Long Weekends is gaining ground fast. Comprised of guitarist/vocalist Noel Macdonald, drummer Adam Hartling and bass player Devin Peck, the band recorded its first EP, Warmer Weather, at Echo Chamber just a month after getting together and released it earlier this month. “We didn’t want to start playing shows until our music came out.”
“It came together really fast,” Macdonald says. “I was in a punk band with Devin last summer,” and the two already had some songs put together. Although Macdonald liked them, he thought they needed some changes. The band folded. Macdonald moved to Montreal and started listening to a lot of ’80s post-punk like The Chameleons and The Smiths, which inspired the transformation. “I took all these fast songs and slowed them down,” he says, which helped to push his music toward a more experimental sound.
When he returned to Halifax, Macdonald hooked up with Hartling and Peck. “I write all the riffs and lyrics and then we collaborate as a band,” he says. With a strong bassline and buried vocals, the garage-pop songs poke fun at some of the rude people Macdonald has met. “A lot of the songs are about being wound up,” he says, so the band’s name makes for a nice contrast. “You need a break from that once in awhile,” he says—as much as they like to play, they like to relax, too. “It’s a great juxtaposition,” he says. “And who doesn’t love a long weekend?”
While the trio isn’t looking for fame and fortune, Macdonald hopes it continues to record and play a lot of shows. “We’re pretty old and settled into our careers, we just want to make music we love,” he says. “We’re all just really happy to be playing.”
Long Weekends w/Dog Day, Homo Duplex and Pastoralia
Saturday, March 26 at The Khyber ICA, 1588 Barrington Street
9pm, $TBA
This article appears in Mar 24-30, 2011.
Free download of Warmer Weather EP at longweekends.bandcamp.com