Great Lake Swimmers and Teenanger
Great Lake Swimmers.
Every other Thursday, Two Tracks brings you a one-two punch of Toronto’s latest audible confectionery... straight to the ears!
Great Lake Swimmers, “Easy Come Easy Go”
Though they’ve been known to record in out-of-the-way locales from grain silos to castles, for their upcoming album, New Wild Everywhere (out April 3), the Great Lake Swimmers opted to rack songs in a pristine, ultramodern studio—Revolution Recording. “Easy Come Easy Go,” the first offering from those sessions, may just be the glossiest ditty the band’s ever laid down.
From the get-go, it’s quite apparent this isn’t the same one-man-in-a-log-cabin vibe as the Swimmers’ self-titled debut. “Easy Come Easy Go” is full-flavoured studio confectionery, weaving traditional folk instrumentation (mandolins, fiddles, hurdy gurdys, and what have you) into a breezy radio hit rife with bouncy drumming and syrupy melodies. No background cricket noises here; this is songwriter Tony Dekker at his most unabashedly pop-oriented. Still, the dude maintains his characteristic rusticity by continuing to sing like a 90-year-old sweet potato farmer with a voice as hoarse as a bale of hay.
Make no mistake about it; New Wild Everywhere may have been given the radio treatment, but it’s still sure to evoke images of rural landscapes, snowy terrains, lumberjacks eating flapjacks, and all sorts of quality Canadiana.
Teenanger, “Bank Account”
Toronto garage-punk band Teenanger is a bit behind schedule with its sophomore album, Frights—its release date has been pushed from January 24 to February 28—but how punctual could you expect a bunch of jean-jacketed ne’er-do-wells to be? The new video for the record’s first single, “Bank Account,” further displays the band’s grimy disregard for the confines of time and space.
The clip, directed by Scott Cudmore, starts off POV-style, following singer Riley Wild as he shows up to a laser-machine-flooded venue just in the nick of time to kick off the tune with his compatriots. “Bank Account” is classic Teenanger: a primal backbeat, a Cramps-cracked rock riff, skronky vintage guitars, a colossal bass, and snotty, straight-out-of-the-’70s vocals rebelling against something or other. We keep following Cudmore as he lurks through a shady Dundas West neighbourhood—only to find him reentering the venue and starting the song all over again! It’s like Groundhog Day, as directed by Aleksandr Sokurov and scored by some Stooges enthusiasts on a really low budget. (The entire video cost $10).
If you’re as sick of waiting for these bums to drop Frights as we are, you can stream the entire thing here. For the patient, feast your eyes on Cudmore’s exercise in music video simplicity.
