Pow Wows

One of the mainstays of the Toronto garage rock scene, the Pow Wows like their music fast, loud, and atmospheric, giving their tunes a buzzy, swampy tone and a psychedelic overlay that sets them apart from other fuzzbox manglers following similar paths. The Pow Wows came together in 2010, with Juarez (aka Chris McCann) on guitar, vocals, and percussion, Rocky (aka Ryan Rothwell) on bass and vocals, and Coz (aka Matt Cosgrove) on drums. After making a name for themselves as one of the wildest bands on the Toronto scene, they cut a lo-fi album in their practice space and released it on cassette as Nightmare Soda. When the Pow Wows played a show opening for Pittsburgh garage rock legends the Cynics, they passed along a copy of Nightmare Soda to the group's lead singer, Gregg Kostelich. Kostelich liked what he heard and struck a deal to reissue the album on Get Hip, the underground rock label he'd been running since 1985. As the Pow Wows continued to hone their live act, they cut a pair of singles for Get Hip -- 2012's "Killing Me" b/w "No. 13" and 2013's "Shock Corridor" b/w "First World Rag." A cassette-only live set, Bent Out of Shape, was issued by Bruised Tongue Records in 2013, and the Pow Wows expanded to a quartet with the addition of Screamin' Jay Lemak on keyboards. The band's long-awaited second studio album, Broken Curses, was released in the spring of 2015.
© Mark Deming /TiVo