Music

17 Canadian garage punk and power pop bands you should listen to

by Mark Teo

Let’s get one thing straight: Documenting the current wave of garage, bubblegum, and power pop in Canada is an exercise in the impossible. North of the 49, we trade in both quantity and quality; even international labels like Germany’s P-Trash, Portland’s Dirtnap, and Chicago’s HoZac have taken notice. Accordingly, pockets of activity—inspired by the Nuggets comps, pub rock, first-gen British punk, warped psych, and much more—have emerged all across Canada, and in the some of the unlikeliest corners of the nation. Think: Sackville, Sudbury, Southern Alberta, and Ottawa (home of the Explosion, natch).

To commemorate it all, we’ve compiled a collection of some of our favourite unheralded discoveries. Beloved contemporary Canadian acts like the Steve Adamyk Band, Sonic Avenues, The Ketamines, Fist City, White Wires, and the Tranzmitors deserve year ears, love, and money. But we’ve elected to leave them off the list—not because we don’t love them, but because we decided to focus on less established (but no less delightful) bands. Like who?

 

First Base

Photo: Yosh Photography

In their early days, First Base supposedly attached perforated cans to their microphones to add reverb to their vocals. And while the band hasn’t lost their scruffy charm, their long-awaited debut LP, released by Chicago behemoth HoZac in December, shows the band’s real strength: Boardwalk-ready, puppy-lovin’ bubblegum. “You Can Come Over” is an instant classic, but their LP rolls out earworm after earworm—and they’re easily one of the most addictive bands in Toronto.

 

Average Times

Toronto-based label Hosehead have cut releases by several bands on this list (including First Base, above), and their newest release—which comes in the spring—comes courtesy of Ottawa’s Average Times. With boy-girl vocal delivery that occasionally reminds of Myelin Sheaths, the legendary Lethbridge, AB garage band that birthed the Ketamines, their eponymous LP piles on choppy garage riffage with occasional moments of Buzzcock-ian sass, resulting in a veritable singalong machine. Listen to “She Knows” and try not to join in.

 

Betrayers

Travis Sargent might be known as the “handsomest man in Edmonton”, but, as it turns out, he ain’t just a pretty face—he can pen a damn decent song, too. Channelling bits of the Velvet Underground’s timeless cool and the Jesus and Mary Chain’s largesse, his project, Betrayers, quietly dropped Let the Good Times Die in late December. And it’s unstoppable: This is sunglasses-on garage that makes us feel way, way more attractive than we actually are.

 

Lad Mags

Photo: Bandcamp.com

Lad Mags hail from the same Edmonton garage scene as Betrayers, but they’re a wholly different project. It’d be easy to say they lean on girl groups—after all, they describe themselves as “four women and a garbageman drummer”—but they play a brand of garage that’s effortlessly chic and primitively haunting. The chilling B-side of their last 7-inch, “You Stole My Mind,” is a good example of their strengths—equally built around cooing vocals and droning organs, it’s a track that manages to get under your skin. In the best possible way, of course.

 

Tee-Tahs

Photo: Bandcamp.com

Since we’re on the topic of Edmonton, we should mention Tee-Tahs, Jessica Jalbert’s garage project with Jenni Roberts and Caity Fisher. While Jalbert’s put out the diverse Brother Loyola on Old Ugly—the collective responsible for Edmo faves like Doug Hoyer, Travis Bretzer, and Brazilian Money—Tee-Tahs feels like her foray into balls-out punk. We’ve only heard “Fun Forever” thus far, but it’s an irreverent, loboto winner—”it feels so good to be bad,” the Fisher sings on the track, “everything is stupid. I don’t know, and I don’t care. I just want to have fun forever.” Needless to say, we can’t wait to hear more. And bonus: The above song was recorded by Edmonton soft-disco king Renny Wilson.

New Swears

On the topic of loboto gold, it sounds like Ottawa’s New Swears just crawled out of dumpster reeking of 50. And we mean that in the best possible way: We fell for this band when we saw their video for “Welcome to Hull,” and Funny Isn’t Real continued their whimsical, gloriously sloppy party punk. They, along with the related Tropical Dripps, are the band we’d invite by for a round of whippets.

 

King Creep

We first featured King Creep when we debuted a compilation by Art Drug a few weeks back. The upstart Toronto label chose a King Creep song to open its comp, and for good reason: Their purposefully raw recording does little to hide their raucous, trashcan rock ‘n’ roll. Built around shimmying rhythms and call ‘n’ response vocals, we love the Gary Glitter-inspired beat of “I’m No Good,” and if you’re digging the track as much as we are, check out “Telephone” and “Can’t Dance” next. Expect a release on Art Drug later this year.

 

Nature Boys

Photo: Facebook.com

If King Creep’s lo-fi approach to pop isn’t up your alley, you could do much worse than Nature Boys (and band that’s featured on another comp we recently debuted). Unlike plenty of the bands on this list—who’d likely be TermBo and Burger Records-approved—Nature Boys are a band that pull on a different set of influences: Their glossed-up power pop clearly draws on ’50s rock ‘n’ roll and British pub rock, which gives their music a slicker, but no less infectious, quality. Their last EP, Anywhere is Better Than Here, was released by Boppa Do Down, a label that’s no stranger to pop in this vein—they, for example, also put out music by Danny Laj and the Looks, who we’ve also featured in the past.

 

Kappa Chow

Huge thanks to AUX contributor / Weird Canada editor Jesse Locke for tipping me off on Kappa Chow—he repped these Sackville goons in his Living on Video column last month. The two songs on their Killer Haze cassette offer a glimpse at their M.O.: They’re howling, scuzzy, shithead punk, all hammered home with skronky (but oddly fitting) saxophone squeals. We’re bummed we missed Kappa Chow on their recent swing west. Come back soon?

 

Astral Gunk

Photo: Facebook.com

On the topic of Sackville’s punk scene, we’d be fools if we didn’t mention Astral Gunk. Their last release, Str8 Up James Dean, featured below, is an at-times overwhelming freakout, with spastic guitar leads combatting vocals so snotty, you’d think their cassette came with a spit guard. What’s in that Sackville water?

 

Sam Coffey and the Iron Lungs

Photo: CBC.ca

Sam Coffey and the Iron Lungs are an unabashedly fun act, bridging the gap between irreverent rock ‘n’ roll and boozy punk—no surprise, really, considering the band features members of like-minded acts like Pink Wine and Non-Stop Girls. But when he debuted the eponymous single from his forthcoming Gates of Hell LP, slated for release by Southpaw Records, he unveiled that he’s dabbling with new sonic directions: Sprawling and church bell driven, Coffey indicated that he might have his eyes towards the heartland. Not that dude isn’t about having fun, though—the next song he unveiled (with AUX, no less), was the Pilsner-soaked “Get Pumped Up.” And undoubtedly, we’re pumped about Gates of Hell.

 

Shitty Neighbours

Photo: Facebook.com

Vancouver’s Shitty Neighbours, in their band bio, namedrop both G.G. Allin and a bumper crop of bands associated with the British Invasion. And for good reason. Their musical core is clearly mod ‘n’ rocker informed, but, if we’re to believe “City Girl” and “Reputation,” the two newest songs posted on Shitty Neighbours’ Bandcamp page, there’s a latent aggression that suggests that these dudes spent plenty of time analyzing GG. Predictably, they’ve released work with Scumbuzz, a label that’s put out work by Needles//Pins (more on them later).

 

Feral Trash

Photo: Michelle Caron, via Facebook.com

I’ve never been to Moncton, NB, but I’ve had ex-Moncton dwellers call it a “glorified strip mall.” They were probably joking—they were in the midst of dropping some truly horrifying Acadian Franglais—but a band like Feral Trash certainly sounds like their 7-inch, below, comes from a place of bleakness, isolation, and boredom. But that’s also why we love it: It’s mid-tempo, jangly, and bummed-out garage, and it’s a perfect balance to some of the sunnier inclusions on this list.

 

Bad Channels

Photo: Facebook.com

We gave Vancouver-based label Kingfisher Bluez daps in our shoegaze-focused list, and we’ll have to thank Tim Clapp and co. again for alerting us about Bad Channels. “Sugarcubes,” below, feels much more refined than 2012’s TV Dinner EP, but it’s still a starry-eyed bubblegum number that makes us think of root beer floats on the beach. According to the band’s Facebook, Bad Channels are mastering a record—hopefully it’ll see the light of day sooner rather than later.

 

Needles//Pins

Photo: Facebook.com

We’re still talking about B.C., so we should mention one of our favourite Vancouver bands, Needles//Pins. (And apparently, they’re one of the city’s most popular, too. Last time we were in Vancouver, it was impossible to find their wonderful Mammoth Cave / La Ti Da-released LP, 12:34.) Blending pop-punk with airtight power pop, it’d be easy to link them to their Portland-ian neighbours to the south. But we won’t, and that’s because singer Adam Solomonian is an Ottawa expat—and comes from the same scene that brought us bands like Metz, Ancient Heads and Mass. Bonus: The band recorded their forthcoming LP with Jordan Koop, the Gabriola Island-based dude behind LPs by the Courtneys, White Lung, Weed, and like, every Vancouver band ever.

 

Pink Wine

Former Sudbury resident and Torontonian Joel French is one of Toronto’s busiest dudes, playing in bands like Sam Coffey and the Iron Lungs, the Ketamines, and the brand new post-punk outfit Mean Tikes (along with fellow Ketamine Paul Lawton). But his main gig is Pink Wine, who we’ve profiled in the past. Since our last run-in with the band, they’ve been busy: They finally released an LP on Germany’s P Trash records, and unveiled the band’s potent blend of power pop, British-styled punk and occasional hardcore, all tied together by French’s over-the-top phlegmy vocals. We can only imagine what dude would sound like with pneumonia.

 

Strange Attractor

Photo: Facebook.com

The aforementioned French might’ve left Sudbury for Toronto’s bright lights, but the city certainly isn’t lacking in musical talents—like, for example, Strange Attractor, a band that grew out of Statues, one of the nation’s most revered power pop acts. Strange Attractor, though, don’t play pop—they play paranoid-schizophrenic, psyched-out punk rock about aliens, the terror of living inside your own mind, and aliens (again). Like Needles // Pins’ 12:34, Strange Attractor’s Back to the Cruel World was cut by Mammoth Cave Recording Co., and we love-hated it so much, we named it one of our favourite albums of last October.

 

Outtacontroller

Photo: Bandcamp.com

If you’re a follower of AUX.TV, you’ll know that we pay special attention to Halifax’s music scene—because for whatever reason, the city seems to perenially punch above its weight, churning out excellent music from the Atlantic coast. And we count Outtacontroller among our recent faves, thanks to their fuzzed-out, movie-clip heavy take on power pop. Their Remote Control cassette, below, is a blown-out piece of Ramonescore, the type of album that makes us want to go out and buy busted-up vintage leather jackets and wear them all the time (even if we could never pull off the look).