FemBots

Straight out of Toronto, the FemBots have carved out a post-industrial folk-rock space in the Canadian music scene that is all their own. What began as a home-recording project using power tools and various broken-down thrift store finds, founding members Dave MacKinnon and Brian Poirier recorded a their debut, Mucho Cuidado, in 2000.

With the release of their second album, Small Town Murder Scene in 2003, the pair added traditional instruments and expanded the breadth of their repertoire with soulful laments to much acclaim. And with the follow-up, The City, in 2005, the FemBots solidified their place in the Canadian indie folk-rock scene. And with the release of their fourth album, Calling Out, this year, the FemBots wanted to return to their original inspiration of music made entirely from junkyard scraps. However, after this concept proved to be difficult, they left the use of junkstruments, made by Iner Souster, solely as rhythm tracks. The now trio, also added a fourth member in drummer Nathan Lawr. This album is the first time that MacKinnon and Poirier have collaborated with other musicians in every step of the writing process, and the result is a comprehensive pop-rock album made with strange instruments and colored with the band’s influences of soul, blues, country, folk, and rock.

A listen to the lead single “Good Days” off the new album, and you begin to hear the richness and rawness the junkstruments add to the more melodic accompaniment. Drawing comparisons to Wilco and My Morning Jacket, the FemBots’ sound is both grimy, garage rock as it is folky and bluegrass. “My Hands Are a City” and “Can I Be Your Mirror” show off the band’s strong songwriting skills by pairing very intricate, imagery-inducing lyrics with simplistic, almost predictable but never contrived, melodies.