Category: news

These four demos are likely not destined for further refinement and eventual inclusion on the next Real Rejects album, so we can enjoy them strictly as TJ Cabot solo tracks in all their poorly recorded but expertly mastered glory. Anyway, this is pretty much what everyone has been longing for since the spring of 2023: blown-out smart-aleck garage punk that reeks of dingy basements and room temperature leftover pizza. If you’re going to release home-recorded solo demos, they ought to be as raw and primitive as these. You can totally visualize TJ blasting out the drums, guitar, and bass like some mad scientist of budget rock. These are all really good tunes, but I’m especially partial to the garage rock-inspired “Firm Back Hand” and the punk-as-frick “Artificial All Along.” Five Canadian dollars for this thing is a good value. That won’t even buy you a gallon of gas these days. Stay home today and support the arts!

Compared to the edgy rocker “Say It!” (I can’t even write the title without wanting to scream it), “Secret Handshake” brings quite a different vibe. It’s still very much a summertime jam, but it does show a slightly softer side of Taxi Girls. In style, this is the sort of stuff I live for: classic poppy punk rock with an upbeat spirit that hits you with a massive chorus. That intro is pure gold, and then this snappy earworm will send you straight into head-bobbing, toe-tapping mode. Lyrically, you could probably call this a love song, but it manages to evoke something deeper and more universal than that. It’s a song not just about the private language you might share with someone special but also about wanting that connection to never end. There’s a sweetness and vulnerability to this song that Jamie’s lead vocal fully captures, and every repeat listen makes me smile a little bigger. If this song were any catchier, we’d all have to be walking around in masks again. I always love tunes that are super-fun on the surface but something much more beyond it. 

Static, Taxi Girls’ debut album, will be coming out on Wild Honey Records in Europe and Stomp Records in Canada. My math tells me that that’s in three weeks, so you won’t have to wait much longer! For now, I advise playing “Secret Handshake” on repeat and getting properly pumped. Get your pre-orders in while the colored vinyl is still up for grabs! 

Leave it to Dany Laj to write a song this angry and still have it sound like a good time. But perhaps that is the whole point. He doesn’t want to go to war with anyone. He just wants to spread joy and make friends. “Why you gotta be angry?” sings Laj. “Come join the party; it will set you free.” More than anything else, this song is celebration of the musicians and artists who transform and positively impact cities everywhere. It has something important to say, and it sounds great cranked loud. The song clocks in at two-and-a-half minutes and leaves me wanting more. But that’s okay since more is soon forthcoming! Habs and the Flyers in the conference finals next year? Let’s bet on it!