Inventive but obscure Guelph trio From East to Exit released a need-to-hear LP this year called Lowbanks, which you can stream now until Nov. 9.
ListenLowbanks by From East to Exit
Streaming until Nov. 9
Tracklist
Since forming in 2008, From East to Exit has garnered comparisons to the edgy rock of Modest Mouse, the Strokes and Born Ruffians, among others, which lead singer/guitarist Jon Charles has no objections with.
“Sometimes when I think a band sounds like somebody, I actually think it’s positive," he says in his living room. "Unless they sound way too much like them, which, who knows, maybe some people think that about us. I don’t mind any comparison.”
While traces of punk rock creep into the band’s sound and Charles cites Fugazi as an influence, his number one band is the Beatles. “My dad has a cassette of me singing ‘Get Back’ when I was maybe three,” he says. “A lot of the words were mumbled.”
Sure, the Fab Four are in the ether and thus impossible to avoid as a musician seeking some kind of muse, but From East to Exit absorbs them somewhat subtly. The tunefulness is there for certain, but on the analog recording of Lowbanks, From East to Exit has tapped into more of the band's scrappier Hamburg (or even Let it Be) period.
From East to Exit play Guelph’s Jimmy Jazz with Cardboard Nationals on Nov. 3 and then may disappear from the city for a while.
“We’re gonna start rehearsing and writing more,” Charles explains. “Maybe tour and then record to get something else going.”
Watch this interview with Jon Charles of From East to Exit:
See From East to Exit at Jimmy Jazz in Guelph on Nov. 3.
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