Shelf Lives was featured on Line of Best Fit yesterday morning. I’ve listened to the new single so many times that I can’t believe that yesterday was the release day for it. This is the new song “Where Did I Go?”:

I didn’t know of them before, but after hearing that single I’ve been spending almost every available moment listening to their stuff. I can’t get enough of it. I can’t believe they haven’t crossed my radar until now. Going back through their catalogue, every song hits me like I should have featured it here.

So I guess we start with what’s new. There are two members in Shelf Lives: Toronto-born Sabrina Di Giulio and Jonny Hillyard, a Brit. Yesterday they announced the October 23 release date for their new EP No Idea. The song above is the second single from it. The prior one, “Uncle Fred”, was released earlier this year, and it’s somehow even more high-energy:

The comparisons are tempting: part Lip Filler, part DFA 1979, part Sleigh Bells, maybe a little Japandroids. But Shelf lives are not really like any of those at all. Pure energy and creativity. In this NME interview from early last year, Jonny describes the music this way:

Definitely like all the worst parts of society with ice cream in one hand, and a gun in the other. You don’t have to reach far to find something hilariously wrong with society, we just say how it really is; and we’re definitely going to dive into that more lyrically.

The interview is a great read. You should check it out.

Their performance chops are real. This video is pretty great — it’s a small venue and the stage is a pretty small island in the middle. The pair is spellbinding throughout, even if the crowd is weirdly subdued. I put this on while I was supposed to do something else, and the other thing never got done:

In the NME article above, Jonny also says this:

Sabrina is a filter for what is shit and what is not. So she’s definitely there 100 per cent of the time to filter through that. She has such a good ear, I’ve really respected her ear for a long time. And then we both work on the lyrics together.

Killer stuff. They’re on the European festival circuit right now. I hope they add a hometown show for Sabrina on the tour for the EP.

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