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Music

DD/MM/YYYY call it a D

It’s taken eight years, three LPs and thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of concerts, but DD/MM/YYYY have finally decided to call it quits.

On Monday, the Toronto art-punks released a statement of gratitude to everyone that’s helped them over the years:

“On behalf of the members of DD/MM/YYYY, we would truly like to thank all of the people who have helped us in any and all capacities. The labels who have released our records, the agents who have booked us, all of the bands who have taken us on tour, publicists, people who have seen us live, written about us or shared word of our band, friends, new and old who have put us up, fed us and taken care of us. We look forward to seeing you all again as performers, friends and peers.”

Though it was plenty gracious, the statement didn’t give any reasons behind their breakup. And since we’re such fans of the spastic math rockers (we put them on the cover back in 2009), we decided to track down multi-instrumentalist Moshe Rozenberg and get him to shed a bit more light on the situation.

“The gist of it is we sort of feel like we’ve reached our peak in DD/MM/YYYY,” says Rozenberg, over the phone from the band’s practice space. “Some good things were happening here and there, but more or less this was kind of as far as we could take this group dynamic.”

Over the years, DD/MM/YYYY (pronounced “day, month, year”) have deservedly built up a reputation as one of the hardest toiling bands in Canada, relentlessly gigging and recording with very little break time in between. It sounds like their unrelenting work ethic has finally taken its toll.

“I don’t want to get too personal about it, but there was definitely some conflict,” admits Rozenberg. “Touring can be really really tough sometimes, and during those traumatic moments where everything is going wrong, it can either bring people together or migrate them further apart. In some ways it’s brought some of us closer, and in another way it brought some of us further apart.”

“We’ve always been this band that’s really excited to play and record and really go for it, and lately it was getting to be like our excitement was kind of gone. And we’re real go-getters, so it was depressing to feel ourselves getting jaded. We figured that rather than half-assing it or complaining about it, we’d make a big change.”

Those anticipating the band’s next moves won’t have long to wait 4/5 of the band (Moshe Rozenberg, Matt King, Mike Claxton and Jordan Holmes – everyone but Tomas Del Balso) already have plans for a new band called Absolutely Free. Rozenberg calls it a natural extension of what they’ve accomplished with DD/MM/YYYY.

“I’ve been thinking of ways to nutshell it, and probably the best I’ve come up with is that it’s sort of like a kraut-rocky version of DD/MM/YYYY, but played by Martians. There are a lot more drums, a lot more synthesizer and more groove than DD/MMM/YYYY. There’s a real monotonous outer space vibe.”

Absolutely Free will debut November 17 at the M For Montreal festival and Rozenberg tells us they’re already well on their way towards their debut full-length LP. But first DD/MM/YYYY will play out their remaining tour commitments, ending with a hometown blowout. Their final show takes place November 10 at the 918 Bathurst Centre for Culture, and it should be nothing short of epic.

“We’re a real self-conscious band, so a lot of the time we think we shouldn’t play a long set or we shouldn’t be too self-indulgent,” says Rozenberg. “Basically at this last show we’re going to shed any of those thoughts and really just do whatever we want and try to play as much material as we can recall from however long we’ve been a band.”

Bonus Breakups

With their dissolution DD/MM/YYYY, joins a growing pool of Toronto bands that have recently decided to throw in the towel or take an extended break. First there was long-running psych-rock institution the Hoa Hoa’s, who have gone on indefinite hiatus to accommodate bassist Femke Berkhout’s move to the Netherlands. Then there was ubiquitous local indie rock torch-bearers Broken Social Scene, whose possible breakup I may or may not be responsible for.

Now you can add Ian Blurton’s nearly decade old hard rock power trio C’mon to that list. In a tongue-in-cheek press release sent out a couple of weeks ago, the bearded Can-Rock veteran offered these four reasons for the band’s breakup:

A. Couldn’t stand the thought of eating or drinking Tim Horton’s ever again.

B. Never want to play another all ages show.

C. The only drumstick company Dean uses went out of business.

D. Bummed there isn’t a ‘Best Van’ category at The Junos.

This isn’t the first time Blurton has halted C’mon so there’s always the chance they’ll be back, but for now the last time you can catch the band in Toronto is October 20 at Cherry Cola’s. After that, Blurton will devote himself to his sort-of solo project, Ian Blurton’s Happy Endings.

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