Spanky Revolution (Band)

Spanky Revolution is a punk and alternative band formed in Montréal, Québec in 2006. The lineup consists of Étienne on drums, Eric on bass, Steve on guitar and John on guitar. The members of the band also manage Cookies & Biscuits Records, where all of their albums have been released since 2009. Starting as a garage punk band, Spanky Revolution has included elements of ska, hard rock, electronic, emo, noise rock, pop and college rock through their career. The band is now considered mostly an alternative rock band.

After the release of Tempête Écarlate, Spanky Revolution made a couple of shows and went on hiatus at the end of 2012. The band reformed in late 2013 and released its fifth album named Heart Bloom, in early 2016.

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Early days
Spanky Revolution was founded by Étienne and Eric, two childhood friends from a suburb of Quebec City. The two guys were already making music together as a duo with Étienne on drums and Eric on guitar during their teenage years but both had to take different directions because of school. In 2006, the two guys reunited in Montreal as they went to the same University. They decided to form a band once again and Étienne asked Steve, a college friend with whom he tried to start a band few years prior, to join them. The trio started playing a lot of shows in and around Montréal and Québec City. In 2008, the band released their first demo album to college radios. The album was also available in shows, but it is now extremely rare. The first song of the demo, Snowstorm, became a college radio hit.

The same year, Spanky Revolution played its biggest gig yet as they opened for the last show of California Ska-Punk and Weedz at the Vana's, in Laval. The band met guitarist John backstage, who was impressed by their intensity and their ferocity. The show also impressed Music First Records, who decided to sign them on their label for a one album deal. Few weeks later, the band Weedz broke up due to internal tensions and John went to detox.

Tonight Is the Night and C&BR
In early 2009, Spanky Revolution started the work on their first album. John, from Weedz, was invited to appear as a guest guitarist for several songs. Meanwhile, Eric traded his guitar for a bass, in an attempt to give more depth to the sound of the band. The recording sessions proved difficult as the producer, Ryan Cambridge, wanted the band to make something "more radio-friendly". The band took several breaks and kept making shows. They invited John to join them on stage to play some new songs and eventually, it was decided that he would be part of the band full-time. To make the wait easier for their fans, the band released two more demo albums, SnR and Here Comes the Revolution independently. All songs from both albums were recorded before John came with the band. Both demos became college radio stations favorites and spanned several minor hit singles, including a re-release of Snowstorm, Sleepless and Here Comes the Revolution. The band toured the American East Coast for the first time in the summer and played a short Canadian tour in September and October.

In November, since the band was going nowhere in the studio, Music First Records agreed to let the band out of their contract. In an interview with POM Magazine, Étienne said: "It was such a relief to be free from these guys. The producer they chose for us was just not who we needed and had no idea what to do with us. In two words, they fucked. In three, they fucked hard." As soon as they managed to get out of their label, Étienne created, alongside Leoshi, Cookies & Biscuits Records. The band then re-released both SnR and Here Comes the Revolution on their new label.

During the holidays, Étienne started also working on a new project of electronic music. When he came back to the band in January, the guys decided to help him record, in a proper way, the twelve tracks. The result was Tonight Is The Night and it was released in April 2010 on their new label. While it was the first official release of the band since John came in, the guys stressed that it wasn't their first album. On their Facebook page, they explained: Tonight Is the Night is a fun experiment, but while everyone in the band contributed on it and it has our name on it, it is not really our first album. We are still working really hard on it and you should be able to touch that new CD (or that new vinyl!) earlier than you think!"

Racing the Sunset and We Won't Die
During Spring, the band spent loads of time in studio to record their first official album. On March 30th, the band announced that the album would be name Racing the Sunset after one of their songs. The track was later scrapped from the album, but the title stayed. The band embarked on a West Coast tour in May and played in several festivals during the summer. The album was finally released in September 2010 to mixed reviews. Many felt that the album was too long, had too many filler tracks, was all over the place and lacked music theory. Two music videos were made to promote the album, including one for Chromatic Milkshake, the biggest hit of RTS.

After the deceiving response, the band went right back in the studio to record a new album. In a tumblr Q&A about the album, the band said "with We Won't Die we basically [wanted] to right the wrongs and start off from scratch. That album was embarrassing and it's a shame that it's only once it was released that we realized how big of a mess it was." Because the band wanted to release the new album as quickly as possible, it barely toured Racing the Sunset, meaning that even as of today, about a third of the songs from the album have never been performed live. The band members instead focused on songwriting, after spending "much time on Racing the Sunset just trying things and basically keeping the first ideas we had".

At the end of November, Spanky Revolution released a new single, Snow On Manhattan (Never Drop My Hand) to critical acclaim. Many critics said that the song showed a giant step forward in terms of maturity and praised the change in style. The same day, it was announced that Spectre was to be featured on the new album. On January 1st 2011, the new album We Won't Die was released. A music video for Riot was made to coincide with the single's release in February. The video showed concert footage from various shows in late December/January and featured cameos from Spectre, Hello Sunrise, Suicide by Spoon, 1st Assault, Giant O' Mine and Rofl Monster. The single became the band's biggest hit, reaching the top 10 in Canada and UK prompting the band to appear on Top of the POMs. Anthem was released as the album's last single and also managed to chart in several countries.

Poneycore
While touring We Won't Die, the band was already thinking about the release of their next album. The band was said to have started writing songs for the follow-up "while We Won't Die was still on its way to the presses". Effectively, two tracks that appeared on the next album first appeared in demo versions as B-Sides on WWD singles, namely, Die Young and Save Yourself (on Riot) and Loverdose (on Anthem). In April 2011, Spanky Revolution took a break from touring to record most of the tracks for what would become Poneycore. For this album, the band imagines "poneycore" as being a new music style, namely a bold and bright twist on hard rock and punk. The name of the album comes from a discussion the band had with tourmates Suicide by Spoon about the "ridiculous amount of -core styles". While the band was recording the new album, it decided to release a new EP, created with songs recorded earlier the previous summer in the same manner as ''Tonight Is The Night. You Won't Know'' was released exactly one year after its parent album on April 2011 to great reviews.

While recording the album, the band invited several of their friends over to jam with them. As a result, Poneycore features more guest artists than any other album released at that point. One of them, Spectre, had already appeared on the C&BR Awards nominated collab Tout Doit Brûler on We Won't Die, providing the bridge. This time, both bands worked actively in the songwriting and recording process, to a point when "it's impossible to know who did what on here", according to Étienne. The result was the song Tout Droit Vers la Mort, which would go on to win the C&BR Award for "Collab of the Year".

Poneycore was finally released on June 30th 201. In anticipation of the album, the band released Prove 'Em Wrong as the lead single. A music video for Loverdose was posted on YouTube the week before the album release. Both songs peaked inside the top 40 in Canada. Tout Droit Vers la Mort and I Hope You Were Thinking About Me When You Forgot Your Seatbelt And Crossed The Windshield (Often shortened to "...Windshield") were also released as singles. A music video was filmed for the latter but was never completed.

Tempête Écarlate and hiatus
While the band was satisfied with the release of Poneycore, everyone in the band agreed to take a new direction, a new approach for the next album. Regarding the project, Étienne said: "To me, Poneycore is almost a concept album and I think that the timing is perfect to write an actual concept album now". The band first started writing the song Lips Like Cancer and intended to make a ballad-oriented album, but found itself in a dead end. In October, seeing as the album had little to no progress, a Best Of compilation was released, including Lips Like Cancer as the only new single.

After writing a few songs in early November, the band headed to a cabin in the woods for three weeks during the 2012 Winter to record the bulk of the album. The four guys barely saw anyone during that period, helping them to create both moments of unity and friction. The band came back with a total of 20 hours of music from which they chose what they felt were the best parts. They then headed back home to Cookies & Biscuits Basements to rerecord the entirety of the album. Aside from a short cameo by Spectre on the last song, no collaborations were made on the album.

By the time the album was complete, the members of Spanky Revolution agreed to take an indefinite break after the release of the album to pursue different projects and saw the new album as the final album they would make.

In August, Speak White  was released as the first single, along with a music video, which featured close shots and kaleidoscopic effects. Both the song and the video were well received by critics and the track topped several rock charts and became a top 40 hit in UK.

On September 4th, 2012, Tempête Écarlate was released on both Cookies & Biscuits Records and POM Records. This move was made because the members were both putting a halt to the band and the record label and they feared that by doing so, it would undermine the chance for the album to receive adequate promotion afterwards. Despite initial great reviews, the album sold less than Poneycore in its first few months, especially because of its less commercial sound. Because of its length, the promotional single Here Comes The Revolution III received minimal airplay, despite critical acclaim. This being said, the album would go on to stay a steady seller and with time, it became regarded by both critics and fans as the best Spanky Revolution album.

Heart Bloom
In November 2013, over one year after its initial break, Spanky Revolution came back for a show at the legendary Vana's, exactly five years after the show that first united them. During the set, the band premiered a new song called Rendez-Vous and told the crowd that they were back together for the long run now and that they wanted to release a new album in 2014. While touring in a very sparse schedule, the band took its time to record and rerecord demos of their tracks in various versions. They would then send the tapes to several other bands and friends for second advice or simply as gifts. In January, the band managed to bring 5 different bands to write and record a new song, called Clique. The song was subsequently leaked on the Internet. The same month, the band was featured on Hystory's song Bleed Over Me.

The band took a break from recording in spring and summer 2014 and came back for more shows in fall. When asked about the break, Eric said "we are still looking forward to release a new album and we know our fans are waiting for this, but we are in a situation where we can take our time, where we don't need to release the album ASAP. We are having fun doing shows and we have some very interesting projects coming as well!" In November, the band launched Crispy Singles, a label aimed at releasing singles. In March 2015, work on the album started again and the band published the first edition of Spanky Magazine.

In April 2015, Spanky Revolution officially released music for the first time since Tempête Écarlate with the single Werewolves. While the song kept in line with the band's habit of giving out short, energetic singles, the track was noted for its guitar interplay and rich production, which included layers of guitars and noise. A second single, Sink And Drown was released the following month. In May 2015, the band announced that its fifth album would be called Heart Bloom and unveiled the cover art. The group spent several months in the fall to tweak the album, rerecord parts and add post-production flourishes.

Heart Bloom was finally released on February 23rd, 2016, more than two years after work first started on it. The album received rave reviews; the production work on the album was particularly praised. For this record, the band expanded its sound to include influences from noise-rock, dance-punk and dream pop. The group then embarked on a very long world tour.

In April 2017, the band announced that it would not work on new music any longer and would gradually stop playing shows. "We are not breaking up, said Étienne, we still love each other and love playing music together. But we are moving on. I think we are all proud of what we have made in our career and I just don't think we will ever have the time, patience and energy it takes to make a new record that would be better than our last one, which as always been our aim for each album. But I can't say that we are breaking up because I can't see myself spending the eternity away from a stage. I guess we're a nostalgia act from now on!"

Style and Influence
When the band first started as a trio, they were heavily influenced by garage rock and punk bands, as evident through both demo albums. With the addition of John, the band started to incorporate pop punk and ska influences. The first album, Racing the Sunset, showcased several different types of rock. After that, the band leaned towards a sound closer to alternative rock and maintained a more consistent sound on each album. While Poneycore was happy and incorporated elements of hardcore punk and indie, Tempête Écarlate proved to be heavier.

The members of the band have expressed in the past their love for a wide variety of music and that they try to bring some of these elements. The band has cited Brand New as the most important influence. In their early days, bands like The Riverboat Gamblers, The Hives, Rancid, The Sonics, Blink-182, NoFX and Black Flag were said to be a source of inspiration. In recent years, other artists like The Clash, Pixies, Sonic Youth, Arcade Fire, Sleater-Kinney, and contemporaries like Tame Impala, Cloud Nothings, Sleigh Bells, Sky Ferreira, Haim, Iceage and Charli XCX have been mentioned.

Legacy
The band has been noted for its use of the so-called "Spanky Key", a special kind of key that helped the band forge its unique sound. Their album production techniques have been said to influence Chester.

Band members

 * Étienne: Drums, 2006-2012, 2013-
 * Eric: Bass, Guitar, Keyboards, 2006-2012, 2013-
 * Steve: Guitar, Percussions, 2006-2012, 2013-
 * John: Guitar, 2009-2012, 2013-

Discography
Studio Albums Extended Plays Demo Albums Compilations
 * Tonight Is the Night (2010)
 * Racing the Sunset (2010)
 * We Won't Die (2011)
 * Poneycore (2011)
 * Tempête Écarlate (2012)
 * Heart Bloom (2016)
 * You Won't Know (2011)
 * SnR (2009)
 * Here Comes The Revolution (2009)

Album features Compilation appareances
 * Best Of (2011)
 * Hello Sunrise - Cycles (2011) - "Lightly Away"
 * No Sunrise For The Punk-O-Maddicted (2009) -Included "Sleepless", "Anarchy and Chaos" and "L.EMO.N.ade Under The Stars".
 * Battle of the Bands Volume 1 (2011) - Included "Anthem"
 * Battle of the Bands Volume 2 (2012 - Included "Lips Like Cancer"
 * Battle of the Bands Volume 3 (2012) - Included "Snow on the Church's Roof".