The Pack A.D.

'Do Not Engage' (album stream)

BY Matthew RitchiePublished Jan 21, 2014

Vancouver-based garage rock duo the Pack A.D.'s last studio album, 2011's Unpersons, brought the band their biggest acclaim to date, thanks to a string of fuzz-laden singles and performances all across Canada. But for their fifth record — and first for Nettwerk Records — the group made up of guitarist Becky Black and drummer Maya Miller dialled things up a notch, creating a distortion friendly set with enough radio-ready rock to capture the attention of even the most casual music fans. The album, Do Not Engage, doesn't see its release until January 28. Until then, stream it in full in the player below.

Produced by Jim Diamond (the White Stripes, the Dirtbombs) and recorded in an old chicken-processing plant in Detroit, the album finds Black and Miller channelling the ghosts of the American blues revival's past, providing 11 songs of turn-of-the-century alt-rock that make you want to rock all night and party everyday.

Kicking off with the ham-fisted rhythmic precision of "Airborne," Do Not Engage sets its modus operandi early and never lets up, packing anthemic rawk ("Creepin' Jenny"), grunge-worthy grooves ("Stalking is Normal") and guitar-based ballads ("Needles") into its 41-minute runtime.

Hear for yourself by listening to the album in its entirety now. Don't forget to catch the Pack A.D. as they tour around North America until the middle of March.

Read an interview with the Pack A.D. here.

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