Partner
Partner is funny, but not a joke. Gay, but not for each other.

Lucy and Josée formed Partner in the spring of 2014. They were looking to experiment with genre, discuss being gay, and share some jokes and ideas. Their objective has remained the same over the past seven years, although in that time their sound has shifted considerably. Their drummer Simone TB first appeared on their 2017 album “In Search of Lost Time” and has been with the band full time since 2018.

Partner’s debut album In Search of Lost Time (2017) made an impact with its big guitars and polished sound. The record, mixed by Chris Shaw (Ween, Bob Dylan, Cheap Trick), landed a spot on NPR’s All Songs Considered, along with Stereogum, Noisey, Exclaim, CBC Music, Indie 88 and many more best of 2017 lists. The album was shortlisted for the Polaris Prize, and Partner were the recipients of the SOCAN songwriting prize for their song “Play the Field”.

Partner’s follow-up EP Saturday the 14th found the duo embarking on bolder and more playful compositional excursions. Throughout this highly experimental period, ideas for the next album began to coalesce. In the summer of 2019 Lucy and Josée joined all-star drummer Simone TB (US Girls, Highest Order, Darlene Shrugg) in the studio to create their second full-length album, titled Never Give Up. With Never Give Up, Partner returned to their classic rock roots and awakened their truest gifts to deliver their most exciting, riff-laden effort yet.

During a brief period in 2020 when it was safe to travel, the band headed to Gabriola Island on BC’s West Coast where they quarantined themselves for 14 days in a cabin writing and rehearsing and headed into the studio for 7 days at The Noise Floor Recording Studio. The songs written and recorded during this session make up Time Is A Car. Time Is A Car is the next step along their journey of shredding guitar pop post-classic-rock and pays homage to Heart, Pat Benatar, Stevie Nicks and many other great women of 80s rock.

NOBRO
Released October 27, 2023 on Dine Alone Records, Montreal new-age punk outfit NOBRO’s debut full-length record Set Your Pussy Free is a caustic, celebratory, glorious party-punk firework show. It’s a record about the ecstatic pursuit of personal escape and liberation even as the walls are closing in, a 21st century power-punk analog of Born To Run that rages against modern life’s restrictive pressures and dares them to a game of chicken. If a hurricane is bearing down on NOBRO, they’re spitting into it, arm-in-arm, with middle fingers raised.

“As a musician or artist or even a woman, you have to throw off the weight of societal pressures and expectations, especially as you get older,” says vocalist and bassist McCaughey. “You have to take risks and chances.”

NOBRO is the space where the four members—McCaughey, Karolane Carbonneau (guitars), Lisandre Bourdage (keys/percussion), and Sarah Dion (drums)—get to take those risks and chances. It’s a place for cultivating power and happiness in a hard, mean world. That means the stakes are high. “Music is where we lift each other up,” says McCaughey. “I wish it was more like a fairy tale. We just want this fucking thing to work. But we’re all gonna succeed together, or we’re all gonna fail together.”

Produced by Dave Schiffman, Set Your Pussy Free is the culmination of years of work, hundreds of shows, and thousands of miles since the band’s creation in 2014. McCaughey, Carbonneau, Bourdage, and Dion have been building NOBRO into one of the most fierce and exciting bands in Canada. The new record rides the momentum from a string of blazing singles and EPs, capped with 2020’s Sick Hustle and 2022’s Live Your Truth Shred Some Gnar.

Listeners big and small have been taking note: Iggy Pop played their track “Bye Bye Baby” on his BBC Radio 6 show, and a fictional band in the Netflix series The Imperfects covered their songs. Aside from taking their raucous live shows to every dive bar across Montreal, the band has also toured across North America and Europe with PUP, Alexisonfire, Billy Talent, Fidlar, and The OBGMs. In May 2023, they opened for Blink-182 at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena. And they’re just getting started.

Don’t say we didn’t warn you.