“Thunder East” by Toronto’s alt rockers OUTER ROOMS, who are set to share new single “Thunder East” pits feelings of directionlessness and anger against patient drums, effervescent keyboards, and guitar parts that move like a lazy river. Sounding like a fine chilly piece of emotive indie music to immerse yourself in, the single comes as bright and sweet, but in its unfolding, with plenty to chew on. Can’t wait to hear more from these guys.
“When our home rotted away / the trees jumped out of place
I saw their roots and wondered / when you’d leave and thunder East
“Thunder East came out of the last days my partner and I spent living in a shithole apartment in a house in Toronto’s East End,” said Outer Rooms’ Sean Fitzpatrick (he/him). “In the same week, the ceiling of our apartment collapsed in a shower of millipedes and black mold. A day later, lightning struck the tree in front of the house, causing it to jump out of the ground and crash into the street.”
“After a couple of years of floods, rodent infestations, and constantly fighting with a landlord who drove a Lexus and kept his dad in the shed behind our home, I obsessed over John Tory’s Toronto,” Fitzpatrick said. “This gleaming façade on its lakefront: a glass wall of condos and office buildings for endless investment in a city best viewed from a descending airplane. We wanted to move here to make music, and then struggled to just pay rent while bars and performance spaces closed year after year.”
“I kept thinking of Rob Ford’s rotting mouth bragging about the number of ‘cranes in the air.’ Toronto has become a failed construction project built on rock and roll, so we made a pillowy, angsty song that came out of an improvisation in one of our early writing sessions.”
“Thunder East” hails from Outer Rooms’ forthcoming record All Will Be Well and All Will Be Well, etc., etc., out November 6, 2020.
Thunder East lyrics:
When our apartment collapsed,
And black mold filled in the cracks,
I thought losing our bed was
Worse than our student debt was.
I was afraid we’d grow apart,
You’d see how blind your bet was.
When our home rotted away,
The trees jumped out of place.
I saw their roots and wondered
When you’d leave and thunder East.
I know you miss your Mom,
I won’t try to be her, but I’ll try to be calm.
We learned we had to get educated,
Enroll, and withdraw some loans,
When I was learning how the world was
Before getting crushed by what it is.
All day, Toronto’s growing into glare,
Climbing up toward the cranes in the air.
The city’s building something,
Extending beyond our reach.
I should write my old professors,
Tell them how I’ve spent the year:
Nervous and drunk in equal measure.
Tell them how much passion I forgot here.
I moved back to the city,
And you moved here with me.
I’ll search the bars for understanding,
While you wonder when we’re leaving.
Press:
“The group blend clamouring keys, drums, guitars and shouts together in a euphorically frenetic fashion,
moulding the racket into precise, high-energy blasts of gripping, punk-informed rock,” – Exclaim!“Brimming with fantastic punk rock defiance,” – SPILL
“[The EP] drives a station wagon to the edge of the Canadian Rock cliffs, then swerves back towards power pop villages,
leaving tire marks in the shape of Michael Ondaatje novels as they go,” – Grayowl Point
