always listening
“1-2-3-4” shouts vocalist Doug McBain as he counts in opening track “Tapping Out” a familiar bit of no-frills-punk-rock. The cover to The McBains’ self-titled debut features the band standing in a row, clad in sunglasses and leather jackets. The homageRead more…
Your Pal Bill: Ruins Everything is the long-awaited EP from multi-instrumentalist Bill Morton (Debt Cemetary, Wordplay). His last EP Plight of the Living Dead dropped in 2017. Heck, it’s been three years since single “Pay 2 Play” was released. ARead more…
Pavlova’s Dog is the sophomore release from garage rockers The Meringues. The Kingston quartet is led by the tag team of vocalist Amanda Pants and vocalist/guitarist Ted Evans, who gleefully trade barbs over a backdrop of squealing guitars and burstsRead more…
Here’s a fun one. Moncton’s The Follow Ups deliver their second LP – the follow up (sorry, couldn’t resist) to 2019’s The Follow Ups … Don’t Like You Either. It’s 12 tracks of goofball nonsense (plus 2 semi-serious tunes) clockingRead more…
Skid Palace is the new project from Peterborough-based solo artist Ryan Kennedy. As the title suggests, Love Is A Broken Record is a mighty despondent experience. Six down-tempo numbers delivering varying levels of angst. Production is modern (read: huge beats,Read more…
Bitter Days is the new record from Nothing Serious – a trio that lays claim to Basement, Ontario (a nebulous space known to be somewhere around the Durham region) as their home. It’s a continuation of the fast-paced, melody-driven precedentRead more…
Calamity is the new EP from Toronto’s Fine Motor Control. Not to be confused with the drum/bass “new grunge” outfit of the same name also from Toronto circa 2004-2007. This band is actually the fifth collaboration between Vello Verder andRead more…
Hurry Up and Wait is the latest from Toronto’s Wasting Time. It’s the immediate follow-up to 2023 EP Chainsaw Dynamos and sees the four-piece picking up right where they left off. It’s a succinct collection of tightly-spun punk-rock head-bobbers. Frontman/songwriterRead more…
Crossing Visual Field – the latest from London-based post-punkers Mononegatives – is the record we thought people would be making in the future back in the 80’s. While we now have scarily-accurate facsimiles of songs by famous artists created byRead more…
“All guitar strums were down” Avem proudly announces in the liner notes of their EP Nerdin About Birdin. For the uninitiated, Avem has embraced Ramonescore – a sub-genre of a sub-genre that embraces the fast, furious and melodic sound ofRead more…