The Spill Magazine The Spill Magazine
The Spill Magazine The Spill Magazine
The Spill Magazine The Spill Magazine
  • Reviews
    • Album Reviews
    • Features
    • Live Reviews
    • Festivals
  • Portraits
  • Headlines
    • News
    • Contests
    • Events
    • Entertainment Headlines
    • Concert Listings
    • Toronto Concert Venues
  • New Music
    • Premieres
    • Track Of The Day
  • Track Of The Week
  • Books + Movies
  • About
16
new
SPILL NEWS: CANADIAN PUNK LEGENDS DAYGLO ABORTIONS HIT THE ROAD WITH CITIZEN RAGE FOR A CROSS CANADA TOUR
SPILL FEATURE: DON’T YOU FEEL CLOSER? – A CONVERSATION WITH CY CURNIN OF THE FIXX
SPILL MUSIC PREMIERE: BROKE ROYALS – “REVIVALISM”
SPILL NEW MUSIC: COMBICHRIST SHARES NEW SINGLE & LYRIC VIDEO FOR “MODERN DEMON” VIA OUT OF LINE MUSIC
SPILL NEWS: KATIE TUPPER RETURNS WITH NEW SINGLE “HONEY” + EMBARKS ON CANADIAN TOUR
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: VARIOUS ARTISTS – PAY IT ALL BACK VOL. 8
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: FLORENCE + THE MACHINE – DANCE FEVER
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: MASTER BOOT RECORD – PERSONAL COMPUTER
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: FADER – QUARTZ
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: DIATOM DELI – TIME~LAPSE NATURE
SPILL VIDEO PREMIERE: PANJOMA – “BLEEDING SUN”
SPILL VIDEO PREMIERE: BEAUTY IN CHAOS – “AFTERLIFE” FT. TISH CIRAVOLO
SPILL NEW MUSIC: NEW SINGLE FROM ARKELLS “PAST LIFE (FEAT. COLD WAR KIDS)”
SPILL VIDEO PREMIERE: MORTAL PROPHETS – “STOMP THE DEVIL”
SPILL NEWS: MUSICOUNTS ANNOUNCES DALLAS GREEN AS THE ‘2022 MUSICOUNTS INSPIRED MINDS AMBASSADOR AWARD’ RECIPIENT
SPILL NEWS: THE SMASHING PUMPKINS ANNOUNCE NORTH AMERICAN ARENA TOUR | JANE’S ADDICTION TO JOIN AS SPECIAL GUESTS
  • Reviews
    • Album Reviews
    • Features
    • Live Reviews
    • Festivals
  • Portraits
  • Headlines
    • News
    • Contests
    • Events
    • Entertainment Headlines
    • Concert Listings
    • Toronto Concert Venues
  • New Music
    • Premieres
    • Track Of The Day
  • Track Of The Week
  • Books + Movies
  • About
  • Spill Menu
    • Reviews
      • Album Reviews
      • Features
      • Live Reviews
      • Festivals
    • Portraits
    • Headlines
      • News
      • Contests
      • Events
      • Entertainment Headlines
      • Concert Listings
      • Toronto Concert Venues
    • New Music
      • Premieres
      • Track Of The Day
    • Track Of The Week
    • Books + Movies
    • About
Portraits
0
181
previous article
SPILL NEW MUSIC: GARBAGE ANNOUNCE 20th ANNIVERSARY REISSUE OF THEIR ICONIC 1998 ALBUM 'VERSION 2.0'
next article
SPILL NEW MUSIC: BENJAMIN JAFFE (OF HONEYHONEY) RELEASES SOULFUL NEW SINGLE "EVERLASTING PEACE" - SOLO DEBUT OUT MAY 11th

SPILL ARTIST PORTRAIT BY DANIEL ADAMS: GROUNDERS

THE SPILL MAGAZINE ARTIST PORTRAIT:
GROUNDERS

Grounders’ home base is an overflowing garage in Toronto’s West End, but the roots of their new album Coffee & Jam stretch much farther west. Since releasing their debut self-titled LP in 2015, the band – Andrew Davis (vocals and guitar), Daniel Busheikin (keyboards), Mike Searle (Bass) and Evan Lewis (guitar) and Kurt Marcoux (the newly-recruited drummer) – have logged countless hours on the road, touring throughout Canada and the U.S. Somewhere down the line of empty motels, sand dunes and vast, dry American landscapes, their dreamy psych pop turned dark and unsettling.

It started in their trusty Grounders van, where a book of CDs provided the soundtrack to their journey. Each member would bring a few discs as their offering and try to get the others into them. They soaked up records like the Velvet Underground’s VU, Kraftwerk’s Computer World, and a New York noise compilation that blew everyone’s mind. At a tour stop in Calgary for the band’s appearance at Sled Island festival in 2015, everyone came over to Busheikin’s parents’ house. “Every morning we’d get up, make eggs, drink coffee, then fuck around in the basement,” says lead singer Andrew Davis.

Later that fall, the band spent a rare week off from touring in a small cabin near Sacramento, California that they found on Airbnb. The setting felt post-apocalyptic, covered by drought-starved dead grass, but it marked another flurry of creativity, writing and demoing early versions of songs that would later end up on Coffee & Jam. The influences they absorbed started coming out in wonky funhouse mirrors of their surroundings – a gritty but gorgeous, stripped-down version of Americana that distorts bands like The Cure, The Talking Heads and The Stranglers into a jagged post-punk odyssey. At one point the power went out for the whole block and the band assumed they had taken it down themselves.

Grounders continued writing and demoing in their garage rehearsal space/gear palace, before hitting Union Sound studio in 2016, where they recorded Coffee & Jam with Ian Gomes. Working quickly, with few effects or studio tricks, the album was produced by “whoever was in the room.” It was mixed by the elusive Dave Newfeld (Broken Social Scene, Weaves) and mastered by Gavin Gardiner (The Wooden Sky).

Davis, meanwhile, found lyrical inspiration in classic cinematic anti-heroes like Robert De Niro in Raging Bull and Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke. Through scraping synths and jangly guitars, Coffee & Jam oozes with self-sabotage, anti-authoritarian rebellion and a distinctly twenty-something sense of the world passing by.

“The Judge, The Cook and The Clown” squeezes the sticky hooks of The Cars through layers of paranoia, while “Mickey Can’t Move” skranks a glittery New Wave groove along a dirty runway. The album takes its title from a lyric in “Bringin’ It In,” a spiky, surreal bounce that soaks diner grease in penthouse chanel. The songs teeter on the edge, like they might fall apart at any moment (but never do).

Grounders have shared the stage with Alvvays, Born Ruffians, Nap Eyes, Diet Cig, Widowspeak and more. They’ve played festivals including SXSW, CMJ, NXNE, CMW, Sled Island, Rifflandia, Tomorrow Never Knows, and others. Their music has appeared on the soundtrack of the homoerotic indie game Rinse And Repeat and has been played for the studio audience of The Price Is Right. Drew Carey is a fan.



Artist Links

website_flat_2016 facebook_flat_2016 twitter_flat_2016 instagram_flat_2016

Portraits
bringin' itdaniel adamsgroundersportraitspull it over mesecret friendtoronto
bringin' it, daniel adams, grounders, portraits, pull it over me, secret friend, toronto
About the Author
Daniel Adams
Daniel is an illustrator/graphic designer based out of Austin Texas. He graduated from Pratt Institute with a Bachelors degree in Illustration and an Associates degree in Graphic Design.Daniel started his career in graphic design in the world of online casinos. Since then he’s worked with various clients from around the United States and Canada including but not limited to NHL, Subway, Paraco Propane, Pitney Bowes, Xerox, Conduent, Nestle Waters, The Spill Magazine, Stamford CT’s DSSD, Beechnut Baby Foods, Elizabeth Arden and much more.
RELATED ARTICLES
daniel adamsportraitstoronto
 
Mötley Crüe

SPILL ARTIST PORTRAIT BY DANIEL ADAMS: MÖTLEY CRÜE

by Daniel Adams on March 19, 2019
THE SPILL MAGAZINE ARTIST PORTRAIT: MÖTLEY CRÜE Mötley Crüe is The World’s Most Notorious Rock Band. Vince Neil (vocals), Mick Mars (guitar), Nikki Sixx (bass) and Tommy Lee (drums) [...]
 

SPILL ARTIST PORTRAIT BY DANIEL ADAMS: FEVER RAY

by Daniel Adams on March 21, 2018
THE SPILL MAGAZINE ARTIST PORTRAIT: FEVER RAY The solo project of the Knife’s Karin Dreijer, Fever Rayshares some of that group’s icy electronic atmospheres, but takes a [...]
 

SPILL ARTIST PORTRAIT BY DANIEL ADAMS: BJÖRK

by Daniel Adams on March 9, 2018
THE SPILL MAGAZINE ARTIST PORTRAIT: BJÖRK A visionary artist who effortlessly blends avant-garde and pop elements, Björk soon eclipsed the popularity of her former group the [...]
 

SPILL ARTIST PORTRAIT BY DANIEL ADAMS: VAN MORRISON

by Daniel Adams on February 26, 2018
THE SPILL MAGAZINE ARTIST PORTRAIT: VAN MORRISON Equal parts blue-eyed soul shouter and wild-eyed poet-sorcerer, Van Morrison is among popular music’s true innovators, a [...]
 

SPILL ARTIST PORTRAIT BY DANIEL ADAMS: STEVE EARLE

by Daniel Adams on February 15, 2018
THE SPILL MAGAZINE ARTIST PORTRAIT: STEVE EARLE If you ever had any doubt about where Steve Earle’s musical roots are planted, his new collection, So You Wannabe an Outlaw, makes it [...]

Latest Album Reviews
View All
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: VARIOUS ARTISTS – PAY IT ALL BACK VOL. 8
9.0
—
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: FLORENCE + THE MACHINE – DANCE FEVER
10
5.8
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: MASTER BOOT RECORD – PERSONAL COMPUTER
9.0
—
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: FADER – QUARTZ
9.0
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: DIATOM DELI – TIME~LAPSE NATURE
9.0

Tweets by @spillmagazine

SPILL MAGAZINE MENU
  • Home | The Spill Magazine
  • Premieres
  • Track Of The Week
  • Album Reviews
  • Books + Movies
  • Features
  • Live Reviews
  • Festivals
  • Portraits
  • News
  • Events
  • Entertainment Headlines
  • Concert Listings
  • Toronto Concert Venues
  • About Us
  • Contests
  • New Music
  • Spill Magazine Contributors
  • TOTD
  • Privacy Policy
  • The Scene Unseen
  • Newsletter

Copyright © 2022 | The Spill Magazine
All Rights Reserved.

TRENDING RIGHT NOW
   
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: THE BIRTHDAY MASSACRE – FASCINATION
716
 
SPILL FEATURE: CRUISE TO THE EDGE 2022 – THIS YEAR’S PROG CRUISE MAKES A LOT OF NOISE. A WHOLE LOT OF NOISE.
436
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: PRIMUS – CONSPIRANOID
418
 
SPILL FEATURE: DANCE TO THE PERFECT MESS – A CONVERSATION WITH CARL MARSH OF SHRIEKBACK
406
 
SPILL NEWS: BARENAKED LADIES TO RELEASE LIVE TRACKS FROM SOLD-OUT ROYAL ALBERT HALL SHOW | DELUXE EDITION OF ‘DETOUR DE FORCE’ OUT JUNE 3
320
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: MEN WITHOUT HATS – AGAIN (PART 2)
319
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS – UNLIMITED LOVE
312
 
SPILL LIVE REVIEW: JERRY CANTRELL w/ LOLA COLETTE @ HISTORY, TORONTO
282
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: TANGERINE DREAM – RAUM
268
 
SPILL VIDEO PREMIERE: LOST CAT – “L.O.S.T.”
265
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: VR SEX – ROUGH DIMENSION
254
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: PAN AMERICAN – THE PATIENCE FADER
253
 
SPILL NEW MUSIC: VENUS BEMUS RELEASES DEBUT SINGLE “STORMS”
251
ENTERTAINMENT HEADLINES