The Flatliners (Photo by Riley Taylor)
Canadian punks The Flatliners recently released their brand new LP, New Ruin, via Fat Wreck Chords. Now, The Flatliners are touring, and the band performs at Songbyrd Music House on Wednesday, Nov. 16.
With regard to their first album in five years, The Flatliners said:
“New Ruin is equal parts love letter and hate mail, empowerment, and embarrassment, hopefulness and despondency. For the first time in a long time, we’re looking out instead of in, and it’s not all pretty. There’s a new weight to the world now we as people can’t deny, and the only way to make this record was to try to achieve that same feeling in these songs. They’re angry because we’re angry. They’re loud because these are the things we need to be loud about. No better way than through. No brighter way to burn.”
Songs like “Performative Hours” and “Recoil” boil with livewire post-hardcore energy while “Souvenir” and “Big Strum” offer a more tightly coiled aggression that hints at the band’s anthemic punk past.
Watch the official music video for “Souvenir” by The Flatliners on YouTube:
Being a band for 20 years won’t just change you. It changes how you see the world, and your place in it. For long-running Toronto punk mainstays The Flatliners, a new record meant a new opportunity to examine the legacy they’ve inherited, and the one they’ll eventually pass on. It’s an imperfect one, but not without hope.
“This record is us sitting in an uncomfortable moment, with the world around us falling apart, and then trying to learn from it,” said vocalist and guitarist Chris Cresswell. “No one needs to listen to us, but we want to try.”
Along with playing the new album, The Flatliners also will unearth their past powerful smash tunes as they celebrate 20 years as a band.
The Flatliners
W/ Pet Symmetry, Taking Meds
Songbyrd Music House
Wednesday, Nov. 16
Doors @ 7pm
$22
All ages