Back in the spring, Toronto's Teenage Kicks announced that the band would be calling it quits — bidding a fond farewell to their fans with a concert that heard them cover Weezer's Pinkerton in its entirety, followed by a final show in May. Now, former Teenage Kicks' bassist Jeff Van Helvoort has unveiled a brand new project — and Exclaim! has got your first listen to their debut song.
Dubbed Secret Satanists, the new group finds Van Helvoort teaming up with Jared MacIntyre and Riley Simpson. "Consisting of three people who play music, Secret Satanists are most certainly a band," their bio assures us.
Mapping out an ambitious inaugural year, they plan to release a series of four limited-release EPs on cassette and hand-cut vinyl. The first arrives in January, with subsequent releases to follow in April, August and November.
UPDATE (12/17, 11 a.m.): You can now stream the three-song Session One EP in its entirety. While physical copies won't be available until the new year, you can scroll past the previously premiered "Two Wheel Driver" to give it a listen or free digital download right now.
"The recording process for this EP was a little difficult at first as all the songs started as a finger-picked acoustic guitar over a dance beat with synths in the background," Van Helvoort explained in a statement. "But we got where we wanted to go eventually."
You can hear the first bit of the final product with the arrival of "Two Wheel Driver." Off of the first of the four upcoming EPs, the track is a sharp shot of fuzzy but melodic shoegazing rock. Give it a listen in the player below, and if you like what you hear, you can grab a free download of the brand new track.
The band will be celebrating the release if the first EP on January 8 at the Smiling Buddha in Toronto.
Dubbed Secret Satanists, the new group finds Van Helvoort teaming up with Jared MacIntyre and Riley Simpson. "Consisting of three people who play music, Secret Satanists are most certainly a band," their bio assures us.
Mapping out an ambitious inaugural year, they plan to release a series of four limited-release EPs on cassette and hand-cut vinyl. The first arrives in January, with subsequent releases to follow in April, August and November.
UPDATE (12/17, 11 a.m.): You can now stream the three-song Session One EP in its entirety. While physical copies won't be available until the new year, you can scroll past the previously premiered "Two Wheel Driver" to give it a listen or free digital download right now.
"The recording process for this EP was a little difficult at first as all the songs started as a finger-picked acoustic guitar over a dance beat with synths in the background," Van Helvoort explained in a statement. "But we got where we wanted to go eventually."
You can hear the first bit of the final product with the arrival of "Two Wheel Driver." Off of the first of the four upcoming EPs, the track is a sharp shot of fuzzy but melodic shoegazing rock. Give it a listen in the player below, and if you like what you hear, you can grab a free download of the brand new track.
The band will be celebrating the release if the first EP on January 8 at the Smiling Buddha in Toronto.