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Music

Alvvays

ALVVAYS at the Horseshoe (370 Queen West), Thursday (August 14), 8:30 pm. $11.50. HS, RT, SS, TF. See listing.


“Music can be kind of bleak, like if you’re not wearing the right pants in the right month you’re just, like, a loser, you know?”

Clearly, Molly Rankin, frontwoman of Toronto-based indie jangle-pop five-piece Alvvays, has been wearing the right pants.

Everyone’s talking about the band, which hails from Cape Breton (Rankin and keyboardist Kerri Maclellan) and PEI (guitarist Alec O’Hanley, formerly of Two Hours Traffic, bassist Brian Murphy, drummer Phil MacIsaac). They’re on Indie88 constantly. They’re touring with Fucked Up in the fall. I have friends in Ottawa who are going to Montreal just to catch their show.

“A little bit of acknowledgement recently has been really nice because we’ve been nesting a little egg for a long period of time with really no hope of any light at the end of the tunnel,” says Rankin over the phone after watching a rough cut of a video for their tune Next Of Kin.

Much of the praise has focused on the highly quotable, almost too-relatable nostalgia of the lyrics, whose wistful, wandering, often heartbroken tone matches the band’s sound: super-sweet, sorta-sad melodies swimming in reverb and covered in fuzz.

We asked Rankin to break down the genius behind the band’s best lyrical gems:

How do I get close to you even if you don’t notice as I admire you on the subway? – Adult Diversion

“All of us, with the exception of Phil, were not cool, popular people in high school. So I’m really milking that angle of the cool kids not knowing you exist and trying to figure out a way to penetrate their psyche in the smallest way possible.”

You’ve expressed explicitly your contempt for matrimony. You’ve student loans to pay and will not risk the alimony. – Archie, Marry Me

“It’s about not wanting to grow up and watching everyone around you evolve into adulthood… I think of two young punk kids who detest the idea of the corporatization of marriage, then saying: ‘What would be more romantic than going to a courthouse and doing it solely for yourself?’… The whole ritual of weddings is a bit baffling to me, especially with the last 100 years proving it to be a bit of a sham. The song ended up coming off really desperate, like really swooning for this marriage, when really it was an anti-marriage song. Kind of like Born In The USA.”

Too late to go out, too young to stay in. – Archie, Marry Me

“That’s sort of where we are: quarter-life crisis. You know, age 25, where you’re like, ‘I’m not a pharmacist yet but I shouldn’t be drinking Revs at a club.'”

Forget all the party police, we can find comfort in debauchery. – Party Police

“That’s just about people passing judgment on you just trying to blow off steam. It’s like, ‘Forget the peanut gallery – let’s just enjoy ourselves.'”

julial@nowtoronto.com | @julialeconte

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