DD/MM/YYYY come home(-ish)

Toronto's DD/MM/YYYY are making a triumphant return to Halifax Saturday April 4 (an early show at 2627 Connolly Street with Bloodhouse and Pig, $5, all ages. Later show at Gus’ Pub with Tomcat Combat and Glory Glory Man United. $6). Their shows last summer (with Baltimore’s Video Hippos) were explosive and engaging. Their new album, Black Square, was released March 17 (digitally on February 17), and marks a bit of a shift for the band, as it may be their most mature album to date. They describe it as having “an inherent seriousness that may have evaded previous releases.” Moshe Rozenberg explains, “It’s not intentionally more mature, it's just less ADD. We're more comfortable playing and recording in places that aren't our practice space, and we were choosier this time, pickier with the songs. We took the time to choose which songs were good enough. Also we're not the cleanest guys so it took us a while to feel comfortable in a space that was so clean" (referencing their recording studio). Hygiene aside, DD/MM/YYYY are also known for their extensive tour schedules, pairing them recently with METZ and Don Caballero. Rozenberg says of this particular two-month jaunt, "It’s been the most tiring tour so far, because we've been playing two shows a day sometimes. And it was based around SXSW which was also tiring. We played 11 shows (at SXSW), and we were actually aiming higher, for 13, but 11 is sufficient, I guess" Despite their obvious wanderlust, the group is pleased to be returning to the great white north. "We have a strong attachment to Canada and it feels like we've drifted away from that a bit because there are so many cities in the States and we've been playing in the States a lot, so playing Halifax feels like a bit of a homecoming, even though we’re from Toronto." Awww.