Award winning independent Canadian record label Dine Alone Records (FIDLAR, The Sheepdogs, City And Colour, The Sadies, Black Mountain, The Dandy Warhols, The Cult) have just released the debut album from Toronto based quartet Girlfriend Material comprised of Tokyo Police Club members Graham Wright (keyboards) Josh Hook (guitars) Hollerado drummer Jake Boyd and bassist Joseph Garand.
Wright explained the genesis of Girlfriend Material in a November 2017 interview with Exclaim! Magazine while promoting the band’s 5 song self titled debut EP, “Girlfriend Material came into being halfway by accident. I needed some loud rock songs for a movie I made, and I figured I could probably write some that were good enough. I did not expect them to be my favourite songs I’d ever written. These songs made me fall more in love with playing music than ever before, and I’m over the moon to finally get them out into the world.”
Two Christmas EPs later, the eight song Hyped For The Holidays from 2017 and five song Santa Lives! from 2018 (both available from Bandcamp) Girlfriend Material’s 11 track Cool Car debut album power punches through 34 minutes of stripped down lean and pithy literary indie rock informed by a knowledge and understanding of melodic punk rock and late 70’s New Wave. Particularly pleasing are the song lyrics and the stories and characters they reveal passionately relayed in a fashion reminiscent of a youthful Dave Bidini from The Rheostatics and John K. Samson from Winnipeg’s The Weakerthans.
Rating: 8/10
Star Rating: 4/5
2019 Song Of The Day Club 20/52