Four dudes from Dartmouth have spent three years goofing around with folk-punk. Jeff DeCoste (vocals), Ian Rogers (guitar), Nick O’Leary (bass) and Dylan Jewers (drums) started The Odd Socks in high school because bands seemed cool. But playing garage shows in Dartmouth turned into headlining at Jacob’s Lounge, which turned into two albums and small breaks in the Halifax scene. On Friday, the band’s raucous riffs and lyrical sarcasm will power up the release of the 11-track CD, Weekday Blues.
“It’s basically a reunion show because Dylan and Nick have been in Montreal for the last four months,” says DeCoste, the band’s songwriter. Recorded last summer at Echo Chamber, Weekday Blues will be released unmastered, which seems totally appropriate for a band that’s rough around the edges.
“When we started playing in garages, what I was doing seemed pretty tame compared to the screeching that was going on,” says DeCoste, whose gravel singing voice is as gritty as the band’s themes. Songs about shitty dishwashing jobs, walking the bridge back to Dartmouth after midnight and girls thinking you’re an a-hole are some of the true things that casual poet DeCoste likes to write about.
“Things people can relate to, everyone’s had a job they hate,” he says. “And I don’t like to consider myself a dirtbag, but sometimes someone will call you a terrible man and that becomes a song.”
Playing an uncountable number of shows at Jacob’s was great practice for The Odd Socks, even though “only eight or nine of those were really good,” Rogers says, laughing. Still, the band has a significant following: sweaty people love to scream the double vocals and anthem refrains as loud as possible.
Drawing comparisons to The Dead Milkmen and in some measure The Violent Femmes, The Odd Socks blend Portland Street folk and basement punk into catchy, locally themed bites of reality.
“My celebrity crush is Larry David. He gives a shit about everything,” says DeCoste, who also cares as much, despite the band’s drive to have fun. “We clearly don’t play for money,” jokes Rogers.
Odd Socks w/The Cannisters, The Scoop Outs, The .gifs, Gun Club cover band
Friday, June 28, 10pm, Jacob’s Lounge, 106 Portland Street, Free
This article appears in Jun 27 – Jul 3, 2013.