Never Betters

Never Betters assembled from a variety of others acts, consisting of members of Strange Ways, Wasted Potential, Foam and Grievances. When pushed, the band describe their sound as ‘post-pop-punk’, and though this is a pretty evasive tag, it’s informative in that it suggests a certain discomfort with labels and pigeonholes. Their latest release, Guns + Roses’ Roses is a split with the aforementioned Grievances, out now on Grooves Records Records.

Never Betters kick off the release with the loud and loose ‘Pictures’, a track that throws caution to the wind in favour of cathartic release. The instrumentation rises into noisy spikes, leaving April Romano to scream and shout her vocals behind the tumult. As such, the lyrics are not exactly clear, though the mood and attitude of the track is made obvious through the sheer energy on show.

‘Frustrating Song’ takes a darker, meaner vibe, the guitars squealing ominously behind the crunching drums, while the sharply succinct ‘Better Person’ clocks in at just over a minute of speedy punk. The final Never Betters track, ‘Suffer’, slows the tempo initially, leading to a smouldering energy that soon sparks into life once more. Again the drums and guitars conspire to grab you by the ears and speed off, and Romano’s desperate plea of “I want to you suffer” gets caught up in the squall. - Various Small Flames

Prepare to bounce straight out of your chair to this one, a punchy listen from the Canadian outfit. This is a defiant delivery and one that makes you daydream about being in a rock band. This is an undeniably great song. - Podcart

Never Betters are an Ontario based rock band who are comprised of members of various others bands in the southwestern Ontario punk scene such as Strange Ways, Wasted Potential, Foam, and Grievances. A few weeks ago they released a split single with Grievances that kicks off with their excellent new song “Pictures.”

The single comes charging out the gate with some big guitar riffs and a lavish garage rock sound that feels like a super-charged version of what Snail Mail is doing. It’s got a real big anthemic feel to it with tons of energy that is downright infectious. - We All Want Someone to Shout For

Released on March 16th via Grooves Records’ Records, the Guns + Roses’ Roses split offers eight new tracks; four via London, Ontario-based rockers Grievances and four from pop punkers Never Betters. The album is a nice mix of rock and post-pop punk and can be purchased here.

Recently, we caught up with Never Betters to learn more about their contribution to the split with vocalist April Romano offering a track-by-track overview of the meanings behind her band’s new songs. Check out the “Pictures” music video below and/or stream the full four songs at Bandcamp here.

Speaking of her music, April noted: “All of my songs are very honest letters to myself basically, or people and places that I love or once have loved. I write them to release some emotional pressure, and as a reminder of my strength, as well as in hopes they can do something similar for someone else.” - Pure Grain Audio

Never betters are best described Fizzy, fuzzy, big and buzzy (apologies to The Refreshments, but it’s true.) Killer guitars and soaring vocals male for three-and-a-half minutes of indie gold reminiscent of what was with the UK underground happening in the UK towards the end of the 80s. More, please. - 102.1 The Edge

Never Betters' split release with Grievances titled "Guns + Roses' Roses", is for the most part, a rather rocking release of material from both accounts. Never Betters' single "Pictures", is the opening number, while the following track "Frustrating Song", keeps the energy of the rock n' roll kind alive and well. In other words both tracks, keep the Never Betters act, in check as they got this classy rock style with some elements of punk embedded within, keeping it all vivid and focused. The rest of the split's material like "Better Person" and "Suffer", keep the same momentum with added enthusiasm, as the material prior had done. In the case of Grievances' material, their tracks like "Winona", and "Vampires", for instance, are more pop punk inspired, keeping the energy tight and quite hyper. Their ways of the style of pop punk rock, keeps the music more laid back, but well grounded, it still being very moving yet rocks more than it need be. In short, both acts that is Never Betters and Grievances have put out a split release, that gets the job done, as far as material is concerned. This release that is "Guns + Roses' Roses", is a rather decent piece of work, from both accounts, keeping everything rock solid from start to finish. - Nataliez World

Never Betters are fast, dirty, and filled with the kind of angst and pulsating energy and spirit we can’t help but soak up. The Ontario based post-pop-punk band, who describe themselves as “never fucking better, bud,” have a split EP dropping March 16th with fellow Ontario three-piece Grievances, and today we’re doing an exclusive stream of “Guns + Roses’ Roses” right here for your thirsty ears. Press play and listen.

“It was a bit of serendipity,” says the band of how the EP came about. “We had just booked recording time when we were approached by our good friends Grievances about putting out a split record. We share a bassist (Pat) and guitarist (Dan) between the two bands, so it made sense to work together, having a record put out by the very record shop Dan works at. We picked four out of the six songs from those recording sessions, and Grievances came up with the name of the record as a joke which just stuck. Maybe we’ll get sued.”

Hopefully they don’t. Filled with four killer tracks featuring mainly autobiographical lyrics from their lead singer April exploring cathartic reflections and nostalgia, the record portrays coming of age, addiction, relationships, and heartbreak, “in other words, coming to grips with the loss of youth.” We personally believe there’s no such thing as the loss of youth, but sure, we can relate. Recorded with Simon Larochette at the Sugar Shack, Never Betters produced the album themselves, “our half of it, at least.” Look for these babes touring through Canada in April and May. “The rest of the year,” they tell me, “is a blank canvas we are excited to fill.” –Maya Eslami - What Youth

‘Pictures’ is the new single from Never Betters, a project that features people from other Ontario Punk bands such as Strange Ways, Wasted Potential, Foam and Grievances. All badass band names, and with all these badass elements coming together the result is a track’s QUADRUPLE BADASS. Maths.

For a band that define themselves in order to get out of being defined, Never Betters know how to produce one hell of a fun little track. Thunderously loud, distorted guitars flood the airwaves with a riff that fills the ears with bubblegum pop-punk goodness, while the female vocals wail out to give a good layer of passionate crunch on top. Like a really gross, different Shepherd’s Pie or something. Hmm.

‘Pictures’ is seriously one of the most fun listens I’ve had in a long while, and I look forward to hearing more from this super-group of sorts in Never Betters. - Sounds Good