Ought has been burning with a strong and steady flame since flickering to life in
Montreal in 2011. Holed up in a shared apartment that doubled as their rehearsal
space, the four band members self-recorded a first EP and played their first show
in these domestic confines, then busted out into the city's loft circuit, and into the
city streets during the Printemps d'Erable Quebec student general strike, in 2012.
These inspired months of mass mobilization against neo-liberal austerity
measures galvanized a wide range of agit-prop expression in Montreal, and
indelibly shaped the emerging sound, vision and social mandate of Ought.
Guitarist/vocalist Tim Beeler, who previously had been writing poetry and folk
music, drew new energy from electrification/amplification and solidarity/protest
alike; his declarative, observational vocal style ranges from wide-eyed to
worried, but never submits to cool irony or emotional detachment.
Ought's earnest, stately and exuberant post-punk is dextrous, deliberate, unfussy
and fluid, with debts to Cap'n Jazz, The Feelies, Lungfish, Gang Of Four and early
Talking Heads, among many others. The band shifts from sharp angles and stuttering
counterpoint to softer edges and chiming flow, with an economy of elements and
fidelity to their basic 4-piece constitution. The instrumental interplay is
consistently whipsmart, supple and deceptively simple. Beeler's speak-singing
can give way to melancholic melodic croons and ragged, desperate yelps, always
driven by sincerity of feeling and connection to his subject matter, whether that's
the conundrum of our fractured interiority or communion with others in our
fractured social space (or, for the most part, both).
Ought are a righteous and humble young band, fiercely dedicated to grassroots
organizing and artmaking, taking as self-evident the inseparability of politics
and aesthetics; we are proud and excited to be releasing their debut full-length.
More Than Any Other Day is the result of a week of recording and mixing at
Montreal's Hotel2Tango with engineer Radwan Moumneh (Suuns, Matana Roberts,
Jerusalem In My Heart) in November 2013; the album replaces the band's previously
self-released 5-song Bandcamp EP of the same name, which comprised a separate
set of recordings. Thanks for listening.
TRACKLIST:
01 Pleasant Heart
02 Today, More Than Any Other Day
03 Habit
04 The Weather Song
05 Forgiveness
06 Around Again
07 Clarity!
08 Gemini