Music

Nomeansno promise two new vinyl-only EPs

by Sam Sutherland

It may have been five years since Victoria hardcore-math-punk-jazz-freaky-dudes Nomeansno released a full-length album, the critically acclaimed All Roads Lead to Ausfahrt, but they’ve been anything but lazy since. Touring the world and re-issuing classic (and previously unforgivably out of print) records like Wrong and Mama on vinyl through their own Wrong Records, they also quietly recorded and released eight new songs, too, in case you blinked.

“Last year, we released two EPs in Europe as limited-edition tour-only vinyl,” explains drummer and vocalist John Wright. “Unfortunately, right now, we’re only distributed in Europe, so the records aren’t properly available here.” While both releases are available from the band’s website, www.nomeanswhatever.com, the fact that one of Canada’s most infamous punk exports lacks proper distribution in their own country is more disappointing par for the Euro-course than a genuinely shocking tragedy. Wright is hopeful that Wrong Records will have something worked out in time for the band’s next two releases, which have already begun to take shape.

“We got some songs,” he says. “We want to do two more EPs. We were hoping to get one done this fall. We want to get two out, and compile them all in to one release in the end.” Embracing new distribution methods, the band’s latest releases have been vinyl and digital only, the latter loaded on to a handy wristband hard drive that Wright proclaims as “stylish.”

As for the sonic direction of the band’s new material, Wright explains that the band, always ones for startling originality, continues to push into weird new sonic arenas. “The last eight songs have been a product of Rob [Wright, bassist, vocalist, and John’s brother] demoing on his Pro Tools,” he says. “He’s not a drummer, so he’ll program things that no drummer would ever do. It’s not intuitive. But that’s really interesting. Rob has immersed himself in the Pro Tools world. He got really into digital music, into dubstep and electronic stuff. A little bit of that has leaked in to us, since we’ve always had little bits of other stuff leak in to our sound.”

While Wright imagines the next eight songs will likely come from more collaboration between the brothers and guitarist Tom Holliston, he seems most excited about the new prospects of distribution afford by digital technology and the resurgence in the popularity of vinyl. “We want to take smaller bites,” he says. “Work on a few songs, play them live, and do something a little different.”

Nomeansno play Toronto’s Lee’s Palace tonight (with METZ), before embarking on a European tour.