PRETEND NO MORE
The City Streets’ Final Cry
by Matt J. Simmons
The City Streets
were a band out of Edmonton/Montreal, whose commercial success was always muted, though in the right circles— community radio being one of them—they’re described as hard-hitting, edgy indie rock. For good reason, too; there’s something about this three-piece that hits the right chords—singer Rick Reid’s haunting lyrics come from real places (the band is known for true rock n’ roll tours, booze, drugs, sex, and sketchy border crossings included), and the atmospheric, intense, moody sound that draws from punk, rock, and even country, is a perfect complement. Even in their slow songs, there’s a sense of menace. Last year, The City Streets released their sixth full-length album, Pretenders, and shortly after announced it was their last. “Rick’s lyrics have always had a sense of melancholy to them but there’s a joy in there as well,” says bassist Matt Leddy. “On this record they were surrounded by darker sounds so the whole thing comes across more intense.” Intense is right. Moments on this album border on debilitating to the listener, so potent they leave you unable to do anything but listen. “The song White Lies got picked up by the Idle No More movement in Quebec which we thought was pretty sweet,” says Leddy. On that song, a bitter lament on Canada’s shame ful treatment of First Nations, the lyrical content and atmospheric instrumentation is guaranteed to give you shivers. “Must be nice to not be openly despised,” Reid sings. “I wish I could tell you what I feel, feel from your eyes.” Leddy explains where the song comes from: “All of us are into history and Canada’s collective shame in one way or another so it wasn’t that hard to get in the right mindset. Just look on any corner or wait until someone busts out an Indian joke. Sad.”
Leddy and Reid grew up playing music together and later drafted a high school friend, Mark Chmilar, to play drums and tour with them in 2005. “Something about sleeping in the van with us made him at ease and he decided to stick around.” When they recorded their final album, the band was in a perpetual state of chaos. “We made Pretenders in the middle of a suicidal tour of Western Canada with Whiskeyface,” says Leddy. “The drummer of Whiskeyface quit, Garett’s dad’s vehicle he lent us broke down in Dauphin, Manitoba, leaving us to greyhound from city to city, only missing one show—sorry Lo Pub. I was falling apart as a human being, but we made it to the Hive and recorded 17 songs in two days. I think the surroundings led to the overall mood.” You’d assume from that description, that the sound quality of the record is rough and raw, more garage rock than polished indie, but that’s not the case. “We wanted the album to have a Lanois feeling to it: still hear the songs but painted in a bit more of an atmospheric way,” Leddy explains. They worked with producer Jesse Gander (Japandroids, The Pack AD, Dixie’s Death Pool). “We mentioned a few influences and thoughts, he crossed his arms, said ‘Okay,’ and that was that.” And after the album came out, that was that. At the end of 2012, Chmilar left the band to return to school. No more City Streets. But that doesn’t mean no more music. “Rick and I have started our new project Eternal Husbands and are releasing our debut self-titled record in August via Clamour Records. We like to call it fogpop.” If the new project has any of the punch of Pretenders, it’s going to be a good one. [sic] facebook.com/eternalhusbands 20