Surfrajettes) on vocals and 8-string bass, and drummer Peter MacInnis (Beech Hill). The band recorded the tracks independently, with Charles Austin, fittingly one of The Super Friendz, mixing the record.

The single follows the Boojums' barn-burning self-titled debut LP, released last October through the We Are Busy Bodies imprint, Having Fun. The group's currently over in Europe, with shows lined up daily through the end of May.

Karate Man / Scott Pilgrim by The Boojums

Way Too FestJune 13, 2026

I've mentioned Toll Free Records a few times in this edition. That label's teaming up with the legendary Rex Hotel, The Bank Art House, and Black Sheep Coffee Roasters to launch a new music festival in Welland, Ontario this June. Way Too Fest is set to play out across multiple stages in the Rose City on June 13, 2026.

Artists of all genres are encouraged to apply, particularly since I'll be there, and whenever the scene caters to my convenience, the universe smiles. There's an application form online now.

Ice Fog - No Exit

2026-03-04T00:00:00+00:00

It was awfully hard to tell the difference between an unavoidable death spiral and the routine malaise of a typical February. I've been off the board for a month, lumbering between work, domestic mundanity, volunteer stuff, and the numbing distractions of my phone. It could be my age, or the absence of sunlight, but my lack of zeal for after-hours writing felt insurmountable. Last week was as close as I've come to shelving Some Party entirely, as if lancing this incredibly low-stakes obligation would make everything better. To kill a thing I love because the bleakest month predictably sucks wouldn't have been my wisest move. That's a clearheaded March observation, mind you. A week ago, I was ready to draw up the epitaph. A little thaw and the hint of spring do wonders for your existential dread.

Anyway, back to the Cancon. Positive vibes only. Where were we? In my absence, I assume that you, like the rest of the world, watched Angine de Poitrine's breakthrough KEXP session on repeat. I'll spare you the redundancy of rehashing such epochal events here.

Closed CityClosed City

Preview and purchase at Bandcamp

Closed City is the dark new project from Peterborough's inscrutable Michael Cloud Duguay (Scions) and Mathias Kom of PEI storytellers The Burning Hell. Their self-titled seven-song concept album draws inspiration from the Soviet-era phenomenon of "closed cities" - intentionally isolated, remote communities of industrial and military workers that operated in such secrecy that the Kremlin often omitted them from official maps. Kom and Duguay explore this dehumanized setting through the lens of drone, avant-metal, and musique concrete. It's a grim mix that parallels the post-societal soundscapes of the Constellation Records roster (in particular the apocalyptic protest epics of Godspeed You! Black Emperor).

As of this writing, you can preview the record's concluding songs, the title track and a single edit of the album-closer "Ice Fog - No Exit." Look for the full album on March 27 through Watch That Ends The Night. Closed City's fascinating claustrophobia is the result of a focused artist residency, with the record's principles spending two weeks holed up together in the eastern Finnish region of North Karelia, back in the winter of 2024:

"In extreme winter conditions, the two lived together in a centuries-old log house at the tip of a coniferous headland, warmed by a masonry heater, surrounded by unexplored rocky islands and a WWII military defense line on the Finnish-Russian border. They were joined occasionally by Karelian kantele player Mammu Koskelo as they developed framing concepts and musical ideas."

Kom, who holds a doctorate in ethnomusicology, constructed the album's narrative from both the region's Cold War history and its folk traditions. Duguay took compositional cues from the cabin's out-of-tune piano and wove in elements of the late 80s totalism movement. Completing the record a year later in St. John's, the pair recorded with a six-piece low-brass ensemble of Newfoundland musicians in a decommissioned church. Their studio players featured original Wintersleep bassist Jud Haynes and Swimming/Sick Puppy drummer Jacob Cherwick. Canadian noise musician Ky Brooks (Lungbutter, Ky) mixed the recordings.

The band commented:

"As a metaphor for intentional isolation and its unintended consequences, the closed city was on our minds while we wrote the music and lyrics in the frozen January of northern Karelia. The snow and ice seemed to go on forever, and the sun reflected the endless white and blinded us to the possibility that there could be anything outside of this strange and beautiful environment. Recording in St. John's, a heavy fog descended on us and we found ourselves in another kind of closed city altogether. Most music exists in a nebulous state somewhere between isolation and interaction; as much as we hope to tell a particular story about seclusion and remoteness with this record, we do so in the spirit of human connection."

The album follows Duguay's acclaimed 2025 solo LP Wobbly Yonderand The Burning Hell's Ghost Palace. Duguay played with The Burning Hell during that band's formative years, appearing through 2009's Baby. He and Kom rekindled their fellowship in 2021.

Closed City by Closed City

Forty Seven TeethFakers

Watch "Portland Flower" on YouTube - Preview and purchase at Bandcamp

Kingston's Forty Seven Teeth returned in January with Fakers, a nine-song follow-up to their 2022 full-length Apologies. The band's swimming in 90s-alt rock, and reflects on the quiet trajectory that emo seemed to follow before the mainstream caught on. In an Instagram write-up, the photojournalist Virginia Maria referred to them as "emotionally precise punk," and that just about nails it. There's something very pleasantly uncomplicated about this one, a satisfying throwback both in sound and spirit.

You can stream the record everywhere or check the band's video for the lead single "Portland Flower." That clip, filmed near Kingston on Amherst Island, features "a gang of mysterious woodsy witches and one bewildered band."

The trio recorded Fakers with Tim Aylesworth and Anna Robertson engineering. Shane MacPherson mixed and mastered. Forty Seven Teeth features Anna Robertson on vocals and guitar, Dee Prescott on vocals and bass, and Jesse Aylesworth on drums.

Fakers by Forty Seven Teeth

Hot Garbage"Wewu"

Watch on YouTube - Preview and purchase at Bandcamp

Toronto post-punk quartet Hot Garbage returned in January with "Wewu," their first new material since the release of Precious Dream a year prior. Out now through Mothland, the track wraps the band's dark psychedelia in escalating waves of noise and aggression, building from off-kilter guitarwork to an assaulting crescendo.

The band again worked with producer Graham Walsh (Holy Fuck) and mastering engineer James Plotkin (Khanate), the same team behind Precious Dream. Hot Garbage features guitarist/vocalist Alessandro Carlevaris, bassist/vocalist Juliana Carlevaris, keyboardist Dylan Gamble, and drummer Mark Henein. Carlevaris crafted the accompanying video for the track, a mess of abstract footage seen through the photonegative lens of an eye-like orb, the song's tension given life in sickly blues and greens. There's no word yet on a new album, but this is likely our first hint.

Wewu by Hot Garbage

SunglaciersSpiritual Content

Watch "Only Love" on YouTube - Preview and purchase at Bandcamp

Calgary's Sunglaciers are readying Spiritual Content, their fourth full-length, for a March 27 release through Mothland. The nine-song set finds the band continuing to refine their blend of post-punk, art rock, and experimental pop — still upbeat and attitude-driven but intent on making a deeper connection. The band claims the record finds them "emerging from our daily grind, looking for a higher meaning." You can catch that wavelength through the preview singles "Eye to Eye" and "Only Love." The latter's an endearing indie garage tune floating on motorik and disco beats. The band expanded on the song's themes in a press release:

"Only love can upend your lifestyle, change your patterns. You're young, you're out at parties all the time. Then something happens. Years pass in an instant. Maybe you found love, or self-love, or something else. Got healthy. Got busy. Where you used to go out, now you stay in. The party's not over; it rages on in your memories. This video is kind of an illustration of those memories."

You can see "Only Love" featured in a video directed by Ethan Clark. It finds the group at a house party, with the song's angular rhythms highlighting a strange tension. A vintage film collage, assembled by the band's Evan Resnik, serves as the visuals for "Eye to Eye."

As with 2024's Regular Nature, Sunglaciers' core songwriting duo features Evan Resnik (vocals, guitar, synthesizer, piano, sampling) and Mathieu Blanchard (drums, percussion), with guitarist Nyssa Brown and bassist Kyle Crough rounding out the lineup. The inimitable Chad VanGaalen (who the band refers to as their guru) returns as a guest contributor and studio collaborator, adding several instrumental flourishes to the final work. Mark Lawson (The Unicorns, Land of Talk) mixed the record, with vinyl mastering handled by ex-Besnard Lakes member Richard White.

Spiritual Content by Sunglaciers

Weird NightmareHoopla

Watch "Might See You There" on YouTube - Preview and purchase at Bandcamp

On May 1, Sub Pop delivers Hoopla, the sophomore LP from Toronto's Weird Nightmare. The album's breezy, amiable power-pop again proves a dramatic contrast to the harrowing noise-punk Alex Edkins crafts with METZ.

You can hear three cuts from the album today. The record's lead single, "Might See You There," arrived first, accompanied by a bubbly animated video from CC Mulligan. It's available alongside "Forever Elsewhere" and "Pay No Mind," each glowing with an earnest likability and extensive toolkit of hooks spanning 60s psych-pop and early 90s college rock.

Edkins co-produced Hoopla with Spoon's Jim Eno, recording at Seth Manchester's Machines with Magnets studio in Pawtucket. His rhythm section features Loel Campbell (Wintersleep, Cut Cult) on drums and Roddy Kuester on bass. Roddy's better half, Julianna Riolino, makes a guest vocal appearance on the track "Bright City Lights."

Hoopla follows Weird Nightmare's 2022 self-titled debut and a string of subsequent singles. That includes a rather chill cover of the Ramones' "She's The One" and a split 7" with Welland's Ancient Shapes. METZ last issued Up on Gravity Hill in 2024.

Hoopla by Weird Nightmare

Head CrackZero 2 Dust

Preview and purchase at Bandcamp

Livewire Toronto hardcore act Head Crack have a new cassette EP out through Denver's Convulse Records. The five-song set's steeped in 80s crossover thrash, so much so that the label draws a direct line to Agnostic Front's '86 classic Cause for Alarm. It's no stretch of the imagination to visualize the crowd madness that muscular shout-alongs like "A.E.I." are sure to inspire.

There are just 75 copies of the Zero 2 Dust tape in the wild, so get hunting. Tallies' Dylan Frankland (Fucked Up, Partner, Gloin) produced the record at Wychwood and Palace Sound, with Will Killingsworth mastering at Dead Air. The new EP follows the band's self-titled 2023 effort.

Zero 2 Dust by Head Crack

The RiptidesWho Goes There?

Preview and purchase at Bandcamp

Ottawa pop-punk vets The Riptides have a new four-song EP out through Pirates Press Records. Who Goes There? draws from the same Blasting Room sessions that produced last year's Burn After Listening, collecting three new originals alongside a cover of Dayglo Abortions' boneheaded classic "Proud to Be a Canadian." That one's somewhat re-imagined to fit the cross-border horrors of the modern era. Like the full-length, these sessions feature Kody Templeman and Darren Chewka of Teenage Bottlerocket, with Joe King of The Queers also making a guest appearance. The band recorded with Andrew Berlin and Jason Livermore.

The Riptides hit the road in April for the Weekend Bizarro Tour alongside Baltimore's Huntingtons, with Canadian dates slated for Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal. The new EP follows a busy stretch that not only saw the Riptides' recent LP, but remastered editions of 2017's Canadian Graffiti and 2010's Tales From Planet Earth.

Who Goes There? by The Riptides

Autopoiet

2026-01-28T00:00:00+00:00

Daniel Romano's Outfit"Autopoiet"

Watch on YouTube - Preview and purchase at Bandcamp

Daniel Romano's ever-evolving garage unit The Outfit embarks on a new chapter with the 14-song Preservers of the Pearl, arriving March 13 through You've Changed Records. This marks the Welland collective's first full-length since 2022's Too Hot To Sleep and the first studio long player to capture their contemporary four-piece lineup. Today's Outfit finds Romano sharing writing duties with his brother (and fellow Attack In Black alum) Ian Romano and his spouse, celebrated Texan singer/songwriter Carson McHone. Tommy Major, namesake of the Sudbury punk heroes Tommy and the Commies, rounds out the core as a full-time member. The band's statement promises "music as communion — rock n roll as a shared experience," stressing a new era of intra-band collaboration. As The Outfit's long served as the direct continuation of Romano's prolific solo career, that's a notable shift in perspective. You've Changed boasts of "a new beginning and a homecoming — an album that feels discovered, not designed."

The band recorded live off the floor from their Camera Varda studio, with longtime de facto member Kenneth Roy Meehan engineering. Outside of the core quartet, the record's sole guest contribution comes from organist Mark Lalama, a familiar presence in Romano's catalogue. You can hear the first salvo from the record everywhere, with "Autopoiet" delivering a rousing power-pop anthem rife with the nostalgic romanticism that The Outfit's made their calling card. It's a line-in-the-sand mission statement of a song, no less intentful than 2020's "First Yoke" or the title track to 2017's Modern Pressure. The band performs it amidst a swirl of psych-pop colour in a video by Meehan. The group's predisposition for framing garage rock almost as a form of mysticism remains in full effect, and I'm not complaining.

The new record follows up on 2024's Too Hot To Sleep LP. This lineup of The Outfit first appeared on a pair of 2025 singles ("Even If It's Obscure" / "Sweet Dew Of The Kingdom" and "Servo" / "Dumb Love"), both available on 7" vinyl. The band's Live in Oslo LP, recorded in November of 2024, arrived last summer, as well.

Preservers Of The Pearl by Daniel Romano

MotoristsNever Sing Alone

Watch "Frogman" on YouTube - Preview and purchase at Bandcamp

Toronto jangle-pop quartet Motorists return March 6 with Never Sing Alone, their third LP. The 11-song set arrives through Vancouver's We Are Time label.

The recently shared "Frogman" stems from a surreal happenstance on Vancouver Island, where frontperson Craig Fahner unexpectedly snagged a scuba diver with a fishing lure. The artist recalled the incident:

"After struggling to dislodge it for a few minutes, someone in a scuba suit emerged from the water with my stuck lure in hand. He swam up and handed it back to me, then went back into the water and disappeared. My dad remarked 'that Frogman saved you!' The incident, and my dad's exclamation, stuck in my head for months after."

From that encounter, the song's fantastical narrative took shape, told from the perspective of a person whose partner left them to live underwater. Fahner explored the song's themes:

"On another level, it's about the abruptness of loss, of looking into your empty hands wondering where the thing you were just holding went, and whether your life will be the same without it. Musically, we tried to find a similar melancholy aura, leaning into a lush and jaunty jangle-pop feeling which Chris Cohen's production really brought into its full sparkling glory."

The band road-tested Never Sing Alone's earlier single, "Cristobal," extensively on their 2024 tours. Fahner wrote it shortly after relocating from Toronto to New York, and the alienation inherent in the loss of the familiar permeates the track. He explained:

"I was reading about 'seasteading' - a concept beloved by weird tech bro billionaires, who aim to build their own autonomous territories as luxury tax havens separate from the rest of the world. The song is about not wanting to wake up in a world where the Earth is being used up to fuel a vision of the future that doesn't involve ordinary people. It's reflecting on various attempts to build a new society, and how those utopian ideas seem to forsake the idea of making the world we already live in more livable."

Motorists recorded with Jesse Turnbull (Dilly Dally, Losers) at Toronto's Taurus Recording, with follow-up sessions in Brooklyn and Gothenburg. Acclaimed songwriter Chris Cohen (Deerhoof, Captured Tracks) mixed the songs.

Motorists features Craig Fahner on guitar and vocals, Matt Learoyd on bass and vocals, Nick McKinlay on drums, and Moa-Linn Rosenlöf on guitar and vocals. Fahner and Learoyd have roots in several Calgarian punk and indie bands, notably Feel Alright, Leather Jacuzzi, and Lab Coast. The new record follows 2024's Touched by the Stuff.

Never Sing Alone by Motorists

The Fake FriendsLet's Not Overthink This

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Montreal post-punk sextet The Fake Friends previewed their debut LP Let's Not Overthink This with a pair of advance singles. The 11-track collection arrives February 13 through Stomp Records, showcasing a confident, hook-laden evolution of the band's sound.

The garage swagger of "A Sucker Born Every Minute" harkens back to the early 2000s. The song's chorus hits you like a truck. With a dramatic vocal switch-up and a crash of organ, it recalls memorable barnburners from Rocket from the Crypt and The Hives. "The Way She Goes" takes a different tack, weaving a tense new wave tune with one foot in angular Wire worship and the other in the goth theatricality of The Damned. Stomp's press release details that song:

"The track sits in the middle of the album's emotional arc, where confidence starts to fray at the edges. Savage's vocals land with a kind of weary certainty, circling lines about missteps, mixed signals, and the familiar pull of bad habits. 'I've been living on the warpath, it's just me, myself and I against me again' opens the door into the song's world, a place where momentum covers up doubt and desire loops back on itself. By the time the refrain arrives, 'I guess that's the way she goes,' it feels less like resignation and more like a quiet understanding of the patterns you fall into, even when you see them coming."

The band showcased both singles in recent music videos from director David Hughes. "The Way She Goes" highlights the band's bravado with sharp suits and a noir attitude. The playful clip for "Sucker" captures the track's infectious energy and the band's self-deprecating vibe in vibrant hues.

The Fake Friends recorded at MixArt Studios with NoFun Audio's Jordan Barillaro at the helm. The six-piece features the outsized personality of Matthew Savage on vocals, backed by guitarists Felix Crawford-Legault and Luca Santilli, bassist Michael Kamps, keyboardist Bradley Cooper-Graham, and drummer Michael Tomizzi. That group has roots in a host of Montreal punk groups, including Trigger Effect, Mundy's Bay, Watch for Wolves, and Kennedy.

The new record follows 2024's mini-album Always Worse / Never Better.

Let's Not Overthink This by The Fake Friends

Holy Fuck"Evie"

Watch on YouTube - Preview and purchase at Bandcamp

Toronto veterans Holy Fuck return March 27 with Event Beat, their sixth album and first in as many years. These 11 songs find the quartet reunited after an extended break, reviving their heady twist on electronica, noise, and groovy post-punk at a 2022 retreat to Great Village, Nova Scotia. There, the band lived and recorded together, striving to keep "every element as live as possible, emphasizing improvisation and raw percussion over click tracks and loops."

The new record reunites the band's Deleter lineup of Brian Borcherdt, Graham Walsh, Matt 'Punchy' McQuaid, and Matt Schulz, with the quartet both performing and engineering. Unlike their previous records, Event Beat features no guest vocalists.

You can preview the LP through the throbbing, funky lead single "Evie," as featured in a new video by Colin Medley that captures the band performing live in the studio. It's a fascinatingly unadorned snapshot of the group, who play faced inward amidst a mess of equipment. The piece underlines the group's redoubled effort to craft and present their material organically. Holy Fuck, here at least, are very much a band in the traditional sense.

Brian Borcherdt commented on the album's outlook and the group's assertive collectivism, stating that the record strives "towards something that is beyond personal control, either at the mercy of some bigger system or some unspoken will."

The new record follows 2020's Deleter LP and 2022's "Ninety-Five" single. In the interim, Borcherdt and McQuaid reconnected with original Holy Fuck drummer Loel Campbell (Wintersleep, Contrived) to record as the noise-punk side-project Cut Cult. They issued the First Three cassette last year.

Event Beat by Holy Fuck

Status/Non-Status"At All"

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Restless Anishinaabe songwriter Adam Sturgeon returns March 6 with Big Changes, the latest from his London, Ontario-based Status/Non-Status. Their 11-track LP, arriving through You've Changed, finds Sturgeon grappling with foundational questions of identity and belonging while navigating his role as a father amid "what is beginning to feel like a real apocalypse." The artist takes a dim view of the current climate, describing it as "a war on people and their ways of being."

You can preview the album now through lead single "At All," a sludgy, melancholy indie-rocker featuring tape loops from Zoon's Daniel Monkman and Broken Social Scene's Kevin Drew singing backup. Sturgeon commented on the track's origins:

"I was starting to feel really disillusioned at the time of writing this song. Confused about the state of music and the complex world we are living in; the grind to make each day work. I decided to disappear, bunker down at home, stay in, write songs about it and invite my friends over to visit and play along. I wrote over 40 songs and this was one of the first to come out of me. It's a bit self explanatory, I think anyone with a passion and a crappy day job standing in the way can relate."

Big Changes builds on the momentum of Sturgeon's celebrated partnership with Daniel Monkman as OMBIIGIZI, which yielded 2022's Polaris-shortlisted Sewn Back Together. For this record, Sturgeon recruited Dean Nelson (Beck, Thurston Moore, Stephen Malkmus) and Matthew Wiewel to construct a home studio in the former church he now calls home. The record, recorded by Nelson, features a raft of collaborators, including Rachel McLean, Colleen Coco Collins, Julie Doiron, and Sunnsetter's Andrew MacLeod. Sturgeon's core band features drummer Eric Lourenco, Jessica O'Neil and Kirsten Kurvink Palm alternating on guitar and synth, and bassist Steven Lourenco. Most of those individuals carry over from the group's earlier life as WHOOP-Szo.

Status/Non-Status last released Surely Travel in 2022, followed by the 2023 EP January 3rd. Last fall, the band foreshadowed the new record with a faithful cover of the Eric's Trip classic "View Master." You can find it, and the new single, streaming everywhere now.

Big Changes by Status/Non-Status

Welcome to the Planet of Silence

2026-01-17T00:00:00+00:00

Only God ForgivesExtra Strength

Preview and purchase at Bandcamp

Toronto art-punk unit Only God Forgives closed the year by quietly releasing Extra Strength, their sophomore full-length. While their earlier efforts toyed with prominent synths and scattershot quirkiness, this 11-song set finds Stephen Pitman solidifying the passion project into a conventionally structured four-piece. Shelby Wilson's mostly traded the livewire mania of her WLMRT era for a well-worn slacker deadpan, but despite the lower gear, her vocals remain utterly distinctive and cleverly wry. While I'd not have made the connection with their earlier work, one could draw a convincing through-line from Extra Strength to early post-punk from The Raincoats and the Flying Nun roster.

The band's said little about the record through official channels, so I reached out to Shelby for some background. She revealed:

"We recorded the album just over two years ago with Cameron Fraser at Pie in the Sky. Some of the songs Stephen and I wrote together in our old apartment on Dupont or when Hobby wasn't using Dining Room Studio, we'd get in there last minute and make "Car Song" (for example) out of a random Stephen Pitman solo song..."

While that track, in particular, may earn a few comparisons to the 2025 breakthrough from Brooklyn's Geese, Wilson notes:

"I do want to say that I wrote lyrics for 'Gun Song' before Cameron Winter ever even thought about having a bomb in his car."

She instead cites Living as an Art Form, the 2019 release from LA's erratic Good Ruin, as a key inspiration for Only God Forgives. The new album features Wilson on vocals, with Pitman on guitar. Erica Young handles bass and Sean Carey drums, with the trio of Pitman, Young, and Carey contributing synth, backing vocals, and other flourishes. Cameron Fraser (Luge/Hobby) engineered and produced the sessions, with Colm Hinds and Pitman mixing. Will Killingsworth mastered from afar, with Tallies' Dylan Frankland stepping in before the delayed final release to give everything a final polish.

It's probably not great for sales, but the band's casual nonchalance regarding Extra Strength feels entirely in line with the record's overall vibe. As an unreformed WLMRT evangelist, though, I'm obligated to shout from the rooftops.

Extra Strength follows the band's 2020 debut Power and Prowess. The record arrives on the heels of the latest from Stephen Pitman's Americana group Hobby. They issued Clear Blue River this past November through Telephone Explosion.

Extra Strength by Only God Forgives

Constant GreetingsGood Sports

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The Saint John-rooted Constant Greetings closed out the year with Good Sports, their new 10-song LP. The record finds the group, now based in Rothesay, New Brunswick, building on the indie rock foundations of their previous work while layering in Americana and newfound pop sensibilities. They contrast that with slow-burning, highly textural noisescapes that, on more than a few occasions, beg Constantines comparisons. The band recorded again with Corey Bonnevie (Doctor Mother Father, Monopolized Records), who also mixed and mastered the set.

I asked the band to share some thoughts on the road to Good Sports, and guitarist Steve Robinson obliged with a few insights on their recording process and a key inspiration that loomed large over the Good Sports sessions:

"Good Sports is our 3rd album in 3 years (just barely). It's our most collaborative album to date, particularly in terms of songwriting. JP still writes all the lyrics and vocal melodies, but half the songs were ideas brought forward by other members of the band (ie: the chord progression/structure of 'Late Bloomer,' the guitar riff/ambient production of 'Graduation Sunset,' and most notably the chaotic drumming of 'False Spring' transformed it from a simple 3-chord song to something much bigger). Also, 'Graduation Sunset' was the first time we recorded a song completely on our own in James's basement (then mixed and mastered by Corey).
Ultimately, this led to more experimentation and layering of ideas. One of our greatest inspirations for this record was one of my personal favourite albums of all time, A Ghost is Born by Wilco. A Ghost is Born deftly navigates the collision of 'indie rock' songwriting and experimentation to produce an album that is varied yet somehow cohesive. The fact that you can have 'Spiders (Kidsmoke)' and 'Theologians' on the same album and it just works still amazes me. Or how the guitar solo in 'Hell is Chrome' is such a contrast to the rest of the song, but totally completes it. Not that we think we are even remotely close to reaching the heights of that album, it definitely inspired us as we went into the studio and tried experimenting more with our otherwise pretty conventional song structures."

Constant Greetings features JP Lewis on vocals and guitar, Stephen Robinson on guitar (and occasionally lap steel), Jeff Melanson on bass, Peter Wallace on drums, and James Lea on synth, keys, and guitar. The new record follows the group's 2024 LP Showpony and their 2023 debut, Field Trips.

Good Sports by Constant Greetings

NYSSACursebreaker

Watch "The Tower" on YouTube - Preview and purchase at Bandcamp

Now based in the UK, vocal powerhouse NYSSA returns February 20 with Cursebreaker, a seven-song EP that finds the Toronto expat weaving new epics and resurrecting old favourites through a gothic folk lens. The set blurs breakup songs and protest anthems into what Six Shooter Records describes as "a scorched earth mission of mercy, a cautionary tale about the risks of cornering someone who is willing to fight their way out, no matter the cost."

You can preview the EP now through a pair of advance singles, "The Tower" and "The Faultline," each accompanied by glitchy psychedelic video treatments from director Al Robinson. The latter carries particular weight for the celebrated vocalist, written in New York amidst the ruin of an unhealthy relationship. While NYSSA often drapes her work in pagan imagery, with a specific focus on tarot, she took note that this track happened to land on January 6 - the Christian feast of the Epiphany:

"This is probably the most bare and personal song I've written since I was 15. I'm not beating around the bush here. I was severely fucked with for a long time. Maybe you were too. So here's to feasting on epiphany and getting free. Day by day, little by little, we're leaving those leeches behind. Running into the sea, turning that glass house back into sand."

Cursebreaker mixes new material with revamped cuts from NYSSA's live repertoire, integrating her London collaborators into songs first collected on 2020's Girls Like Me. The EP features performances and arrangements by NYSSA, Al Robinson, Henry Nicholson, and Danny Jerome Brooks, with NYSSA and Robinson co-producing. Robinson also mixed the sessions, recorded at Arcus Sounds and NYSSA's home base in South London.

The new EP follows the artist's 2023 full-length Shake Me Where I'm Foolish.

Cursebreaker by NYSSA

TriplesEvery Good Story

Watch "Be Around" on YouTube - Preview and purchase at Bandcamp

Toronto jangle-pop act Triples recently shared "Be Around" and "Gonna Be Good," previewing their upcoming EP Every Good Story. The four-song set arrives January 30 via Bleak Enterprise as a limited cassette. You can see both advance singles showcased in videos directed by Seamus Patterson, the former featuring the artist on the cold shores of Lake Ontario, with the latter set in the neon glow of downtown Toronto.

The tracks feature singer-songwriter Eva Link delivering earnest, guitar-driven indie rock, taking a decidedly brighter approach than the direction of her sister, Madeline, explores with the lo-fi PACKS. The artist cites Guided By Voices, Liz Phair, and Juliana Hatfield among her key influences.

Triples recorded with producer River Radcliffe (of Pleasure Craft), who also mixed the sessions. Seamus Patterson handled vocal engineering. The EP features Link backed by bassist Owen Hooper of Dumb Crush, lead guitarist Kurt Marble (Twist, Hobby), and drummer Lucas Horne.

It's been a long stretch since Triples, which then featured both Link sisters, issued their 2019 debut Big Time through the now-defunct Art of the Uncarved Block. Eva's modern incarnation of the band has a Toronto release show lined up for February 26 at Dina's Tavern, supported by Poolblood and Amelia Maxwell.

Every Good Story EP by Triples

Left LettersKick Signal

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Late last fall, Victoria duo Left Letters issued Kick Signal, a compelling three-song EP of angular indie storytelling. The new project pairs Basketball Knees guitarist/vocalist Joel Wheeler with veteran drummer Jentery Sayers, formerly of the Seattle indie folk band Mostly Dimes.

I spoke with Joel about the band's origins and outlook on their debut music:

"This project started as a casual weekly meetup to play music without the pressure to play shows or take it too seriously. That said, around last summer, we realized we had six songs we were happy with, so we recorded them DIY in our practice space. We plan to split them up across two mini-EPs, the Kick Signal EP in November and the Supermoon EP (coming out January 27).
As a duo, we try to write songs with concise arrangements and interesting rhythmic parts to keep things interesting with minimal instrumentation. We recorded guitars and drums together live, though we ended up over-dubbing bass later. Our main inspirations for this were Wire (experimentation with genre and song duration, with short, focused songs), Unwound (specifically Sara Lund's approach to drumming) and Sparklehorse (on the production side of things, especially vocal processing)."

Wheeler handles guitar, bass, and vocals for Left Letters, with Sayers on drums. Wheeler's lo-fi Toronto power-trio Basketball Knees last released the album Garden in 2022. Look online for Kick Signal's companion piece, Supermoon, before the end of the month.

Kick signal EP by Left Letters

Sam Salmon & the Grand Manan BanditsDown For Life

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In late November, New Brunswick weird-indie stalwarts Motherhood and guitar-hero Keith Hallett joined forces on Down For Life, rightfully described as a bare-bones country album. Billed as Sam Salmon & the Grand Manan Bandits, the quartet pairs the core Motherhood trio of bassist Penelope Stevens, guitarist Brydon Crain, and drummer Adam Sipkema with Hallett on lead and console steel guitar. Crain's always sang with a bit of nasal tang, and while that adds an unhinged quality to Motherhood's erratic art-punk, it fits these old-timey stylings to a t.

Sam Salmon recorded their 10-song set with an assist from Mike Trask at Never Nuthin Studio in Fredericton. Nova Scotian labels Forward Music Group and Big Turnip carried the release, with their press release breaking down a few tracks from the satisfyingly languid set:

"Down for Life Features foot-stompin' tracks like 'No One Likes Losing,' a self-depreciating look at being competitive yet never managing to get ahead, 'Waste Your Time,' about the confusion of suddenly losing someone you love, as well as a reflection on familial personality traits, and 'If I Needed You Now,' showcasing country music at its finest- three chords and the truth. Or, in this case, two chords."

The country diversion capped off a banner year for the Motherhood collective. The band issued their fifth LP, Thunder Perfect Mind, in January, followed by the debut of Stevens' surf-rock supergroup Penny & The Pits. They issued Liquid Compactor in the summer. Keith Hallett released his solo album Mezmerize Me last summer, as well. He formally fronted the doom-punk act Janowskii.

DOWN FOR LIFE by Sam Salmon & the Grand Manan Bandits

Jim's Plumbing and Electrical"All Snake"/"Stress Out"

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Ottawa rock'n'roll group Jim's Plumbing and Electrical wrapped the year with a pair of dramatic, high-attitude garage singles. "All Snake" and "Stress Out" arrived in late December, with the former showcased in a new video. The band commented on the material:

"These two songs were written very early on and we are happy to finally have them released as we move on to writing new material for 2026. We hope they convey the deprived anxiety and tension of being a socialite rent paying slug in the modern age. No ladders, all snakes, give it a spin on the hard drive."

Jim's Plumbing and Electrical features members of the late Ottawa party-punk act New Swears alongside Mikey Power (aka Mr. Power), violinist Maude Rioux-Villard of Gatineau's Modevile, and Jeff Lemon of School House. The band tracked drums and bass at Upper Cut Studios, with Alex Jakimczuk engineering. Mr. Power handled the rest of the recording, mixing, and album art.

The new singles follow the band's 2024 debut EP The Business. Their predecessor act New Swears last released Night Mirror in 2019 through Dine Alone. In the time in between, members of the New Swears leaned into alt-country as Scorpion King, and issued a series of video projects through the Clubhouse Recording Club.

ALL SNAKE/STRESS OUT by Jim's Plumbing and Electrical

Middle of Summer

2025-12-14T00:00:00+00:00

PONYClearly Cursed

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In the early Punknews days, high on our misbegotten authority, I used to make laughable assertions like: "I have no idea what the kids actually like, but if there was any justice in the universe this-or-that band would be huge." We were, in retrospect, far too young to be feigning such ignorance, but this was useful bullshit. It painted my lackadaisical disengagement with mainstream culture as a virtue rather than a blind spot. I'm in my forties now, and quite justifiably out of touch, so I feel entirely comfortable reclaiming that sentiment at face value. So let me say: PONY is a magical band - pure confection - and the fact that they're not absolutely massive is an aberration of cosmic proportions, and one for which I shall not stand.

Now my family typically doesn't factor into these write-ups. They never agreed to live as Cancon ascetics, and I'd not force that life on anyone. But in the truck, my truck, they're stuck with me and my radio. The other day, my otherwise K-pop-obsessed teenager threw some rare feedback as she left for school, proclaiming, "you usually just listen to the Ramones or loud stuff but I really like that PONY band you keep playing." Youth approval! We've therefore externally validated the parallel truths that while I am indeed aging into irrelevance, I'm also 100% right about PONY.

The Toronto band returns this February with Clearly Cursed, a ten-song set of bubblegum grunge-pop that promises shimmering hooks and Sam Bielanski's effortlessly euphoric vocals. In a statement, the singer-songwriter revealed the record's origins in a portentous psychic reading:

"She read my tarot cards and told me boyfriend was cheating on me. That was true. She also told me that I had a dark spirit attachment which she could easily vanquish if I paid her $1500. That was obviously out of my budget so I left and decided I would have to coexist with this dark spirit for the rest of my life."

Clearly Cursed finds Bielanski and partner/guitarist Matty Morand (Pretty Matty) joined by their touring collaborators Christian Beale (This is Hell, Iron Chic) on bass and Joey Ginaldi (Webbed Wing) on drums. Iron Chic's Dan Leo, who drummed for PONY on their previous go-around, appears as well. The group again worked with producer Alex Gamble (Fucked Up, Alvvays) - reviving the studio team that crafted 2023's Velveteen.

You can hear four tracks from the record today, three of which surfaced as stand-alone singles over the past few years. The album opens with the familiar favourites "Superglue" and "Freezer", with 2024's earworm "Every Little Crumb" sequenced in the penultimate slot. Those songs are available alongside the newly unveiled "Middle Of Summer." Clearly Cursed arrives February 13 through Take This To Heart Records, supported by a late-February East Coast tour with Californian pop-punk act Star 99.

Clearly Cursed by PONY

G̱a̱mksimoon"Huk Aat" / "G̱a̱woo Üüla"

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You've Changed Records recently issued the debut 7-inch single from G̱a̱mksimoon, a riff-heavy rock trio from Prince Rupert, British Columbia. The group sings entirely in the Sm'algya̱x language of the Ts'msyen people, which pairs perfectly with a backdrop of 70s-indebted guitar heroism.

The set features "Huk Aat" on the a-side backed by "G̱a̱woo Üüla," tracks that draw lyrically on north coast Indigenous tradition and pre-contact ways of life. Band lead Wil Uks Batsga G̱a̱laaw (aka Jeremy Pahl), explained the hunting practices expressed on the b-side:

"This song is about the protocols Ts'msyen seal hunters have been passing down forever. I'm lucky enough to have learned about this from my uncles. A long time ago our people communicated with the seal people and made this protocol. The song lyrics themselves are pretty self explanatory. I hunt seals in this way today. It's a great nutritious and delicious food. I like to render the fat into oil to use for frying fish or mixing with berries as a dessert."

The three-piece features Pahl on vocals and guitar, Isaac Story on bass, and Danny Bell on drums. They recorded with John Rahm at Afterlife Studios in Vancouver, with Connor Pritchard mixing at Pulp City in Prince George.

G̱a̱mksimoon is an evolution of a project formerly known as Saltwater Hank. The group issued their final full-length under that name, Siip'nsk, in 2024, supported by a performance at Sappyfest in Sackville, New Brunswick that summer.

Jeremy Pahl's a member of the Gitga'at First Nation, hailing from the isolated Hartley Bay community (Txałgiiw) about 145 kilometres south of Prince Rupert.

Huk Aat / G̱a̱woo Üüla by G̱a̱mksimoon

American LipsOn Strike!

Watch "Cardboard Trash" on YouTube - Preview and purchase at Bandcamp

Montreal/Los Angeles trio American Lips recently returned with On Strike!, a playful and often sardonic full-length that tears down the excess and absurdity of late capitalism. The record accelerates the band's angular art-punk attack, delivering 10 statements perched atop the jittery shoulders of Devo and The Fall.

Guitarist/vocalist Adrian Popovich of garage legends Tricky Woo fronts the trio alongside Death From Above 1979 drummer Sebastien Grainger and bassist/vocalist Jessica Bruzzese. In a statement carried by New Noise, Grainger shared some thoughts on the album, stating:

"Musically, this record is tight and boxy, like an engine made of wood and elastic bands trying to play pop songs. Lyrically it speaks to this intergenerational sense that we are all alienated, yet how can this be? If we all have the same feelings of 'otherness' shouldn't that make us closer? More able to relate to one another? Strangely no. So this record is at once a warm hug and punch in the neck."

You can see the single "Cardboard Trash," celebrated in a video assembled from walkthrough footage of the 1989 graphic adventure game Space Quest III: The Pirates Of Pestulon. The band commented, "We all played Sierra games as kids and it means a great deal to us to have been able to pay tribute in this way." The retro digital aesthetic suits the band's quirky sensibilities perfectly.

Popovich remains prolific as a producer in Montreal's indie rock scene and plays these days as part of the space-punk aggressors FRVITS. American Lips last issued the maxi-single Waste of Crime / Labor of Hate in 2022, following up on their 2017 debut Kiss the Void. The new album's available through Ancient Fashion Records.

On Strike! by American Lips

Our SinsA Sea of Nude Limbs Thrashing

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London, Ontario's Our Sins emerged on Halloween with their debut LP A Sea of Nude Limbs Thrashing. The group, which features familiar faces from southern Ontario's punk scene, delivers a diverse slate of songs that hopscotch nostalgically between subgenres, shifting from emo and pop-punk to post-hardcore and 90s radio rock - a love affair with the collective's 90s-rooted influences.

The band wrote and recorded across two weekends, two years apart, in the respective falls of 2022 and 2024, with lyrics by the songwriting duo of Danny Kidd and Ivan Rivers. Kidd sings and plays guitar these days in Pro Wrestling the Band and boasts a lengthy resume that includes Never Betters, The Drew Thomson Foundation, Single Mothers and Wasted Potential. Rivers is best known for his time in the punk outfit Stuck Out Here and maintains an eponymous solo career as a self-described celebrated folk icon. The band's rounded out by drummer Joel Siggelkow (Twin) and bassist Dustin Andrews (Wasted Potential, Snacks?). Andrews recorded, produced, and mixed the material from his basement studio, with Daggermouth's Stu McKillop mastering.

I feel bad that I've sat on this one for so long, particularly since Rivers reached out to me with such enthusiasm. If he'll forgive the privacy breach, here's a snippet of his pitch that illustrates just that:

"We're so stoked about this thing. It started as a lark and a way to hone D.A.'s burgeoning production chops in his new home studio, but we ended up making 9 killer wild dramatic ridiculous songs about like, killing god and burnt-world romance and fed them through a lifetime of collected alt & scene influences, like Maxell CDRcore. We call it 'forest city god-fearing music' and it's a damn blast."

The album arrived as a joint release through Rivers' Eternal Bummer label and Andrews' Get Party! Records. You can dig more into the band's deep London scene connections in a feature by Em Moore at Punknews.org.

A Sea of Nude Limbs Thrashing by Our Sins

Parisian OrgyParisian Orgy

Preview and purchase at Bandcamp

The lo-fi art-punk of Calgary's Parisian Orgy feels decidedly distinct - it's provocateur pop, raw and unpredictable, both immediate and danceable yet somehow vaguely threatening. Neon Taste Records recently served up the band's debut LP, a self-titled set that collects eight originals plus a cover of the French new wave group Tokow Boys. These songs have percolated for years, some of which first surfaced back in 2019 on the Come Pretty Pump Sleep EP. This is the first time the band's collected any of its material on wax.

Multi-disciplinary artist Gwen Morgan fronts the project, leading a collective of local players who've built a thrillingly disorienting, sonically asymmetrical series of tunes on a bass-and-drum foundation. The label references the New Wave exotica sound and cult favourites like Inflatable Boy Clams and Sara Goes Pop. Fans of Toronto's Luge will find familiar ground here.

The band recorded at Pee Blood Studios, with Orchid's Will Killingsworth mixing and mastering at Dead Air Studios.

Parisian Orgy by Parisian Orgy

The WesleysExplosive Device

Preview and purchase at Bandcamp

Last month Montreal quartet The Wesleys issued Explosive Device, a four-song EP that finds the garage-pop unit shuffling the deck, both in regards to their songwriting and lead vocalists. The set finds guitarist Henry Girard, bassist Quentin Chisholm, and drummer Pablo Garcia-Rejon Gaubeca (Jyraph, Raindog) each taking turns at the mic, supported by William D'Amours on guitar and mellotron. The tunes vary from hooky power-pop to fuzzy psych-rock, all delivered with a sharp garage edge.

On vinyl, the new songs come paired with the entirety of The Wesleys's 2022 debut Outside Voices, the first physical release for those tracks. The group recorded with Scott 'Monty' Munro (Preoccupations) in Montreal, with the aforementioned Adrian Popovich (Tricky Woo, American Lips) handling the mix.

Explosive Device follows up on The Wesley's self-titled LP, issued last spring. You can find it in Canada via Petit Village Records or internationally through Spain's Meritorio.

Explosive Device by The Wesleys

Low BlowMoney Fetish

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Calgary hardcore act Low Blow sounds slavishly devoted to the classic American hardcore sound, which isn't in and of itself all that uncommon, except for the fact that it's the product of a bunch of 18-year-olds. These aren't some aging lifers on a quest to recapture past glories, but the genuine fire of youth. Neon Taste likens their sound to Rollins' early DC group State of Alert and Touch and Go pioneers The Fix.

The four-song Money Fetish demo crashes by with abandon - completely unrefined and intently so. The label has a limited run of 100 home-dubbed tapes available, complete with xeroxed J-cards. It's the classic no-budget DIY aesthetic, and probably the truth. Nothing else would be appropriate.

Money Fetish by Low Blow

Amaro

2025-11-10T00:00:00+00:00

Bibi Club"Amaro"

Watch on YouTube - Preview and purchase at Bandcamp

Given that it ended up on the Short List this year, I became pretty familiar with Feu de garde, the 2024 record from Montreal avant-pop duo Bibi Club. I came to rely on it as a headphone record, and one that, despite the language barrier, felt intimate—a glimpse into the private musical world of its married principles, never overly precious but clearly the product of a shared headspace. Reviewers often cited Stereolab.

What I saw on stage at the Polaris Gala felt like something else entirely. The band performed "Le Feu" and "Shloshlo" with abandon, stomping through the tracks with an aggression I never perceived on the recordings, leaning into their off-kilter qualities with the volume cranked. Post-apocalyptic wasn't the vibe on record, but you could feel it in person. It was utterly compelling. I'm not sure if it comes across in the CBC's recording, but I walked out of Massey infatuated.

The band is capitalizing on both the critical momentum and that stylistic twist with the announcement of Amaro, their third album due early next year through Secret City Records. The record's first single is in line with that Polaris performance, re-casting Bibi Club as a darkwave duo, set to a thumping, club-ready beat. The label's announcement is evocative, painting the title track and the record it heralds in epic language:

"On their third album, Amaro, Bibi Club invites us to brave the dark beasts that shadow us beneath the surface, and to devote ourselves to the healing power of a fierce will to live. It explores the liminal spectrum between the here and beyond, pointing to love, nature, and community as the unifying purpose. The songs draw a map of a world of its own, following the trajectory traced by the Bibis in recent years. Now out of the living room, we dance in a mental space overloaded with grief and fear in their rawest forms. Following the death of two loved ones in the last year, the mantra 'I want to love, I want to live' resonates intensely in each melody; if the heart is a place that never dies, we must reach it as quickly as possible."

Vocalist/keyboardist Adèle Trottier-Rivard and guitarist Nicolas Basque (Plants and Animals) recorded the new LP with contributions from singer-songwriter Helena Deland and saxophonist Dimitri Milbrun. The band self-produced the record, with Seth Manchester (METZ, Tunic) mixing. Look for the 11-song full-length in stores on February 27.

Amaro by Bibi Club

Leanne Betasamosake SimpsonLive Like The Sky

Watch "White Kites and Sky Blue" on YouTube - Preview and purchase at Bandcamp

It's easy to frontload a discussion of Leanne Betasamosake Simpson with her culture and credentials, but that feels like a disservice to the medium. Context is essential, but leaning on it projects a sense of academic sterility that's very much at odds with Live Like The Sky; it implies a prerequisite self-seriousness that supersedes the gut-level engagement music demands. So yes, the new album indeed boasts the intellectual depth its creator's known for, but it's also pretty fucking fun. The record genre-hops nimbly from dream pop to goth to cerebral new wave, finding common ground in 80s post-punk and what became indie rock. It's easily Simpson's most accessible work.

In a discussion with Constantines guitarist Steven Lambke, who co-wrote the track "85 Dollars an Acre," Simpson delved into the dichotomy between the album's sound and its message:

"...I think that pairing serious lyrics about serious issues with music that doesn't necessarily reflect or amplify that, and that provides kind of a counterpoint, for me that opens up an interstitial space between the aesthetics of the music and the aesthetics of the poetry or the lyrics that is an opportunity to layer more meaning. And so, I think a lot of times that the fun music or the music about Indigenous joy can pick up the energy of resistance to whatever the struggle is. We need joy in this moment. Joy fuels movements."

The album finds Simpson working with a host of familiar faces, including Ansley Simpson, Nick Ferrio, Jonas Bonnetta of Evening Hymns, Boyhood's Caylie Runciman, and Tanner Paré. Bonnetta produced at Port William Sound, with Holy Fuck's Graham Walsh mixing. You can see the album's opening track, "White Kites and Sky Blue," showcased in a video by Rana Nazzal Hamadeh. Simpson describes that track as "a reluctant protest song naming and narrating our shared present - one of live streamed genocide, climate collapse and fascism."

Simpson's an acclaimed scholar and writer of the Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg, descendants of the ancient peoples who inhabited southern Ontario as far back as the Archaic and Paleo-Indian periods. She last released Theory of Ice in 2021, which critics shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize. Live Like The Sky, featuring 11 new songs, is available through You've Changed Records.

Simpson's on the road this month supporting the record, with shows upcoming in Ottawa, Montreal, Hamilton, Guelph, and Toronto. All dates feature Boyhood, with Zoon joining in Hamilton, Guelph, and Toronto.

Live Like The Sky by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

GUV"Let Your Hands Go"

Watch on YouTube - Preview and purchase at Bandcamp

Young no longer, Ben Cook's solo vehicle GUV, is set to return with Warmer than Gold, a new 12-song LP due January 30 through Run For Cover Records. The news arrived alongside "Let Your Hands Go," a song that underlays the artist's proven mastery of jangle-pop with some compelling shoegaze haze. Keeping with his recent records, Cook remains immersed in Britpop, but that influence never feels overly derivative or mined for nostalgia. Directors Fred Joseph and Andrew Pitrone showcase the single in a kaleidoscopic new video, visualizing its hypnotic momentum through shifting geometric patterns and oversaturated colours.

Warmer than Gold marks a fresh chapter for the project, now rebranded from Young Guv. Cook addressed the change in his stage name, joking, "I'm not so young anymore, three letter band names are cool, and I'm tired of being mistaken as a rapper."

Performers on the record include Cook's longtime collaborator James Matthew VII, Australian artists Darcy Baylis and Hatchie, and Meg Mills of the world conquering Turnstile. In a press release, Cook reflected on the personal journey that led to the new album:

"I've tried to open up to the world and let it speak back to me. Slowly, I've been rediscovering myself, and now gratefully back to releasing music. In the end, I've been searching for ways to bring the fleeting into focus, to make the invisible parts of myself real, hoping they might connect with something greater. Warmer Than Gold is another step in that journey of rediscovery."

The new record follows 2024's GUV III and GUV IV, the concluding half of a pandemic-era album cycle that found the artist transcending the quirky synthpop of their earlier efforts. When not dabbling on the lighter side of the spectrum, Cook's known as the frontman of Toronto bruisers No Warning and formerly played as a guitarist in the hardcore titans Fucked Up.

Warmer Than Gold by GUV

Papal VisitThe Capsize Party

Preview and purchase at Bandcamp

Lo-fi east coast rockers Papal Visit are back with The Capsize Party, their fourth full-length and first since 2021's sprawling Five Fathom Hole. Available now through Monopolized Records, the new album finds the New Brunswick quintet trending towards a darker, heavier sound, captured with a raw edge that befits their garage origins. The band convened over four years at various studios to record these songs, primarily to four-track cassette. Cory Bonnevie mastered their noisy results at Monopolized's studio in Saint John.

While I suspect they'll forever worship at the altar of Guided By Voices, The Capsize Party finds Papal Visit taking a few compelling detours into straight-ahead punk rock ("Love By the Numbers"), psychedelic folk ("Ringin' In"), and even sludgy stoner rock ("Weird System"). The band even takes a rare francophone turn on the simmering post-punk tune, "Angry Young Computer."

Papal Visit features the distinctive warble of vocalist Adam Mowery, backed by Pierre Cormier on bass, Chris Braydon and Penny Blacks' Jason Ogden on guitars, and Geoffrey Smith drumming.

The Capsize Party by PAPAL VISIT

Plastic War"Cold Air Experiment"

Preview and purchase at Bandcamp

That's not all from Jason Ogden, as the Penny Blacks principal recently shared a new one-off single as part of the Toronto-based three-piece Plastic War. The occasionally active band resurfaced this fall with "Cold Air Experiment," a moody post-punk cut that builds deliberately over five and a half minutes, finding a groove amidst the slow-burning tension.

Plastic War features Ogden with Blair Phillips (Halo, Born Under Satellites) and Alex Teixeira (Zero Bars, The Steady State). The band recorded at The Rehearsal Factory in Toronto. "Cold Air Experiment" is the band's first new material since their self-titled 2016 EP.

Cold Air Experiment by Plastic War

DeposedDownhill

Preview and purchase at Bandcamp

Drummerless Toronto "punk impostors" Deposed resurfaced in September with Downhill, their third digital single and the follow-up to last year's Dumb it Down. The title track takes its inspiration from graffiti scrawled on the rehearsal room wall at Toronto's Houndstooth bar: "It's all downhill from here." Paul Kelly shared:

"It's about the big rip-off, you know, the big, cosmic, existential one. Or maybe it's about retirement planning (we're getting up there). I think it sounds a bit like Wire (conceptual overall structure, chorus like their 'Heartbeat') but a friend tells me it's just a 'Born in the USA' rip-off."

The A-side is backed by the sardonic "E to C (Post-punk school)," which I couldn't let stand without demanding an explanation. Paul, thankfully, obliged:

"On the surface, E2C sounds like an old man who lived through the original post-punk era scolding the young, but it's really about bands that aim at pastiche rather than the all-important (and genre-transcending) RIFFS. It also has some jabs at the Canadian music industry. Many, many great post-punk songs were based on that minor 6th interval: 'Villiers Terrace' by Echo and the Bunnymen, 'M' by The Cure, 'Here Today' by The Chameleons, 'Third Uncle' by Bauhaus (OK, by Eno, but you get the point)."

The song features an interlude that references "A Matter of Gender" by Scottish band The Associates, with Kelly attempting to mimic their vocalist, Billy McKenzie.

Deposed features Paul Downes and Paul Kelly. The pair recorded with Colm Hinds (Lammping, Rosseau) at Dining Room Sound. He plays piano on the title track.

Downhill by Deposed

Rec CentreSquash

Watch "Polly and Andy" at YouTube - Preview and purchase at Bandcamp

Last month, Alex Hudson's Toronto-based indie pop project Rec Centre issued Squash, an 11-song set of home-recorded, synth-driven tunes. The album kicks off with "Polly and Andy," a track that contemplates "the strange paradox of seeing people every day but knowing almost nothing about their lives." You can see it in a video, shot with early-2000s point-and-shoot digital cameras, that follows the artist to their local convenience store (run by the titular couple). The song exemplifies the record's warm sound and refreshingly small-stakes observations, set against "a backdrop of buzzy synth bass and the blissed out jangle of circa-2009 blog rock." You can find a similar visual aesthetic at work in the video for "Undying."

It's a direction that feels well-suited to Hudson's longtime collaborator Jay Arner. The pair have a longstanding creative partnership, with Hudson playing bass in Arner's namesake outlet before relocating to Toronto in 2017. Arner serves as producer on Squash and contributes instrumentally on several tracks (proceeds from the album's Bandcamp sales are going to Arner's transition fundraiser). Shout Out Out Out's Nik Kozub mastered the new set in Edmonton.

The new songs follow up on 2022's Maxxed Out, which saw Rec Centre swerving towards straightforward garage rock. Squash loosely clocks in as the sixth proper full-length from the project.

Squash by Rec Centre