The Meligrove Band Ready New Album, Cover DD/MM/YYYY

Rather than pick some beloved Chuck Berry classic or ultra-cheesy hit from the '80s for their first foray into the world of cover songs, the Meligrove Band opted to pay tribute to good friends and fellow Torontonians DD/MM/YYYY with a rendition of their lesser-known 'Super VGF.' Apparently, the tune became somewhat of an anthem for the quartet while they were on tour last year and will likely make their setlist when playing NXNE this week.

"I had my laptop hooked up to our radio in the van -- it was kind of like iTunes DJing -- and every time we got bored of a song, we'd just cut it off and switch to 'Super VGF,'" bassist Mike Small tells Spinner. "It became like our band's favourite song of all time.

"Later when both bands were in New York," he continues, "we went to see them [DD/MM/YYYY] play and were like, 'You have to play this song! It's the best song in the world!' They don't ever play it in their set, though, so we started to joke, 'If you're not going to play it at your shows, we're going to play it at our shows.' I guess we just got so excited about it that we decided to record it."

Small explains that originally the plan was to work with DD/MM/YYYY on the project together, but it seems their enthusiasm got the better of them.

"We wanted to do a split covers seven-inch with those guys, but we ended up just not wanting to wait," he says.

As a result, fans can find 'Super VGF' on the B-side on the group's forthcoming 'Halflight' seven-inch, which will be released on August 24.

"We didn't reinvent the song as much as we pushed it through the filter of our own minds," Small says of the cover. "We did all the same verse trade-offs that they did, and made sure that the members of our band that sing the most like specific members of their band took those verses."



The release of 'Halflight' is clearly something for fans to look forward to, but in a way it's simply a teaser for the band's hotly-anticipated new album, 'Shimmering Lights,' which arrives September 21. Their first kick at the can in nearly four years, Small says that the disc signals a slight departure for the indie rock veterans.

"It's hard to talk about it without speaking in terms of how it's different than the previous album ['Planets Conspire']," he says. "This time the songs are shorter, it's a lot less noisier, and there's a lot less piano... it's much more guitar heavy too."

The bassist admits it came as a bit of a surprise that the keys ended up being as dialed back as they are. Apparently this wasn't the sound the band was after at all. Well, at least not at first.

"We had a conversation when we were gearing up to write and record and we actually said, 'Let's do more piano. We like the really open piano songs that are mid-tempo and pretty heavy, so let's do more of that,'' Small recounts. "Somehow we ended up heading in the opposite direction."

However they arrived at this slightly tweaked sound, fans will be glad for it when they finally get their mitts on 'Shimmering Lights.' The album is the work of a group all tuned up and ready to go. But where are they heading exactly? Small hopes it's somewhere good, noting that there are plans to hit Australia next winter and the U.S. prior to that. But first, he says, the Meligrove Band is looking forward to winning over fans in their own town during NXNE.

The Meligrove Band play at the CN Tower on Wed. June 16 and at Wrongbar on Sat. June 19 as part of NXNE.