Blessed Stream Self-Titled EP via IMPOSE Magazine

Blessed EP Due Out May 20th
Canadian Tour Dates Announced

photo credit: Jaimi Wainright

LISTEN TO THE BLESSED EP

“Check out Blessed -amazing new post-punk band from Canada” – Purity Ring
“…a disjointed multi-part adventure, post-punk blown out to a prog-rock scope. Each hard-hitting, rhythmically heavy segment is topped off by jagged guitar lines and, as the band explains, some stabs at heartfelt communication” – Stereogum
“Blessed’s sound is weird, noisy and harsh, drawing from surf, rock and post-punk in equal measure.” – Noisey
“The gamut of emotions covered in their debut self-titled EP range from calm and at-ease to sympathetic, to hopeful, to panic-stricken, and everything in between, and it can change at the drop of a pin.” – Impose

Blessed are sharing the premiere of their upcoming self titled EP today with IMPOSE Magazine. Due out this coming Friday, May 20th, the Vancouver based post-punk band’s debut is filled with knotted riffs and crushing dynamics, it’s a wild ride from start to finish. Their music is intricate and hard to pin down, it shifts left when you imagine it will go right, and while the band have already shared “Waving Hand” and “Feel” (the bookends of their record), “Cop” and “Repossess” offer another look into their brilliant chameleon approach to art punk.
“Cop” is perhaps the record’s most “pop” moment, a tangled blast of bubble gum hooks and hard wound structures with loose vocals that go from woozy croon to emphatic shouts without warning. The bold and airy nature of the melody combined with the song’s heavier subject matter are reminiscent of Ought meets Sheer Mag. “Repossess” rides a hard hitting post-punk groove, evolving as the verses give way into free form experimentation before the stampeding hook. It’s exuberant and well defined. Blessed are making gorgeous music that demands your full attention, and the sonic pay off is worth every penny. One of the year’s most impressive debuts, Blessed are creating something special, making art punk with an emphasis on the “art”.
Speaking about the EP, IMPOSE shared:
“The four songs are founded in punk, incorporating thick, thumping rhythm sections into creative, and creatively placed guitar leads. The compositions are unpredictable, but all characteristically pleasing … Melodies are longing and pretty, surrounded by elements of melancholy and eerie harshness. When things quiet down and the guitar work is most intricate, the curiosity is ever building. When a chord is struck, it’s very much a kick in the teeth. The Vancouver quartet exits your life just a abruptly and effectively as it enters, leaving you to analyze and question every feeling felt over the course of the record, which is probably a lot.”

ABOUT BLESSED:

Blessed are a new heavy post-punk band that branches into territories including noise and psych, with clean interweaving intricate guitar lines, reaching out from influences including Ought to Interpol to Can. The quartet’s members have been involved in the Fraser Valley music scene, anchored by You Say Party, Teen Daze, and Juno nominated metal act Ancients, for over a decade. While the individual members of the band have toured Canada, the United States, and Europe while supporting artists such as Said the Whale and KEN Mode, Blessed marks a new beginning. Drew Riekman (GSTS!, Oh No! Yoko) and Reuben Houweling (Open Letters, GSTS!) have come together with Jake Holmes (Little Wild) and Mitchell Trainor (Casinos) to collaborate on Blessed, a band the guys believe will surpass anything the four have done individually or together, both in depth of songwriting and strength of performance.
With the past year behind them, Blessed completed three Western Canadian tours on the strength of a 7″ single released by Kingfisher Bluez that included opening for critically acclaimed acts such as The Isotopes, The Courtney’s, and Canadian darlings The Wet Secrets. The band’s debut EP is set to take them across Canada and the United States in 2016 for a massive run of over 100 shows by years end. Supporting a debut EP that is full of sharp staccato, anxiety ridden guitar, ambient passages, and left field time signature shifts, Blessed bounce between breezy, overwhelmingly heavy, and dissonant over the course of the four songs, recorded by Curtis Buckoll of Rain City Recorders (White Lung, Japandroids, Baptists). With obsessive attention to detail, rowdy live performances, and four members driven to play anywhere and everywhere possible, the ambition to spread out to anyone who will have them has never been stronger, and is growing still.
UPCOMING SHOWS:
05/19 –  Winnipeg, MB @ Sad Boys Club
05/20 – Thunder Bay, ON @ The Apollo
05/21 – Saulte Ste Marie, ON @ The New American
05/22 – Windsor, ON @ Phog Lounge
05/23 – London, ON @ Old East Bar
05/25 – Hamilton, ON @ This Ain’t Hollywood
05/26 – Guelph, ON @ DSTRCT
05/27 – Toronto, ON @ The Central
05/28 – Montreal, QB @ Poisson Noire
05/29 – Fredericton, NB @ Charlotte Arts Center
05/31 – Saint John, NB @ Callahan’s Pub w/ Casper Skulls
06/01 – Moncton, NB @ Claude’s House w/ Casper Skulls
06/02 – Charlottetown, PE @ Sportsman’s
06/03 – Halifax, NS @ Gus’s Pub
06/04 – Montreal, QC @ Bad Lunch
06/07 – Peterborough, ON @ The Spill
06/08 – Kingston, ON @ The Artel 100%
06/09 – Ajax, ON
06/10 – Toronto, ON @ D Beatstro
06/11 – Sudbury, ON @ The Asylum
06/12 – Kenora, Ontario @ Lakehouse
06/13 – Winnipeg, ON @ The Handsome Daughter
06/14 – Saskastoon, SK @ Barf House
06/16 – Calgary, Alberta @ Tubby Dog
06/17 – Letbridge, AB
06/18 – Edmonton, AB @ The Alley
06/19 – Vernon, BC
06/24 – Victoria, BC @ Wheelie’s Motorcycles
06/25 – Nanaimo, BC @ The Vault

Blesed is due out May 20th.

BLESSED
“Blessed”
Self Released
May 20, 2016
1. Waving Hand
2. Cop
3. Repossess
4. Feel

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