Jon Mckiel

The Ship, St. John's NL, April 26

Photo: Noah Bender

BY Vish KhannaPublished Apr 27, 2015

8
All of Lawnya Vawnya came down to this one moment: Jon Mckiel closing out the fest with a set at The Ship. Other fests might not realize it, but Mckiel's a headliner; his kind of underground, dreamy, riff-oriented math-pop is the way of the future and is spellbindingly great.

Mckiel's band is amazing. They lock into thunder; their propulsive rhythmic arrangements boom and clatter in unusual but engaging time signatures. The guitars of Jay Crocker and Mckiel interlock in strange high patterns and chord structures that manically slither and chime out.

Crazy Horse for nerds, maybe. Wait, that's Sonic Youth. Sonic Youth for Canadian nerds, then. This is the best rock band and Jon Mckiel is a mighty good leader.
 

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