Kudos to our pals in Hooded Fang, the co-ed sextet who’ve been winning hearts since 2008, and are releasing their debut full-length album, Album, tonight (Dec. 9) at the Drake Underground, 1150 Queen St. W. The Fang first played Wavelength 417 back in June ’08, then not long after, they made an amazing appearance at our Wavelength 450 Ninth Anniversary Festival at the SPK Polish Combatants Hall in Feb. ’09, so they’ve been a part of the Wavelength family for a few years now.
There’s a lot of bands trying to do the “winsome indie-pop” thing — more than ever, I would say — but Hooded Fang are one of the best. Daniel Lee does that cool, deep pop baritone — à la Jonathan Richman, Stephen Merritt, Jens Lekman or Stuart Murdoch — and his voice is nicely accompanied by some sweet, rich, well-played arrangements. Ben Rayner has more thoughtful things to say about their music over at the Star.
Though Public Image Limited beat them to the title by 24 years, Album‘s cover art done was done by none other then Dougie Kerr, the guy who paints all the sale signs for Honest Ed’s…. how awesome is that? Very Toronto.
We hear the show is sold out in advance tonight, but that a few tickets will be available at the door, so get there damn early. The release party line-up also includes Santa Guerilla and ohmigoditsanothershowwerepluggingfeaturing Doldrums. Here’s the Facebook invite.