The New Town Animals

Long past its due date. Currently Nick and Alex are playing as the Split Singles, Stevie Kicks is touring the world as a Brief, and Jeff and Bryce are playing in the Tranzmitors. So go check em all out.

This is very old, but what the hell, i'll leave it for ya to read-

It's a shame, really, that the notorious late '70s punk band the Dead Boys have already permanently claimed the title "Young, Loud And Snotty", because, really, it is the best possible description for Mint's latest, The New Town Animals.

Hailing from Vancouver, and often buried under piles of vintage punk vinyl, the New Town Animals are about youthful discovery of a sound many of us weren⧠around to enjoy the first time. NTA influences include relative punk obscurities like the Toy Dolls, Stiff Little Fingers and the Forgotten Rebels. It's been said that the New Town Animals are like a "junior Smugglers" (their [much] older label-mates), but the NTAs really have much more of a vintage Brit-punk sound, and for once that ain't a fake "punk" accent! Nick, the lead singer, is originally from England!

Mint fans may recall seeing guitarist Jeffy McCloy's unbridled energy destroying a bass guitar or two while subbing in for a rapidly aging bassist Beez on recent Smugglers tours. Jeffy also has a massive vinyl collection, and although just in his mid-twenties, he has been collecting rare punk gems since his formative teenage years in the hockey hot-bed of Kamloops BC. What can we say, he picked up a guitar instead of a hockey stick. Mint's gain is the Kamloops Blazers' loss.

The New Town Animals were originally formed in 1998 from the ashes of punk rock bands Grave Mistake and Spleen by Nick, Steve (bass) and Alex (guitar) in the Vancouver suburb of Abbotsford. One year later, Chucky (drums) from Jetset and the aforementioned Jeffy joined the group to create VancouverⳠlatest young rock ⮢ roll tornado. As could be guessed, their live shows are punk rock thunder ? proven by their performances with the Forgotten Rebels, the Briefs, Supersuckers, Murder City Devils, the Makers, the Smugglers.

Both of the songs on their debut 7" were recorded at Vancouver's rock 'n' roll hit factory, JC/DC, and were engineered by John Collins (New Pornographers / Evaporators) and David Carswell (Smugglers / Evaporators) ?ile the album was recorded by Jesse from d.b.s.'s at Ernie from Wrong recording artists Removal's studio, Big Midget. Local impressio Todd Simko did up the mastering together with Jesse.

Expect the New Town Animals to put out lots of records (their album is release #3 so far ), get into a van (they went on their first cross-Canada sprint in March/April, and will be back out on the road in August) and not get out until they tour the world. They're just about young, loud, and snotty enough to really do it!