Artists You Should Know: Garage-Rockers Wine Lips Chronicle Havoc

Toronto garage-rock revivalists Wine Lips are bringing their pummeling anthems to a city near you as the band head on tour next month in support of their latest album Mushroom Death Sex Bummer Party. They will be playing a show at Permanent House Records in Los Angeles on May 25. Although it’s been a little over a year since the high-octane four-piece unveiled their manic third album, its anxiously existential songs remain a visceral and honest expression of the last few years.

_{Please note: This post may contain affiliate links.}

It’s probably no surprise that Wine Lips looks to raucous staples of rock like Dead Kennedys, Thee Oh Sees, and Ty Segall — as well as contemporaries like Parquet Courts and IDLES. Comprised of Cam Hilborn (guitar/vocals), Aurora Evans (drums), Jordan Sosensky (guitar), and Charlie Weare (bass), the music generated by the band is a tidal wave of combustive sonics. It’s the first thing that hits you when exploring any of their records. On Mushroom Death Sex Bummer Party that explosive sound is funneled through a gauntlet of lightning riffs, raging percussion, and vociferous howls.

Which begins with the very first song “Eyes,” a blistering sprint through the fatigue of daily life’s ability to grind you down. From the dizzying clash of guitars on “Get Your Money” to the rumbling zombie-apocalypse-esque rager “Mall Walker,” the songs of Wine Lips are inherently fearsome anthems. But they also smolder as an agitate of the times, bringing to the forefront all the pent-up emotion that’s been unable to find true catharsis.

“In the Clear” by far encapsulates that power by presenting a situation nearly everyone is familiar with — especially given the recent quarantine and pandemic — as the song tackles the problem of self-diagnosis. Mingling a hypochondriac’s lyricism with an ecstatic but brittle excitement the song captures all the ins and outs of what happens when people are secluded, their anxiety heightened, and they start overthinking symptoms thanks to WebMD.