On my journey to find Canadian artists, I stumbled upon many who are just another brick in the wall. There have been a few that stuck out to me; Tough Age and Huge Cosmic being the two main bands, until I found Alvvays (pronounced 'always'). Although their hipster name can throw you off at first, their ability to write a great fucking melody stands out from the lo-fi/shoegaze aesthetic that is currently booming in the indie sphere, namely bands like Beach Fossils, Wild Nothing, and DIIV are the top players in this genre. Initially, the sad-toned, almost lazy vocals have always turned me off. It is almost like they have put in so much effort into the instrumentals and slacked off with the vocals, but Alvvays have done it right for me.
It was announced that Alvvays will play at NXNE this summer. Their name is featured on the poster and everything. (You know it's pretty big deal if your name is on the poster instead of "+200 more acts"). Because I'm not going to be here for NXNE, I thought I'd go to their gig last Saturday at the Silver Dollar. Can I just say that it felt like I was intruding a Holy Fuck family reunion? I even spotted seniors who seemed like (and was probably) their family members. From the gig, I concluded that the band is better on record than live. It might have been the fact that they only started playing shows regularly, but I felt no kick. Rankin's vocal acted more as another instrument than a lead as it was somewhat buried underneath the distorted instruments. Despite that, the reception from the audience was pretty fascinating. People were singing along and dancing, which I found surprising for a band who are pretty upcoming. From what I saw, I have a feeling that Alvvays will make a big splash as summer comes. Because really, once you start listening to them you can never go back. Their music makes you feel warm but sad yet it still gets you to jump out of your seat to dance, making you hit the replay button 51 times - the number of times I've listened to "Adult Diversion".
