Big city sounds

Toronto’s Poor Young Things inspired by labelmates The Trews

Kristen McEwen
Contributor

Poor Young Things (w/ The Trews)
Casino Regina
March 16
8 p.m.
$25 balcony; $30 floor

The country-to-city, rags-to-riches story is one that many musicians like to peddle. But to find the narrative small-city-to-big-city is one less frequently touted.

But despite the seeming banality and insignificance of such a move, it’s central to the otherwise fascinating and remarkable story of Poor Young Things.

The Thunder Bay-based act is the opening band for the Trews’ Big Night Out Tour, which stops at Casino Regina on March 16. The five-member indie/country rock group, originally from Thunder Bay, Ont., recently released the Let It Sleep EP in January, a forerunner to the full-length album the band plans to release later this year. Poor Young Things produced the six-song EP through their deal with Bumstead Records, The Trews’ record label.

Poor Young Things appeared on Bumstead’s radar after the label caught wind of a demo the band recorded in Hamilton, Ont., in May 2011. Though they had originally planned to relocate to Vancouver, the group decided to move to Toronto on the advice of Jeff Heishold, keyboardist for The Trews.

Within a year they signed a deal with Bumstead. Through their new label, Poor Young Things met their favourite producer, Jon Drew, has who produced albums for the Canadian punk band Fucked Up and indie band Tokyo Police Club. Drew also helped them to produce their EP.

Because Poor Young Things and The Trews share a recording label, it makes sense that some of the songs on their debut EP are reminiscent of The Trews. The country-rock feel of Poor Young Things’s “Hearts and Minds” sounds very similar to The Trews’ “I’ll Find Someone Who Will.” 

The band’s move to the bigger city is arguably what the short but sweet EP album is all about. In most of the songs, the lyrics reference living and losing oneself in the big city. In the first song, “The Low Road” the lyrics, “Yeah we’re on the town makin’ memories but we still got concrete stuck in our teeth” seem to point towards the move from Thunder Bay to Toronto.

The lyrics to the song’s second track, “Blame It On The Good Times” are also reminiscent of big city life: “Fall into the wrong hands/ in between the street lights,” sings lead vocalist Matt Fratpiatro, “Fall into the wrong hands/ and we’ll blame it on the good times.”

Under the Trews’ wings, the band is seeing good times; Regina’s just one stop on a large national tour. Sounds like they’ve fallen into the right hands.