Few things encapsulate our great country like a pair of Canadian geese feasting on a patch of pubic hair, fingernails and other assorted goodies in the industrial cesspool of Lake Ontario. Especially if you get to share the moment with the Stills.
Yes, the affable young men in the Stills are Canadian, despite rumours that they've moved to... "I know, I know, I know. We were only in New York for a month and a half and the rest of the time we were living at home in Montreal. So that will dispel the myth," drummer Dave Hamelin tells me as we admire the waterfowl.
But the myth making's already begun, I'm afraid. The Stills' debut EP, Rememberese, received a deserved heap of approbation for its brooding, 80s-inspired atmospherics, so what did they do for a follow-up? Make an entirely gorgeous and diverse collection of songs called Logic Will Break Your Heart, which sounds like "Love Will Tear Us Apart" in name alone.
"We didn't want it to be as Echo and the Bunnymen, Joy Division as people thought we were because we didn't really listen to Echo and the Bunnymen and Joy Division." Hamelin says.
Instead we get a little Duran Duran, a spot of the Cure, Hamelin even tells me Broken Social Scene-inspired parts of "Lola Stars and Stripes." Despite that song's title, the Stills really do like to keep things close to home. Logic was recorded under the tutelage of Gus Van Go (front-man for the Smitty's), a Montrealer turned New Yorker, who let the band sleep on his couch while they hammered out the disc.
Even the band's record label Vice is, well I'll let Hamelin tell you "Again, they were from Montreal. We went to the States to live with a bunch of Montrealers and then get signed by a bunch of Montrealers that live in New York."
Don't worry, the Stills say they're sticking around.
Yes, the affable young men in the Stills are Canadian, despite rumours that they've moved to... "I know, I know, I know. We were only in New York for a month and a half and the rest of the time we were living at home in Montreal. So that will dispel the myth," drummer Dave Hamelin tells me as we admire the waterfowl.
But the myth making's already begun, I'm afraid. The Stills' debut EP, Rememberese, received a deserved heap of approbation for its brooding, 80s-inspired atmospherics, so what did they do for a follow-up? Make an entirely gorgeous and diverse collection of songs called Logic Will Break Your Heart, which sounds like "Love Will Tear Us Apart" in name alone.
"We didn't want it to be as Echo and the Bunnymen, Joy Division as people thought we were because we didn't really listen to Echo and the Bunnymen and Joy Division." Hamelin says.
Instead we get a little Duran Duran, a spot of the Cure, Hamelin even tells me Broken Social Scene-inspired parts of "Lola Stars and Stripes." Despite that song's title, the Stills really do like to keep things close to home. Logic was recorded under the tutelage of Gus Van Go (front-man for the Smitty's), a Montrealer turned New Yorker, who let the band sleep on his couch while they hammered out the disc.
Even the band's record label Vice is, well I'll let Hamelin tell you "Again, they were from Montreal. We went to the States to live with a bunch of Montrealers and then get signed by a bunch of Montrealers that live in New York."
Don't worry, the Stills say they're sticking around.
