JUNO Award-winning Montreal punk outfit NOBRO share new single + video “DOOMTOWN,” a garage-rock adrenaline-blast single that marks a vulnerable new era for the band.
Centered around vocalist/bassist Kathryn McCaughey and guitarist Karolane Carbonneau, NOBRO have made their name with riotous, liberatory party-punk mayhem, middle fingers to the world. But there are some pains you can’t party your way out of. Right before they won the JUNO Award, half the band quit. Carbonneau lost her father; McCaughey began the difficult journey of watching hers struggle with dementia. At what should’ve been one of the highest moments of their lives, NOBRO were confronted with existential terror: What the hell is this all for? Where is this all going?
These devastations are interpreted on “DOOMTOWN,” which maintains NOBRO’s tornado of energy and sharp songwriting. This time out, though, they’re not rocketing away from the weight of loss, grief, and dread; they’re sitting with it, exploring it with curiosity and openness. Recorded, produced, and mixed by John Agnello, “DOOMTOWN” externalizes some of the reality-check questions McCaughey has been forced to ask herself: “Will I be singing about pussy and drugs in the nursing home?” The thought might seem comedic, but it’s the questions circling their mind. NOBRO can’t laugh their way out of this one. Like all of us wrestling with the stinging, senseless pain of existence, they have to feel their way out—and that’s exactly what they’re going to do.
Accompanying the track is a beautifully animated visualizer by Christopher Grant, a Mi’gmaw filmmaker from Pabineau First Nation, New Brunswick whose work interprets his lived experience with schizophrenia. His video for “DOOMTOWN” captures the brutal loneliness present in the song as we follow a single figure wandering the streets, desperately in search of companionship.
Mike Neil
