Today, Toronto trio bandcalledmax dropped their debut album called Turn It Up.
Quietly released but sure packs alot of punches in its loud garage rock music.
About the album:
“Turn It Up” is the introduction to bandcalledmax and, fittingly, it was their introduction to each other.
The three musicians are longstanding friends from the Toronto music community who, during their first rehearsal, quickly gelled over the direct and inventive power-pop tune.
Dave eschews his usual heart-on-sleeve lyrical style for words that simply open the door for his guitar playing.
Nick and Mike’s rhythm section alternate between unbuttoned mod rock swing and a crisp driving beat that gives definition to the keep-it-simple-stupid song writing. With this instinctive approach, they found a dozen more songs easily.
The guys rushed their barely-finished songs to the stage, realizing that embracing the music’s ragged edges gave them an agility they’d never experienced with other projects. Over the next 18 months they kept pushing the edges of the show, testing to see how far they could take it. Hunkering down for two, month-long residencies at Toronto’s Dakota Tavern, the beer-soaked basement became a laboratory. Whether it was improvising new songs on stage or passing off a guitar to an unsuspecting crowd member, the compact three-piece lineup and “anything can happen” approach gave the performances an explosiveness and abandon that kept the crowd coming back.
Right down to the band name, bandcalledmax embody what it is to be a “rocker” in 2020. Originally just dubbed “Max,” the overcrowded streaming landscape forced them to choose something unclaimed. The band opted for a move that was both literal and lateral. Now donning a tongue in cheek name that preserves their sense of renewed naivety while marking them as a distinctly modern band, bandcalledmax are here to remind us that rock-n-roll still has a few more tricks to do.
Turn It Up gets:
/10.