Toronto’s DIY scene purveyors, Teenanger are today sharing their new video and single, 'Good Time', the latest to be taken from their forthcoming album of the same name which is out on October 2, 2020, via Telephone Explosion Records – watch the video, directed by Randy Gagne, here. The new music, tipped so far at Paste, The Line of Best Fit, BBC 6 Music, So Young and more, comes mixed by renowned Toronto artist, Sandro Perri and follows previous releases that have found the band share stages across North America and Europe with the likes of METZ, Ty Segall, Death From Above, Dilly Dally, Dish Pit and more.
'Good Time', which visually captures the band working their tongue-firmly-in-cheek humor once again, brings another razor-sharp slice of the band's demonstrative, pop-informed sonic aesthetic. Drawing on the band's knack for lyrical satire, the music dances through a pummelling rhythm section and wiggling electronics whilst singer, Chris Swimmings, lightly mocks his rough year of 2019. "The lyrics of this were meant to juxtapose the rough year I was personally having in 2019," says Swimmings. "A lyrical combat, if you will. Therapeutically writing about positives in life when I was being enveloped by darkness."
Good Time arrives off the back of a turbulent few years for the group, a period filled with self-reflection, a restless search for creativity and more than anything, a need to rewire the very essence of the band. The four-piece had tied up the rinse and repeat promotional run for their 2017 self-titled record in the spring of 2018; their fifth album, which had started to find them some acclaim, also marked their first decade together as a group, quite an achievement by anyone's measures in the current climate. The line-up was unchanged since Teenanger's inception, and the members had become somewhat inseparable over their time together; whilst the album release and the corresponding tour was somewhat celebratory, it also brought with it a severe bout of writer’s block that unexpectedly placed their existence in jeopardy.
A testament to the rigorous DIY ethos of Teenanger that forges its core values, the band was rooted in the same rehearsal room that they had used since their early days together – a revolving door of local acts shared the space and it took fracturing this routine to find inspiration for Good Time. One Craigslist advertisement offered an apartment for rent with the words: “Music OK”, Teenanger seized the opportunity and thus “Studio Z” was coined, a basement flat that previously worked as a reggae studio/after-hours club was converted by the four-piece into a live practice room and adjacent fully-functional recording studio. The band went on to battle two major floods, a CO2 leak, vermin infestation and constant mould to record the new album.
The new eight-track album marks the long-awaited return for one of Toronto’s more beloved and vital bands.
