Hollerado
White Paint
(Royal Mountain Records)
3.5/5
Sharing the stage with both Weezer and Jack White, Ottawa-based indie-rock band Hollerado have been sweeping the globe since debuting Record in a Bag back in 2010.
Building steam over the past two years, their hit single, “Pick Me Up” from latest album White Paint does not disappoint.
Unfortunately, the rest of the album does.
If you’re into indie rock/pop tunes, the aforementioned “Pick Me Up” (and “Juliette” from the band’s debut) are awesome tunes, but I haven’t yet been able to get into any of the other songs on this new disc.
Bands like Hollerado are growing in popularity as indie rock evolves into a more mainstream/pop sound. A few more hit singles and I’m sure Hollerado will be on par with Arctic Monkeys and The Black Keys.
-Shaylah Annand
KEN mode
Entrench
(New Damage Records)
4.5/5
Ready for a cheery, peppy listen? Then run away, fast, in the complete opposite direction. Yes, there is a song on this album called “Your Heartwarming Story Makes Me Sick,” and, yes, Winnipeg’s KEN mode are back for their fifth full-length album, and their first since 2011’s Juno-winning Venerable (it’s still weird referring to such a nasty band as Juno winners).
Entrench could have been the trio’s post-Juno foray into more polished, even mildly cheerier heavy rock and roll, but that would have been super lame.
Instead, KEN (stands for Kill Everyone Now) mode take their Unsane-meets-Dillinger-Escape-Plan noise-rock madness and plummets it into a self-loathing vortex of pain, misery, and suffering.
Fans of this type of extreme music will love Entrench. The rest of the Juno crowd should probably pretend none of this, especially the utter bombast of “Secret Vasectomy,” ever happened.
-Jason Schreurs