advertisement
FYI

Shade: Controller

The latest in a line of ace rock bands from Hamilton, they tease an upcoming debut album with a killer new single. This is abrasive guitar-driven post-punk with a strong melodic core, and it'll leave you wanting to hear more, and fast.

Shade: Controller

By Kerry Doole

Shade - "Controller" (Sleepless Records). Hamilton's reputation as a current hotbed of fine rock bands (Monster Truck, Arkells, The Dirty Nil) will be further enhanced by the arrival of Shade on the scene. The group's signing to powerhouse indie imprint Sleepless (July Talk, Kandle, Allie X) has just been announced, accompanied by this single.


The track has an abrasive post-punk sound with thunderous guitars and Stephane Senecal-Tremblay's intense vocals, but has hooks sharp enough to drag you in. Clocking in at 2.46, there is nothing superfluous here, and you'll be left wanting more.

The top-notch production values come courtesy of the A-list team of Leon Taheny (Arcade Fire, Death From Above, Metz) and Josh Korody (Dilly Dally, Weaves), currently working with Shade on an upcoming album. These cats don't take just any gig, and their involvement helps stamp Shade as a band to be reckoned with. 

advertisement

Shade play Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern on July 9, Montreal's Fishbum Fest on Aug. 16, and Hamilton's Supercrawl on Sept. 14.

Links

Artist Website

Facebook

Twitter

Publicity: Darryl Weeks, Stage Fright

advertisement
Rheostatics. Back L to R: Tim Vesely, Don Kerr, Kevin Hearn, Dave Bidini, Alex Lifeson Front L to R: Dave Clark, Hugh Marsh
Chris Wahl

Rheostatics. Back L to R: Tim Vesely, Don Kerr, Kevin Hearn, Dave Bidini, Alex Lifeson Front L to R: Dave Clark, Hugh Marsh

Rock

Alex Lifeson on New Music With Rheostatics: ‘There Are No Rules or Expectations’

The all-star collective's new album, The Great Lakes Suite, also features Laurie Anderson and the late Gord Downie.

Thirty years ago, Toronto’s Rheostatics went high-concept with Music Inspired by the Group of Seven, a National Gallery of Canada commission to pay homage to early 20th century Canadian landscape painters. It was an arty and abstract conceptual piece, incorporating free-form composition and recorded dialogue from the painters and historical figures such as Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.

Ever since then, the band’s Dave Bidini tells Billboard, “We’ve always bandied about, ‘How can we do something like that again?’ So we’ve been searching for a while, and one night I literally had my head on the pillow, and I thought about the Great Lakes.”

keep readingShow less
advertisement