NOBRO - Live Your Truth Shred Some Gnar (2022) Hi-Res

Montreal punks NOBRO are roaring back to life: they're gearing up to shred some fresh truths directly in our faces with the announcement of a new EP.

That NOBRO have The Distillers as one of their few recognisable touchstones speaks volumes of their ability to hybridise sounds until any such influence is on the horizon; they only share a Mach 10 energy, anything else is entirely distinct.

From bassist/vocalist Kathryn McCaughey’s punk-esque epiphany – post-break up with a prominent Montreal musician, McCaughey vowed to be “more than just a footnote on this person’s Wikipedia page” – the musician needed only her own raw skill and that of a few others: namely drummer Sarah Dion, guitarist Karolane Carbonneau and keyboardist/ percussionist Lisandre Bourdages.

NOBRO swiftly sparked a blaze through their Montreal scene in 2016 with their debut, independent seven-inch and later released their debut EP in 2020. For the new EP, producer Thomas D’Arcy fleshed out their demos while the band retain their raw power – Stooges style.

Above all, the EP capitalises on NOBRO’s boundless sense of fun; a powerful, braggadocious vapour that works throughout most of the EP: whether through the dynamic change in bright one-two punch opener 'Better Each Day' – topped by vibrant blasts from Bourdages – or the ramshackle charm of the acoustic-centred final track. Only on 'Eat, Slay, Chardonnay' does this slip into a happy-clappy pastiche.

The EP’s charm is also conveyed by the rickety sense the band’s untamed sound creates, most gloriously represented by Sarah Dion’s drumming dervishes – constantly holding a brilliantly dirty edge. This is especially true of the mayhem closing the sludgy 'Get With U', where the drums, and the whole band, play as if on a cliff edge.

McCaughey’s vocals, in their alternation between smooth and scree-scattered yowls, ebb and flow with a similarly fiery zeal as the ballast packed into the band’s loud/quiet dynamics.

The breakdowns on the EP – on the barnstorming ‘Bye Bye Baby’ or the sludgy ‘Not Myself’ – are rife with Carbonneau’s unhinged slides and molten hot notes, McCaughey’s rubbery basslines and yelps comparable to only Iggy and Amyl’s not-too distant relative, are like nothing but the chaos of adolescence crammed into a few dozen frenetic seconds.

'On Live Your Truth…', NOBRO walk an adrenaline-fuelled trapeze: an almost perfect middle-point between brawny, bullish and another form of punk-rock with nimble choices and dynamics.