The Perms - Sofia Nights

 

The Perms. Well I was pretty excited to find out there was a band called The Perms. All the images came flooding back, of sitting in a hairdressing salon in 1987 watching scary things being done to my mothers head whilst inhaling fumes that I can only assume have affected my mind to the level of sanity I am blessed with today. For some reason the music I imagined was a bit more cheesy than the music actually produced by this band.

So who are The Perms? Well they happen to be a 3-piece from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada; Shane, Chad and John. Wholesome names indeed. On their website they’re described as “alt-rock” and I’m not about to disagree with that. Being in Australia, I’d never heard of The Perms up until a couple of weeks ago. So I can't compare their album, Sofia Nights, with any of their previous four albums: Keeps You Up When You're Down (2009); Better Days (2005); Clark Drive (2002); and Tight Perm (1998). I'd like to think they're quite popular in Canada. Maybe someone can confirm for me.

Sofia Nights is not a bad album. Ten songs in total, fairly standard pop-esque rock songs; guitar, bass, drums.... with a spot of keyboard thrown in here and there. None of the tracks stood out above the others, but there were a couple of moments when some catchy phrases popped out. You should probably know that, yes, Sofia Nights has passed the “housework soundtrack” test; it’s excellent to vacuum the carpet to.

The Perms sound like they’d be an excellent pub band. So buy a beer and go hunt them down (probably best wait to you find them before you buy that beer actually). It appears they dont have any shows coming up in the near future, but keep your eyes on their website for details: http://thepermsmusic.com. In fact, if you join their mailing list you get a free mp3 of High School High off of Sofia Nights.

thepermsmusic.com

twitter.com/theperms

youtube.com/user/ThePermsBand

Sally

sally@weheartmusic.com