Pet Sun

Pet Sun have played in a lot of weird locations, but their newest video is set in what appears to be the inner workings of a mind bathed in acid. It's a collage of colours and shades that wouldn't seem out of place on a retro windbreaker, and it's a testament in bands doing the most with the least:

"'Never Quit' was the first video we had a plot for which actually made things pretty easy for us in the studio," said lead singer Stephane Senecal-Tremblay. "Billy Moon was great to work with and bought us ridiculous amounts of pizza for dinner and many cold beers. Our costumes were running low so we had to do our best with a black balding wig, a cloak and some old face paint. An electric wizard was born and took our lives! Totally worked out. We had an idea about throwing a TV out the window but the pizza took up too much of the budget. Next one."

Check out the video and the band's tour dates below:

May 28th - Hamilton. This Aint Hollywood.
May 29th - Ottawa. Mug Shots
May 30th - Montreal. Death House.
June 2nd -Boston. O’Briens Pub
June 4th - Brooklyn. Hanks
June 5th - NYC. Cake Shop
June 6th - Philly - Kung Fun Necktie
June 7th - Washington -Electric Maid
June 9th - Cincinatti - Tacocracy
June 10th - Indianapolis - Melody Inn
June 11th - Chicago - Beat Kitchen
June 12th - Cleveland - Happy Dog
June 13th - Pittsburg - Gooski’s
June 20th - Toronto - Silver Dollar (NXNE) w/ No Joy, Dilly Dally
June 21st - Toronto - Handlebar (NXNE) w/ Louise Burns, Praises - Noisey/Vice

"Hamilton garage combo Pet Sun don't exactly have a big special effects budget, but their quirky visual sensibilities have made for entertaining videos in the past, and there's more of that to be found in their clip for "Never Quit."

The song is a crunchy, catchy garage rock scorcher, and the accompanying video shows the band bashing their way through the pounding tune. There are also lots of freaky, colourful backgrounds, messy eating scenes and charmingly crude green screen effects. The whole thing culimantes in attack from scary blue wizard.

The video was directed by Billy Moon. Scroll past the band's tour schedule to watch it.

Pet Sun will release an album on the Hand Recordings this summer.

Tour dates:

05/28 Hamilton, ON - This Aint Hollywood
05/29 Ottawa, ON - Mug Shots
05/30 Montreal, QC - Death House
06/02 Boston, MA O'Briens Pub
06/04 Brooklyn, NY Hanks
06/05 New York, NY - Cake Shop
06/06 Philadelphia, PA - Kung Fun Necktie
06/07 Washington, DC - Electric Maid
06/09 Cincinnati, OH - Tacocracy
06/10 Indianapolis, IN - Melody Inn
06/11 Chicago, IL - Beat Kitchen
06/12 Cleveland, OH - Happy Dog
06/13 Pittsburg, PA - Gooski's
06/20 Toronto, ON - Silver Dollar (NXNE) *
06/21 Toronto, ON - Handlebar (NXNE) ^

* with No Joy, Dilly Dally
^ with Louise Burns, Praises" - Exclaim

Hamilton's Pet Sun recently signed with Sleepless Records for the upcoming Feel Like I'm Going Away, and now the title cut has got its own music video.

The clip that accompanies this melodic, noise-drenched garage rock track is just as chaotic and brash as the music itself. It's filled with crudely drawn snakes, kid-gone-crazy-with-crayons scrawls and psychedelic animations. It was directed by Alex Gorodskoy.

The tape version of Feel Like I'm Going Away will drop on September 27 as part of Cassette Store Day. - Exclaim

"Stephane Senecal-Tremblay could be living halfway around the world, and he’d still find a way to play in Pet Sun. For the group’s lead singer and guitarist, it’s all about prolonging a quest for good times that recognizes no borders and knows no bounds. Pet Sun is vintage denim jackets soaked in beer and bong water, and cherry-red Stratocasters covered in blood and sweat. Pet Sun is all-night drives across frozen stretches of Highway 401, and daring retreats into the woodlands of rural Ontario to get lost, get drunk, and make music. Pet Sun is an unruly cocktail of roach clips, fuzz pedals, long hair, grip tape and extra-large t-shirts, designed to get you out of your seat and off your head the moment you push play or hear the opening riff.

The Hamilton four-piece (including drummer Parth Jain, guitarist Sam Rashid and bassist Nic Arbour) recently released their second EP Feel Like I’m Going Away on Toronto’s Sleepless Records, and the band is currently gearing up for their first real taste of life on the road. With a reputation for chaotic live shows and a growing international profile, we caught up with Pet Sun ahead of their first-ever American show." - Noisey/Vice

The latest Canadian export to land in our Inbox, Pet Sun are a garage rock quartet from Hamilton, Ontario.

Close enough to Toronto to absorb its frenzied energy, the band are also far enough away to develop their own sound, their own identity.

Frenzied guitar music delivered with a narcotic smirk, their live shows have - thus far - descended into a trail of sweat, beer, riffs and feedback.

The band's first official release will be 'Feel Like I'm Going Away' EP via Sleepless Records on September 27th as part of Cassette Tape Day.

Clash is able to premiere the video for the title cut. Every bit as lurid and unforgettably technicolour as their music, you can check it out below. - Clash Magazine

Last year we wrote about Canadian garage pop-punks Pet Sun around the time they put out their debut EP and came to NYC for CMJ. They've now got another tour beginning tonight (1/29) that brings them back to our side of the border in February. It includes a return to NYC on February 13 at Cake Shop with Weird Womb (who they played with at CMJ), Moral Panic (ex-Livids) and Nail Polish. $8 at the door. All dates are listed below.
Pet Sun also recently signed to The Hand Recordings and are planning a new album for late summer. Meanwhile, they have a new live session video for "Feel Like I'm Going Away," the title track off last year's EP, which premieres in this post. Watch that, with the list of tour dates, below...

« Lower Dens will 'Escape from Evil' on new LP (stream a song), playing release show at Baby's All RIght | Foo Fighters sold out Citi Field, add 2nd night (updated tour dates); Dave Grohl was a "good omen" for the new Cribs LP »
Posted in music | tour dates on January 29, 2015

Pet Sun filmed a live session video, going on tour (dates)
photo by Alicia Giammaria
Pet Sun
Last year we wrote about Canadian garage pop-punks Pet Sun around the time they put out their debut EP and came to NYC for CMJ. They've now got another tour beginning tonight (1/29) that brings them back to our side of the border in February. It includes a return to NYC on February 13 at Cake Shop with Weird Womb (who they played with at CMJ), Moral Panic (ex-Livids) and Nail Polish. $8 at the door. All dates are listed below.
Pet Sun also recently signed to The Hand Recordings and are planning a new album for late summer. Meanwhile, they have a new live session video for "Feel Like I'm Going Away," the title track off last year's EP, which premieres in this post. Watch that, with the list of tour dates, below...
---

Pet Sun -- 2015 Tour Dates
Jan 29 - Guelph, CA - Jimmy Jazz
Jan 30 - Toronto, CA - The Silver Dollar
Feb 5 - Hamilton, CA - This Ain't Hollywood
Feb 10 - Montreal, Ca - Casa Del Popolo
Feb 11 - Boston, MA - O'Briens Pub
Feb 13 - New York, NY - Cake Shop
Feb 17 - Philadelphia, PA - Kung Fu Necktie
Feb 18 - Chicago, IL - The Emporium
Feb 19 - Indianapolis, IN - Melody Inn
Feb 21 - Cincinnati, OH - Tacocracy
--- - Brooklyn Vegan

Photo Diary with band. See link - Line Of Best Fit

Hamilton, ON-based garage quartet Pet Sun have slowly been building a name for themselves with some self-released work and a handful of shows. Now, they've signed with Toronto's Sleepless Records and announced their first proper release.

Feel Like I'm Going Away was self-produced by the band and offers six tracks of psyched-out, fuzz-drenched power punk. It's fitting, then, that Sleepless will issue the EP on tape as part of Burger Records' forthcoming Cassette Store Day on September 27.

Following that release, the group plan to hit Toronto's Dream House Studios with producer Alexandre Bonenfant (Metz, Crystal Castles) and engineer Dave Plowman, where they'll record their next project for an early 2015 release date.

In the meantime, listen to the hazy "Feelin' Lazy" below. The song's a two-minute fuzz-punk singalong complete with lyrics about getting drunk and being a cretin. Also be sure to check out the band's show itinerary, which includes stops in Hamilton and Toronto.

Feel Like I'm Going Away:

1. Feel Like I'm Going Away
2. Give Me Your Soul
3. Feelin' Lazy
4. Goodbye Two-Headed Monster
5. Lutes
6. Brides

Tour dates:

09/11-14 Hamilton, ON - Supercrawl
09/25 Toronto, ON - The Phoenix Theatre
10/15 Hamilton, ON - The Casbah - Exclaim

Abrasive.....assaulting.....in-your-face.....borderline-obnoxious – that's what the evening of October 6th at the Horseshoe was all about.....and it was fucking fantastic because of it.

The Hanni El Khatib/Bass Drum Of Death North American leg of the tour hit Toronto with a resounding bang, bringing along with it the add-on bonus of local boys-of-Garage-mayhem Pet Sun. The triad of musical intensity this Sunday night proved to be much, much more than was expected – well, maybe it was expected by the roomful of fans that stopped by for just this reason. But for others who weren't exactly 'in-the-know' of what is going on with each of these three bands this was truly an eye-opening experience.

Pet Sun, a relatively new face on the scene of Garage-Rock, sauntered in with a whisper and set themselves up quietly behind their gear. The humbled, soft-spoken Parth Jain (drums) subtly introduced the band to the crowd, while the remaining three silently took their positions on the stage. This relatively uneventful entry was soon shattered beginning with the first chord of their set. Blaring and reverberating, pounding and crashing, the boys managed to reveal their true selves beautifully through their own music. The subdued presence that the four members of this Hamilton-based band exploded into a lyrical and musical insanity with each and every song they put forth to the slowly-increasing crowd. The set proved so electrical, in fact, that onlookers in the seated area fast became immersed into the music so much as to provide a standing-room-only area directly in front of the stage. Muddled lyrics simply screamed out over the crowd, all brought forth by the tongue-wagging and charismatic Stéphane Senécal-Tremblay. A wonderful surprise is what Pet Sun provided to the evening through their performance, and it was only about to get wilder.

As the floor began to collect more and more fans of the second act, Bass Drum Of Death managed their way onto the stage, to finally blast into song with almost no warning whatsoever. It was a welcome shock, and the night developed more into a Garage-Rock retrospective than just your everyday plain ol’ rock show. The distorted vocal-styling and vintage-guitar wailing of John Barrett married brilliantly with his two band-mates right from the get-go. The guitar/guitar/drum combo forced their way into waiting ears with an assault of auditory bliss. Absolutely no pauses or dead-air were to be found; neither within each song nor in-between any of the numbers for almost the first half of their performance. Bass Drum Of Death managed with just three members an electric performance that filled the room with an abundance of organized noise and managed to work the crowd into an onlooking frenzy. Noted by Barrett was how pleased they were to be performing alongside Hanni El Khatib on this tour, and their intensity + knock-em-dead performance helped to prove that they were an obvious pick to tag along. Through their entire set they exhibited equally powerful levels of musicianship as the headline act to follow.




Rounding the 10:30-mark of the evening, Hanni El Khatib and his crew slickly entered their setup. With his hair gelled back and an almost-perfect collection of loose strands poised down over his forehead, Hanni appeared as a sharply-dressed Elvis Presley of modern-day proportions....with subtle Mick Jones accents for good measure. With polished showmanship and a strong sense of professionalism, Khatib hit hard from the first note of “Head In The Dirt” (the title track from his latest release) straight through to the end of the night. The music, vocals and primo guitar-work in the forefront, instantly made you aware of just why he and his crew were the headline act for this tour. Bouncing back and forth playing tracks from this and his 2011 debut release Will The Guns Come Out, Hanni El Khatib ripped through the room with an amalgamation of auditory force, rhythmic flair, and a wonderful semblance of finesse and style. Already fan-faves were revealed through performances of “Penny” and “Skinny Little Girl”, songs that instantly resonated with the now full room. The crowning glory of the show was the triad of “Fuck It You Win”, “Sinking In The Sand” and the crowd-pleasing “Family”, a finish to the set that left you breathless and longing to keep the night going. For a Sunday night crowd, nobody seemed to give a rat's-ass that they might have to work the next day – tonight was all about the music. And considering the band's 2-album history, it was nothing short of remarkable when Khatib resurfaced on-stage for a single encore, joined mid-way with the rest of the band for a final 'thank you' and a bow. Out of breath and all played out, the stage emptied for the last time that night – leaving a roomful of fans with endless ringing in their ears.
Hanni El Khatib continues the US leg of their tour through to the end of this month before e - The Spill Magazine

Combining the musical forces of Hamilton, Toronto, and Montreal – Pet Sun are one of the best new bands that I’ve heard. They’ve got a great take on fuzzy garage rock.

Pet Sun have recently released a new EP, Serpent Buzz, and they are getting ready to play a bunch of shows this Fall.

An upcoming Hamilton show will be announced – look out for an interview on Cut From Steel.

For now you can check out their amazing EP. Turn this up to 11. Check Pet Sun out on Twitter. - Cut From Steel

Pet Sun

Pet Sun are one of Hamilton’s newest entries on the local stage although three quarters of them are currently pursuing post secondary education in Montreal and Toronto. The new–to–you garage rock band including Stephane Senecal–Tremblay (vocals and lead guitar), Parth Jain (drums), Pat Leblanc (bass), and Sam Rashid (guitar) only played their first show on June 15 but have spent most of their grown up lives together with an album’s worth of material already for you on the internet.

“We’re all from Hamilton — I was born in Montreal but moved here really young,” offers Senecal–Tremblay. “Parth lived in Kingston for that first chunk but moved here pretty young, too. Parth and I met when we were little kids first day of grade 5. Then we met Pat and Sam in high school at Westdale. We all dig fuzzed out guitars and jammed a lot so one day it just kind of became a band. I just called up Parth with the name Pet Sun and he was like “yes. I’m stoked”. Why Pet Sun? Got the sun on a leash or something like that? Happiness is your pet. Let’s get groovy with it, man.

“Basically the band started while we were away at school,” adds Senecal–Tremblay. “I’m in Montreal finishing up but Parth and Sam set up in Toronto. Pat is in Hamilton. We don’t want to be unfaithful to Hamilton though — we are totally based in Hamilton. We fucking love Hamilton. Hamilton is home base to all of us and we dig it here. Hamilton has got family, friends, a jam space in Parth’s basement and my dog but our first show was at Barfly in Montreal. It was a bloodbath. I cut my finger on the first song and then my guitar was covered in blood for the rest of the show. We just played through it with our fuzz pedals cranked all the way. A mosh pit started up and Pat jumped in with his bass for the rest of the show just rocking out.”

Pet Sun conjure up a ‘60s psychedelic, surf, garage rock sound that’s lo–fidelity fuzzy sound makes it raw and fun. While post secondary pursuits are a primary concern, the members of Pet Sun confirm, Hamilton will always be home but for the time being are currently extending their musical footprint across a few different major musical centers. This weekend, Pet Sun offer up a notable Hamilton debut and they hope to add a musical element they believe this city needs with raw abandon.

“So far we’ve recorded everything ourselves and then produce the stuff till it sounds alright,” offers Senecal–Tremblay. “We like it fast, fun, fuzzy and sometimes even freaky. We’ve always loved classic rock and old garage with lots of Kinks and the Yardbirds. We’re also really psyched on a lot of the music out of San Francisco like Thee Oh Sees and Ty Segall.

“But I can’t wait to be back in Hamilton for good and that’s happening in April,” adds Senecal–Tremblay. “You’ve got to set up where you’re happy and comfy. I met so many kids at school who would just hate on Hamilton and that just made me that much more psyched to get out and get home and play music with my best friends. We want to add some more fuzz to the Hamilton equation. We think a lot of people don’t realize how much fuzz they really need to survive. Everybody needs at least two doses of fuzz a day in order to stay sane. We’re looking at touring soon and we’re always putting out new music. I think if we got high before a show we’d end up covering Hurdy Gurdy Man over and over. We want to play well but mainly just have fun and freak out. We want to get people moving.”

Pet Sun play this Saturday July 20 at the Casbah Lounge with Rough Go, Katie Bulley, and the Great Machine. Doors are at 9pm. Click on facebook.com/petsunrocknroll - View Magazine

Hamilton/Toronto garage-psych rockers Pet Sun slow things way down on their recently released 7-inch EP. Loud-quiet opening tune Dark Planet creeps outward like descending dusk, growing blacker and eerier as it nears the six-minute mark with its intermittently pitch-shifted verses, hash-fuelled vocal drone, throat-grabbing choruses and wild eruption of unrestrained guitar solo.

Zenifer is garagier, a tight and fuzzed-out slice of humour-laced catchiness with surf buoyancy and blues groove. The four-piece don't shy away from guitar solos, using them to coast out on. And fans of Liam Gallagher's lazy, drawling sneer will enjoy closer Mrs. Warp, which evokes a tripped-out, doomy Oasis. It lacks the momentum of the earlier tracks but still hints at the direction Pet Sun is heading, which could be described as the Flamin' Groovies meets All Them Witches.

Now we need a full-length. Stat.

Top track: Dark Planet - Now Magazine

Hamilton four-piece Pet Sun take on the sometimes shambolic nature of the human mind with their latest "Dark Planet." It's a shaggy, shadowy labyrinth of an outing, where the monster (what good is a maze without one?) lurks behind every turn.

"The song tells less of a story than it does paint a chaotic picture of our minds when we wrote it," singer/guitarist Stephane Senecal-Tremblay says. Nightmares and restlessness are themes throughout, he explains, the messy byproducts of inner conflict.

The tempo changes emphasize that chaos: listeners never get the chance to settle in, hurtled instead off into the next section, before the outro finally lets go of all control. - Chart Attack

Hamilton's self-proclaimed "rock'n'roll heathens" Pet Sun released their Shade Driver EP late last year, and are taking a look back at the three-song collection with a new set of visuals. Exclaim! is proud to give you your first look at the video for "Mrs. Warp" right here.

Directed by Laura-Lynn Petrick (Mac DeMarco, Quilt, Ty Segall), the video finds the band goofing off in the streets and a cemetery in the slow-moving clip. The group's use of visual effects in creating their entertaining videos has been documented in the past, and things are no different this time around. Different coloured filters fade in and out while the grainy camcorder footage is rewound, sped up, and layered in a heady fashion. The fuzzy, home movie feel serves as an excellent complement to the band's slow-burning psych jam.

Pet Sun's Shade Driver EP is available now through The Hand Recordings. Watch the video for "Mrs. Warp" in the player below. - Exclaim

Some Torontonians have been quick to anoint Hamilton, a city tucked into a crook of Lake Ontario, as "the new Brooklyn" because of its lower rent prices and burgeoning arts scene. But beauty has blossomed outside of big Canadian cities for, like, ever, and so Hamilton's scuzzy garage rockers Pet Sun part of a long, musical tradition. Today, the band makes its FADER debut with a new video for "Web of Man," from their self-titled debut LP, which dropped last month on Toronto label, The Hand Recordings.
"'Web of Man' is one of the oldest Pet Sun songs to make it onto the album. We refer to it as our most classic throwback garage song, paying homage to '60s rock like The Kinks and The Rolling Stones," the band share in an e-mail. "It expresses the tangled web of manipulation of a romantic pursuit with a very light-hearted and upbeat attitude. All relationships are fucked up anyway, might as well accept it!" Fair. - The FADER

Canadian rockers Pet Sun have a dirty brand of garage rock that rips and recalls some of the best bands who have made this sound their forte. Their snarling sound has started to resonate with audience and with good reason: it rocks. Their video for "The Dawn" continues that momentum. We're premiering their vintage-inspired clip today, which will inspire you, music listener, to seek out more information on them.

"We like to think of this song as our 'Immigrant Song' haha," Stephane Senecal-Tremblay says of the tune. "Fast high energy ripper! The song is pretty chaotic. Lyrically we never really put our feet down on anything concrete. Mostly just brief dark imagery. The vibe is chaos and rock n roll!"

Pet Sun is hitting the road next week. Check out the dates below:

July 2 - Ottawa - House Show (Ask A Punk)
July 3 - Quebec City - Ninkasi
July 4 - Halifax @ Reflections Cabaret
July 5 - Charlottetown @ Baba's Lounge
July 6 - Saint John @ Callahan's Pub
July 7 - Montreal @ L'Escogriffe Bar
July 8 - Hamilton @ Doors Pub - PUREVOLUME

Pet Sun may sound like some fluffy indie band by their name, but this four-piece crew of shredders from Ontario are about as far from that spectrum as you can get. Their blend of heavy, sludgy, fuzzed out rock with notes of doom and laden punk will take you on what they call a “sonic moonlit trip from grunge dungeons to melancholic landscapes,” all the while embracing a chill attitude about their journey.

Led by singer/guitarist Stephane Senecal-Tremblay, with guitarist Sam Rashid, bassist Nic Arbour and drummer Parth Jain, Pet Sun released their first tease to the world in 2014 with the four-song EP Feel Like I’m Going Away. Since then, the crew disappeared in the woods for a bit and steadily geared up their self-titled debut Pet Sun with the help of producer/mixer Dave Plowman (Michael Rault, Islands). And if you hear a hint of METZ in their sound, it’s because the album was mastered by Alex Bonenfant (who also masters Crystal Castles).

Though Pet Sun can sound familiar at times (reference Fuzz), their nuances come through in their arrangements, their shifts in tone and their ability to keep an oftentimes overdone genre incredibly fresh and exciting. So listen up.

Pet Sun drops tomorrow — March 11th — on the Hand Recordings. And in an exclusive on What Youth, you can stream the full album right here.
“We’ve had these tracks locked away for a while now and couldn’t be more excited to finally release them,” the band told WY. “It captures all sides of our sound, the heavy riffs, surf poppiness and melancholic ballads. Themes of self-examination and judgement are prevalent, and the cover art, ‘Know Your Enemy’ by Francesco Tortorella, expresses it completely. Pet Sun is a record to be turned up loud and smash things to.” I couldn’t agree more. –Maya Eslami

What Youth: Tell me about Pet Sun. Where’d you guys meet? When did you first start playing together?

Pet Sun: Pet Sun is a stoner garage band from Hamilton, Ontario. We’ve all been best friends since grade school and early University and naturally we’ve been writing music forever. Over the last couple years we reverted to our raw, sludgy pop, alter egos which is what Pet Sun is.

Your debut Pet Sun goes through some tone and mood changes as the album progresses, starting off with the crushing, fuzzed out “The Dawn” and wandering through deeper, darker paths like “Dark Planet” back to psychotic punk screamers like “Wish It Was”, and even plunging into a seemingly acoustic lament on “My Mind’s A Sofa”. How did you guys decide on the final mix of the album? Was it a conscious decision to have different kinds of songs on the album?

Since it’s our debut album these tracks are a collection of a bunch of styles that make up our sound. We write heavy rippers, riffy surf tracks and throw in a ballad or two when we’re feeling mellow. In our shows we shred the whole time so you’ll rarely hear a ballad but they definitely have a place on our album!

Who were you guys listening to when you wrote the album? What other bands inspire and influence your writing?

Our main influences with this album would have to be The Vines, Nirvana, The Kinks, Black Sabbath and much of the modern garage these days like Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall. We grew up on classic rock so the riffs and fills always come out in our songs.

Do you guys write the songs first and then write the lyrics? Like the song “Empty TV”, you sing about how boring watching television is. Were you watching TV thinking, I should write a song about how boring this is? How intuitive is your writing process in that sense?

Our songs usually start out as guitar and vocal demos on shitty ‘voice notes’ with stream of consciousness vocals. Lyrics are an afterthought but we still follow the original theme of the demo. With empty tv we wanted to talk shit on the reality TV garbage that gets forced down our throats. Keeping up with the Kardashians? More like shit in my mouth and like it.

I read that you guys built your own practice space in the woods. Pretty fucking cool. Tell me more about that.

Pretty much my dad thinks he’s a nomad. He runs around a lot and loves nature and so do we. He ended up buying this property in a forest that had a big school portable for extra storage. We cleaned it. Painted it. And turned it into a jam space. That’s where our stuff goes down. Mega chill vibes out there.

What’s the future like for the band?

We have a second LP written and it’ll soon be on the way. We wanna play more and write as much as possible. Future looks good if it means chilling out writing songs with each other, and making new friends on the road.

Upcoming Tour Dates:

03/11 – Shark Tank – Tallahassee

03/12 – Sluggo’s – Pensacola

03/13 – Saturn Bar – New Orleans

03/14 – Satellite – Houston

03/18 – SXSW

04/02 – Doors Pub – Hamilton

04/07 – Le Quai Des Brumes – Montreal

04/08 – Nino Panino – Oakville, ON

04/09 – The Studio @ Waiting Room – Buffalo

04/15 – Silver Dollar – Toronto

04/29 – The Aquarium – Philadelphia

04/30 – Pianos – New York City - WHATYOUTH

Otario’s Pet Sun have listed their genre on Facebook as “stoner garage,” but listening to any of their releases since 2013’s debut EP Serpent Buzz makes apparent just what an understatement that is. They possess a total control and clarity that sets them apart—so it’s apt that the alternate description on their page is “death garage.”

Having garnered an international following through extensive touring (evidently their sets get pretty unruly), the four-piece is now set to release their first full-length. “The Dawn” opens the record with a jolt that doesn’t let up. It’s certainly sludgier and a bit murkier than some of their older tracks, but it never loses traction. Nor is it derivative—Pet Sun plays with psych and garage rock tropes with a knockout energy that keeps things fresh and weird. Singer Stephane Senecal-Tremblay’s voice drips with sardonic feeling as he sings lines like the figuratively laden “Grey matter, turn it into wine,” and when he wails to the complement of the rapid-fire percussion you can practically hear the snarl on his face.

Pet Sun is due out March 11 via Toronto’s The Hand Recordings. You can stream “The Dawn” below, and read on for a chat with Stephane.



Introduce yourselves!

I’m Stephane and I sing and play guitar in Pet Sun. The rest of the band are at work right now but Parth plays drums, Nic plays bass, and Sam also plays guitar.

You’ve built a name for yourselves prior to now, with a nice backlog of EPs. What’s different about your debut? To me it feels heavier in parts than previous releases.

It’s mostly just slower I think… a bit heavier and darker subject matter than what we’ve previously put out. Going into a full-length was pretty exciting for all of us so we thought long and hard about how we’d go about it, what tracks would be put on it and all that. We have some pop tracks that didn’t make the cut because we think they would’ve spoiled the vibe of the album. We kept “Web of Man” on the album though. It’s our wannabe late 1960s break out single!

Who or what are your major influences? “Sabbath” is a tag on Soundcloud, are you big fans?

Can I cite my living room late at night as an influence? Cause it definitely helps me write a lot. Musically the initial influences were bands like Nirvana and the Vines, Frank Black, Led Zeppelin, music from skate videos, stuff like that. A lot of other bands have come and gone as influences but I feel those ones are still some of our faves. We are big fans of Black Sabbath yeah. We saw them in concert last week. It was pretty nuts but I haven’t been able to listen to them since. Mostly in fear of getting flashbacks from the afterparty … drank too many pops.

That album cover is so disarming. What’s the idea behind it?

The original piece (by Francesco Tortorella) was called “Know Your Enemy” which pretty much sums up why we identified with it so much. We loved the artwork but also found it fit well with a lot of the themes on the album. Mostly bitterness, disillusionment with your choices and disenchantment within relationships … feelings only made worse by realizing that we probably do more damage to ourselves than others do. Be good to yourself and your loved ones, the rest comes easy baby! - Impose Magazine