Teenanger - Spunsugar

Just four weeks after we first featured them Teenanger are back with another energized and must hear post punk track entitled 'Trillium Song'. === Spunsugar have just released 'Run' and in their case it's a couple of months since we first came across them with 'Happier Happyless' the latest offering takes us into a more powerful Alt Rock world that's nonetheless hard to ignore.
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Teenanger - Trillium Song.

Toronto’s DIY scene purveyors, Teenanger have just shared their blistering new single, 'Trillium Song', the second to be lifted from the new record, Good Time – out October 2 via Telephone Explosion Records – which has found support at Paste, The Line of Best Fit, BBC 6 Music, So Young and more. The new record, which comes mixed by renowned Toronto musician, Sandro Perri, follows previous releases that have found the band share stages across North America and Europe with the likes of METZ, Ty Segall, Death From Above, Dilly Dally, Dish Pit and more.

'Trillium Song' presents another agile take from Good Time, drawing once again on striking melodies and a wiry new wave sound palette, this time utilising a two-pronged vocal foray with both Melissa Ball and Chris Swimmings lending their voices. Whereas previous releases from the group have suggested a more abrasive post-punk approach, Good Time demonstrates a pop-leaning slant on the sound of Teenanger without removing their ear for social commentary.

Speaking about the new track, Swimmings says: "This song is about the province of Ontario where we all reside. Mainly about the current provincial government’s way of dealing with the education system and the environment. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Premier Doug Ford (the song’s primary subject) was making good headway at polishing his public image by being hands-on. He made promises of people not losing their jobs and tenants not being evicted. They were timely promises in the beginning as we are now seeing many tenants in Ontario face eviction due to not being able to make end’s meet in the pandemic."

Good Time arrives off the back of a turbulent few years for the group, a period filled with self-reflection, a restless search for creativity and more than anything, a need to rewire the very essence of the band. The four-piece had tied up the rinse and repeat promotional run for their 2017 self-titled record in the spring of 2018; their fifth album, which had started to find them some acclaim, also marked their first decade together as a group, quite an achievement by anyone's measures in the current climate. The line-up was unchanged since Teenanger's inception, and the members had become somewhat inseparable over their time together; whilst the album release and the corresponding tour was somewhat celebratory, it also brought with it a severe bout of writer’s block that unexpectedly placed their existence in jeopardy.

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Spunsugar - Run.

Following on from the release of their breakthrough debut EP ŒMouth Full Of You¹ last year, a collection that cemented them as one of the finest emerging shoegaze outfits of the moment as well as garnering support from Steve Lamacq at BBC 6Music, Swedish trio Spunsugar now return to announce their highly-anticipated debut album ŒDrive-Through Chapel¹, out on the 2nd October via Adrian Recordings.

Featuring the previously shared single ŒHappier Happyless¹, which has already gathered huge amounts of support across numerous publications and streaming services, the outfit¹s first full-length outing sees them take on the dark and pulsing nature of the post-punk sound and deliver it through a completely new and diverse contemporary lens. Produced by Joakim Lindberg at Studio Sickan, Malmö, who has filled it with a rich and textured atmosphere running the length of this new collection, ŒDrive-Through Chapel¹ sets itself as one of the most thunderous and anthemic offerings in the Adrian Recordings catalogue.

Two out of three members of the trio Spunsugar, Cordelia Moreau and Elin Ramstedt, befriended one another in a small town outsider clique at age thirteen. Their individual music tastes, Cordelia¹s twee-pop, jangle and grunge and Elin¹s metal, hardcore and post-rock blended into a mutual love for shoegaze, noise rock and dream pop. At age fifteen they started a four piece band, Elin on lead vocals and rhythm guitar and Cordelia on drums. They discovered that they thrived when writing music together. But even when the band split up, they continued to write songs.

Fast forward to post upper secondary school. After months of hardly speaking to each other, they both ended up in Malmö. After not writing music together for five years they recorded two lo-fi songs in Cordelia¹s student apartment and it was as if no time had passed. They looked for a rehearsal space and within weeks they recorded a demo. But they wanted a real live bass player. Cordelia had recently bonded with a university classmate over guitars and they decided to send him a copy of the demo and asked if he would like to come play with them. Felix Sjöström became an intrinsic part of the project immediately. With his influence, their sound became more distinguished, all of them bringing different inspirations to the songs. Now they all have prominent roles within the band but they are also, fundamentally, friends.

Spunsugar are works at a faster paced than a lot of their shoegaze peers and accompanied by electronic drums. They are more often compared to Curve, Swervedriver or Ringo Deathstarr rather than the likes of Cocteau Twins or Slowdive. Although heavy on effects, nothing is hidden within the music, including the lyrics. The lyrics are heavy with pop cultural references, stemming from Cordelia¹s love for obscure genre films. Often driven by riffs rather than soundscapes, they focus equally on having a prominent bass as well as prominent guitars.


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