From the explosive power pop of the Steve Adamyk Band, to the black metal-tinged pop punk of Crusades, to the peppy garage of White Wires and Peach Kelli Pop, there's no denying that Ottawa is home of one of our nation's most fertile punk scenes. Adding to that is the venomous, menacing hardcore of Pregnancy Scares, who are following up their demo with a 7-inch on Deranged.
"From an outside perspective the power-pop-punk party definitely gets the most attention, but there is a lot more going on in this city than that. Newish bands have been making waves on the darker/weirder/louder end of things without sounding at all like each other," drummer Dave Forcier tells Exclaim! in a recent interview. "The city is far too small for the scene to be completely divided, but we're kind of like the glue between the crusts and the mainstream. Something along those lines, anyway."
Ottawa's punk-rock breeding ground has maintained its quality for a long time, which comes as a surprise even to the members of Pregnancy Scares. "The serious lack of venues continues to be a pain in the ass, but it's never deterred new bands from forming," Forcier explains. "Emmanuel [Sayer, bassist] started the Ottawa Explosion blog at the end of 2007 to try to document all the action that had started up in Ottawa since he figured it was going to be a fleeting flash-in-the-pan-type thing. Here we are five years later and there is still a bunch of great stuff happening. I guess we kind of came together to make Ottawa a more happening place instead of just moving away."
Forcier busies himself alongside guitarist Davey Quesnelle in the Steve Adamyk Band and Male Nurse Band, with Quesnelle also moonlighting as a member of Mother's Children. Sayer is a member of Crusades, as well as the brains the Ottawa Explosion Weekend, while vocalist Craig Proulx runs the excellent Bruised Tongue label.
In other words, the busy nature of the bandmates' schedules means that Pregnancy Scares is somewhat of a side-project. "We're all really busy with so much all the time, but we try and make what time we have work for us," Forcier says.
After the band released their demo in 2011, they've been gaining momentum with a menacing live show as their recordings were passed around the web. Eventually, they caught the attention of Deranged Records honcho Gord Dufresne, who commissioned a 7-inch.
The resulting self-titled record, which officially drops this week, is the band's most complete statement yet. As Forcier explains, "We wrote and recorded these six songs in about a month's time so it has a better 'flow' than our prior material but really mostly noise, headaches and dizziness."
To hear the release for yourself, you can stream the entire thing here in Exclaim!'s Music/Video section.
Ideally, the band hope to write and record a full-length this winter and hit Western Canada on some tour dates. For now, they've got three 7-inch release shows booked, and they've also dropped a music video for the track "Cross-Eyed Man," which can be viewed below.
Tour dates:
11/8 Toronto, ON - The Boat w/ Leather, S.H.I.T., Skrapyard
11/9 Ottawa, ON - The Dominion w/ Dagger Eyes, Asile, Peace
11/13 Montreal, QC - Death Church w/ Hoax
Pregnancy Scares:
1. Facelift
2. Picked Apart
3. American Uncle
4. Cross-Eyed Man
5. Point Forty-Four
6. Chemtrails
"From an outside perspective the power-pop-punk party definitely gets the most attention, but there is a lot more going on in this city than that. Newish bands have been making waves on the darker/weirder/louder end of things without sounding at all like each other," drummer Dave Forcier tells Exclaim! in a recent interview. "The city is far too small for the scene to be completely divided, but we're kind of like the glue between the crusts and the mainstream. Something along those lines, anyway."
Ottawa's punk-rock breeding ground has maintained its quality for a long time, which comes as a surprise even to the members of Pregnancy Scares. "The serious lack of venues continues to be a pain in the ass, but it's never deterred new bands from forming," Forcier explains. "Emmanuel [Sayer, bassist] started the Ottawa Explosion blog at the end of 2007 to try to document all the action that had started up in Ottawa since he figured it was going to be a fleeting flash-in-the-pan-type thing. Here we are five years later and there is still a bunch of great stuff happening. I guess we kind of came together to make Ottawa a more happening place instead of just moving away."
Forcier busies himself alongside guitarist Davey Quesnelle in the Steve Adamyk Band and Male Nurse Band, with Quesnelle also moonlighting as a member of Mother's Children. Sayer is a member of Crusades, as well as the brains the Ottawa Explosion Weekend, while vocalist Craig Proulx runs the excellent Bruised Tongue label.
In other words, the busy nature of the bandmates' schedules means that Pregnancy Scares is somewhat of a side-project. "We're all really busy with so much all the time, but we try and make what time we have work for us," Forcier says.
After the band released their demo in 2011, they've been gaining momentum with a menacing live show as their recordings were passed around the web. Eventually, they caught the attention of Deranged Records honcho Gord Dufresne, who commissioned a 7-inch.
The resulting self-titled record, which officially drops this week, is the band's most complete statement yet. As Forcier explains, "We wrote and recorded these six songs in about a month's time so it has a better 'flow' than our prior material but really mostly noise, headaches and dizziness."
To hear the release for yourself, you can stream the entire thing here in Exclaim!'s Music/Video section.
Ideally, the band hope to write and record a full-length this winter and hit Western Canada on some tour dates. For now, they've got three 7-inch release shows booked, and they've also dropped a music video for the track "Cross-Eyed Man," which can be viewed below.
Tour dates:
11/8 Toronto, ON - The Boat w/ Leather, S.H.I.T., Skrapyard
11/9 Ottawa, ON - The Dominion w/ Dagger Eyes, Asile, Peace
11/13 Montreal, QC - Death Church w/ Hoax
Pregnancy Scares:
1. Facelift
2. Picked Apart
3. American Uncle
4. Cross-Eyed Man
5. Point Forty-Four
6. Chemtrails
