With their third studio album, Singles Don't $ell, noisy Toronto punk act Teenanger reached their biggest audience yet, gaining fans far beyond the Big Smoke with their semi-polished, visceral punk rock and lyrics about living life fast and hard, all shouted out with a snotty sneer from the band's frontman Chris Swimmings. But that didn't mean the group were content to rest on their laurels; as the singer tells Exclaim!, it wasn't long before Teenanger were back in the studio working on a follow-up.
"I think we were just a fine-oiled machine at that point and we hit a good creative spurt and turned out a bunch of songs," he says. "We just wanted to move forward and onward after the last album… and keep the momentum up."
Less than a year after its release, Teenanger returned to the world of recordings this past September with the aptly titled E P L P (out now via Telephone Explosion), an eight-song mini-album filled to the brim with aggressive, mid-tempo post-punk that sounds closer to Warsaw (the pre-Joy Division band, not the Polish capital) than the modern garage rock revival sound listeners noticed on their first two albums.
"We were always pegged as having this 'boozy swagger,' and it just got so annoying after a while," Swimmings says with a laugh. "It's good that people are noticing we're changing though. We're just always trying to change and evolve and push our boundaries with what we can do, not just sort of fall into one sort of template or sound."
Utilizing synthesizers, crustier guitars, propulsive percussion and even a saxophone, the album — which was recorded by Josh Korody at Toronto's Candle Recording Studio in less than two months — is their most urgent-sounding release to date, and has since helped them score offers to play Newfoundland's Lawnya Vawnya, Ottawa Explosion Weekend, and even a few dates in Europe this coming spring.
Before they go, catch them play The Roundhouse at Steam Whistle Brewing (255 Bremner Blvd.) on April 17 with Dilly Dally and Most People.
For more information on the show and upcoming Steam Whistle Unsigned events in your area, click here, or visit Exclaim's concerts page.
"I think we were just a fine-oiled machine at that point and we hit a good creative spurt and turned out a bunch of songs," he says. "We just wanted to move forward and onward after the last album… and keep the momentum up."
Less than a year after its release, Teenanger returned to the world of recordings this past September with the aptly titled E P L P (out now via Telephone Explosion), an eight-song mini-album filled to the brim with aggressive, mid-tempo post-punk that sounds closer to Warsaw (the pre-Joy Division band, not the Polish capital) than the modern garage rock revival sound listeners noticed on their first two albums.
"We were always pegged as having this 'boozy swagger,' and it just got so annoying after a while," Swimmings says with a laugh. "It's good that people are noticing we're changing though. We're just always trying to change and evolve and push our boundaries with what we can do, not just sort of fall into one sort of template or sound."
Utilizing synthesizers, crustier guitars, propulsive percussion and even a saxophone, the album — which was recorded by Josh Korody at Toronto's Candle Recording Studio in less than two months — is their most urgent-sounding release to date, and has since helped them score offers to play Newfoundland's Lawnya Vawnya, Ottawa Explosion Weekend, and even a few dates in Europe this coming spring.
Before they go, catch them play The Roundhouse at Steam Whistle Brewing (255 Bremner Blvd.) on April 17 with Dilly Dally and Most People.
For more information on the show and upcoming Steam Whistle Unsigned events in your area, click here, or visit Exclaim's concerts page.
