Call The Office Band Practice, Turned Into LA Traffic

Single Mothers broke up in 2009 – and have been playing shows ever since.

I remember going to that first show in August 2009 at Call The Office.  I probably remember that night better than the band does.  That first show was booked before the band had any songs.  All they had was a name.  By show day, they had maybe four original songs and a cover of what I’m 90% sure was Santa Monica by Everclear.

Not bad for a band started purely to spite an ex-girlfriend.

I remember my best friend playing bass in the band for one show in Windsor.  I remember dudes I really didn’t like being in the band for several shows.  I remember the time I was in the band, in theory, for like 3 days. I remember most of the names of the seemingly revolving door of band members over the past five years.

I remember heckling them about tuning their guitars from the side stage, drunk on a Tuesday at 1 AM.  Several times.  I remember the first show they used a crude version of the Dreamcatcher-gram as their backdrop.  I was proud.  I remember carrying a lone cymbal into a bar, pretending to be part of their road crew to get into their NXNE gigs without paying.

I don’t remember the photo for this poster being taken…

I remember trying to come up with clever words to describe their style of punk to others (‘Hipster Hardcore’ and ‘Bukowski Punk’ were two of the best ones I came up with)  I remember the brief period when they described themselves as ‘Folk Punk’.  I remember trying to explain how/why the recordings of that first 7″ sounded the way they did.  Nobody ever got it.  I remember the day a photo I was in made altpress.com in a story about them (and has been used in every story since then)

I remember being at this party…Kinda.  All the girls at this party, were into drama and Ginsberg and Lemon Lime Bacardi.

I remember when Drew left London to go north and become a prospector.  I remember the band continuing on without him.  I remember those two shows without Drew singing.  One at the Outback Shack, and one at a house show.  I remember they were still great, but that they were missing something.

Then, I remember them coming back.  It was an irregularly cold night/early morning in April 2012.  I remember them playing that show (whilst still technically broken up) at a Canadian Music Week showcase in a packed dive bar, full of music industry big wigs.  There were several suits in the crowd.  They went on at 2:30 AM.  They were wasted.  We were all wasted, as was the style at the time.  Drew took a few days off from prospecting for gold, and drove in that day from Swastika, Ontario (yeah, it’s a place…look it up)  They hadn’t played in months.  I listened to the songs earlier that day, so that when Drew inevitably fell on me in the front row, and stuck the microphone in my face, I would at least know the right lyrics to yell.  They killed it.

I remember when they got signed to Secret Voice.  I  remember when they got signed to XL.  I remember when they got signed to Dine Alone.  I remember the red Chevy Venture that was their first tour van.  I remember them booking that first US tour on their own.  I’m pretty sure it was booked exclusively via Facebook and Twitter.  I remember the homecoming show at Call The Office after that Bronx Tour in the UK.  I remember them playing the main stage at Riot Fest in 2013, and them being the first band on at noon.  I’m pretty sure it was the first time they ever played sober and in daylight.

And that’s how, Call The Office band practice, turns into LA traffic. How DIY shows, turn into tour packages.  That’s how all of this happened.  By all conventional means, this band shouldn’t exist.  Punk Rock in 2014 needs this band to exist.  I’ve had various mixes of the new album for months.  Hundreds of plays thus far…it doesn’t get old.

They don’t even clean up that well…

The first full length, Negative Qualities is actually out as of a few days ago.  It kills.

So.  A band from here* can make it**

*’here’ being London, Ontario

**without Eedy