THE OBGMS with The INVASIONS, THE AURAS and GEN GORMAN at the Horseshoe (370 Queen West), Thursday (August 7). $7. 416-598-4753.
If you haven’t seen the OBGMs live yet, catch them while they’re still wooing small-venue crowds with tambourines, glow sticks and roses.
Their profile is expanding at a rate comparable to the pace of their frenetic garage-party-punk-dance tunes, thanks in no small part to the patronage of Budweiser.
The beer giant selected the Toronto four-piece (Ooohh Baby Gimme Mores in full they got tired of spelling out three o’s and two h’s) for its Epic Concert campaign, which sends them to Philadelphia later this month for the Jay Z-curated Made In America fest (featuring Kanye West, Steve Aoki, Pharrell Williams and Kings of Leon). Bud is also funding their debut album, out September 12 with a show at the Rivoli.
It may sound like an overnight success story, but it isn’t.
On day four of recording at Dream House Studios, guitarist and lead singer Densil McFarlane explains that he and drummer Colanthony [Cola] Humphrey started the band as a hip-hop reduction duo in 2007/2008 after meeting through their sisters, who both went to York Memorial High School, as did Humphrey.
The duo’s 2009 EP, Intercourse, was born of frustration.
“It was an experiment between Colanthony and me, because we were playing in a bunch of bands and it wasn’t working,” says McFarlane. Says Humphrey, “We went through 15 or 20 people before we came to [bassist] Joe [Brosnan] and [synth player] Jemuel [Roberts].”
McFarlane and Humphrey poached Roberts from another group at a battle of the bands and found Brosnan at board game café Snakes & Lattes, where he was working and teaching their table of 12 “a pretty gangster game” called Ca$h ‘n Gun$.
“We were playing the most rambunctious of party games,” says Brosnan, “and I worked my way into their conversation.
“When Cola wrote down his band name, I flipped cuz one of my best friends had been telling me he was a huge fan of the Ooohh Baby Gimme Mores, even as a two-piece. He instantly got jealous after I succeeded in my audition.”
Last year the band released a video for electro-punk song Beat Up Kidz (directed by animator Ryan Enn Hughes), which will be “dusted off” for the album.
The OBGMs – Beat Up Kidz from Ryan Enn Hughes on Vimeo.
Interview Clips
The OBGMs Colanthony Humphrey talks about increased diversity in indie rock:
The OBGMs talk about their “Rock Noir” movement, Brooklyn’s Afropunk Fest, and Brampton’s Vulcan Dub Squad:
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