Music Beat
Los Angeles/ Hamilton alt country/ folk trio Elliott Brood are excited to return to one of their favourite Canadian cities, Lethbridge for a sold out show at the Owl Acoustic Lounge with Starpainter, but overall, they are just excited to have survived 20 years as an indie rock band in Canada.
"Any time we are within a couple hundred miles, we come to Lethbridge,” said frontman Mark Sasso from Hamilton.
“ I can say that some of the the craziest rock and roll stories, not that I can tell them, but they happened in that town. The stuff that happened, happened in that town. A lot of it did. It was a fun time. The world survival does come up a few times when I think of Lethbridge nights,” said Casey Deforet who plays guitar, vocals and bass pedals, adding he is working on a song about the Tongue n Groove and owner Corey Brough about those experiences.
“We’re always excited to be back in to Lethbridge. It has a special place in our heart,” Sasso said.
“Any time we can go back there we will. We love it. A great crowd who always support live music. At least they do for us,” Deforet said.
We can always count on it being full and energetic so it’s great for us as a band to come to a place like that repeatedly and have the same energy all the time . And I think we’ve played every venue in that town over the years. I’m pretty sure, even as one offs. The Slice obviously was our home for many years and the Tongue N Groove and now the Owl seems to be the place to be sort of leading the live music thing right now.”
“And South Country Fair and the fairgrounds,” added Stephen Pitckin, who plays suitcases, percussion and adds vocals.
The trio have been playing together for 20 years.
“We’re coming out for the Wapiti Festival and we were like ‘hey we wanted to play another show while we were out there’ and they obliged us so we added an extra show on,” Laforet said.
Elliott Brood have been playing Lethbridge since they started, as Lethbridge was the first place they played after leaving Toronto for the first time.
“It may be the town we’ve played the most out of any Canadian city. It’s still up there other than Toronto, it’s been the city we’ve played the most. The crowds have always been good, always full ,” Sasso said.
“The last time there was the first time at the Owl which is a great new venue for Lethbridge to have. It’s nice to be back there,” said Laforet, noting they played the Owl last year.
They have busy recording a lot of new songs for two new EPS/ albums, to be released at the end of this year and at the beginning of next year.
“ Yeah, we recorded a whole bunch of songs,” said Pitckin, from Elliott Brood’s Hamilton studio, where he is putting the finishing touches on the EPS.
“ We started demoing them just after the pandemic and the recording for a little while and we’re just finishing up . I was just in the studio today touching up the mixes and it will be two EPS,” Pitckin, continued.
“ I don’t even think they’re EPs really. They’re eight songs each. One of them has eight songs and the other has nine. They’re not EPs per se. They’re fully realized albums, ” Sasso observed.
“Technically they’re two halves of one album called Town and Country so we split it up into the town and the country sides to try something different. It’s basically one idea split into two servings,” Laforet said.
“Nothing has been released yet. I think the first song comes out in a couple weeks,” Sasso said.
“The first half starts coming out in September. Physically it doesn’t come out until later October or early November. And the other portion comes out next May. So it’s a wide release,” Laforet said.
“ We’ve been playing a lot of it live anyway as we always do, so hopefully anyone who sees us play a bunch will know all the songs by the time they are able to buy them,” Sasso said, adding he is excited to have new music coming out.
“ It always seems to be three years, but it is just always too long. And it always nice to put new stuff out, but it always seems to take three years and I don’t know why,” he continued.
“ Maybe we can shorten that. As we get older maybe we can shorten that problem” Laforet added.
“ But it’s always nice to release new music. It’s always fun it keeps as moving, it keeps us interested,” Sasso said.
“It’s been received pretty well live so far too, which is always nice, talking to people who are hearing it for the first time. I think they like it, ” Pitckin said, adding they are looking forward to playing the new songs for Lethbridge and putting on a hot, sweaty show.
“There’s still elements of what we always try to do is make everyone sweaty and dance. But I think there’s a little bit more of an element. We are playing a few more slower things these days. Slowing it down for a little section, ” Pitckin said.
