Ducks Ltd.

Following in the footsteps of the Go-Betweens, Orange Juice, and key players from the Sarah Records roster, Toronto indie pop group Ducks Ltd always put a premium on the bittersweet jangle. After operating for a time under the name Ducks Unlimited, the band shortened their moniker in 2021 to avoid legal action from a wetlands conservation group of the same name. Shortly after the name change, Ducks Ltd reissued their 2019 debut EP, Get Bleak, and quickly followed with their debut full-length, Modern Fiction. They moved from a home-recorded sound to more fleshed out production on their 2024 sophomore effort, Harm's Way. The first material frontman/songwriter Tom McGreevy composed for Ducks Ltd was 2017's "Age of Entertainment," a reverb-heavy song he recorded with bassist/string arranger Paul Erlichman (Germaphobes), violinist Lee Rose (Planet Creature), and backing vocalist Jesse Crowe (Beliefs). The project quickly settled into a bouncier, '80s jangle pop-inspired sound with "It's Easy," released the same year, and McGreevy gelled with Evan Lewis to make the band a duo. Early songs led to opening spots for acts like the Goon Sax and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever as well as Weyes Blood while Mcgreevy and friends worked toward an EP. Ducks Ltd signed with Bobo Integral Records for the resulting Get Bleak, which arrived in late 2019. The record earned effusive praise from a number of publications and caught the ear of Carpark Records, which reissued the EP with three bonus tracks in May 2021. Before the year was up, Ducks Ltd released their first proper full-length album, Modern Fiction. Both Get Bleak and Modern Fiction had been recorded and produced by the band themselves in their Toronto home studio. For their second album, they looked to expand the project's sound both geographically and sonically, travelling to Chicago and opening up their usually insular workflow to a host of collaborators. McGreevy and Lewis worked with producer Dave Vettraino as well as members of Dehd, Ratboys, Lawn, and Dummy. The result was the richer and more detailed sound of their 2024 album, Harm's Way.
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