JANITORS

4. Janitors (Toronto, Ontario)
Art garage duo Janitors are about as strange as it comes. Hailing from Toronto, these guys are enjoying themselves warping the minds of Torontonians and creating an odd and original blend of garage, reverb and underlying political themes (as you can hear on “Ode to the First Nations”). They were a big hit at last years NXNE, and say they have a lot in store for 2014 including a new recording. Check them out at www.janitorstoronto.bandcamp.com . - My Freakin' Ears

Performance: With hundreds of acts playing dozens of venues, you’d think it would be pretty much imposssible for there to be a dead spot in the NXNE schedule. Yet at least once a festival, we find ourselves looking at our smartphones saying, “I don’t really want to see any of this shit.” While most people would take this as a welcome chance to get some food, we just chose a band at random at hoped for the best.

In this case, we lucked out. The boiler-suit-and-Zorro mask-clad Janitors are the latest in the great Torontonian tradition of unbelievably loud two-person bands. They play high-energy, thrashy garage-punk with thoroughly bizzare lyrics. If we knew we were going to like them this much, we probably would have planned to see them.

Best Moment: Their stage banter, which consisted almost entirely of yelling “Janitors suck” in between songs.

Miscellaneous: They have a song called “This is Not a Song About Oscar Pistorius.”

Verdict: They’re still a work in progress, but what they lack in polish, they more than make up for in charisma and fun. - The Torontoist

“From the first chord, I was captivated by how the scratching and squealing of the guitar meshed perfectly with the frantic pounding of the drums. Janitors have captured the essence of early punk blended with overtones of post-punk/noise rock.” - Bucketlist Reviews

Canadian garage-rockers JANITORS’ brilliant My Stupid Girlfriend Hates Christmas is self-consciously overblown and stupid, and manages to capture all the drunken delight that you really associate with the festive season in just under two minutes of bells, la-la-las and scuzzy guitars. It’s “elfpunk” – as their soundcloud calls it – at its finest, and it does a good job of sending up all the grandiosity you tend to find in poorer yuletide tracks whilst simultaneously retaining at least some musical merit of its own. Check it out below, and watch for the knowingly ridiculous repetition of “Christmas” in a bombastic, pseudo-operatic voice about midway through. - Sexbeat

Toronto has suddenly gotten quite a bit noisier. Channeling 70s punk in a wash of heavy, distorted guitars and quick tempos, Janitors are attempting to carve a niche in the noise-rock genre. “Yard Sale” is aggressive. “Gonna have a yard sale/Sell everything in my head,” are the opening lines. The song is like the form of therapy where one just takes out all their anger by screaming and flailing around (although the song is obviously a little more organized than the image suggests. Download - GrayOwl Point Music

I can’t tell you how many new synthpop bands I’ve heard of this year, but I can tell you that there are significantly more of them than there were two years ago. On the other side of the coin, I could probably count on one hand how many garage-rock bands have made it through the blogosphere to my ears this year. It’s not a bizarre phenomenon, either. Garage-rock bands have been around ever since the beginning of rock and roll, but synths have only been around for so long. And with the technology of this day and age and the advent of distribution platforms such as Bandcamp and Soundcloud, it seems easy for anyone with a song in his or her heart and a synthesizer in his or her bedroom to record an album and have it heard by millions.

If on the other hand you want to make garage rock in this day and age, it’s much harder. You need a garage and at least one friend, you need to be able to coordinate, and you have a much longer history of generic garage rock from which you must distinguish yourself. You do, however, have the advantage of distinguishing yourself from the overabundance of bedroom synthpop, and if you’re really good at what you do, it can work wonders. R.E.M. found fame and fortune playing pure power pop when everybody else was riding the New Wave, The Antlers were showered with praise for their heart-tugging balladry when so many were riding the Chill Wave, and now Toronto’s Janitors have earned my adoration for their unhinged brand of lo-fi psych-rock

“Your Son” is a refreshing listening experience unlike any other I’ve had this year. In the span of just under three minutes, Janitors manage to evoke the driving energy of the Ramones, the wackiness of Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart, and the care-free spirit of a Nuggets compilation album. The band manages to cram so much exuberance into every single strum and silly syllable, it’s hard not to shout along with the raucous refrain of “Your son is a nun/ And he ain’t having no fun.” Unlike the titular son, though, Janitors are having shit-tons of fun playing their music, and I’m having similar shit-tons of fun listening to it. They have but a single page on Soundcloud and but a single follower in yours truly, so I beseech you: If you ain’t having no fun with that billionth boring bedroom-pop album you’ve bought, put on Janitors, and listen to them absolutely (wait for it) wipe the floor with it. - BeatsPerMinute

This new Lo-fi garage punk duo has been keeping themselves busy with several single releases in the past few months, building up the hype among the music review outlets, including Snob T.O.

Their latest single release is called, Party Time! As the title indicates, Janitors know how to party with their head-banging garage punk tune! Give it a listen! - Music Psychos