Mete Pills
Ill Feet EP (Independent)

The members of Mete Pills describe themselves as “four jaded old men that set out to have fun playing music inspired by the bands they grew up listening to”, and that vibe is exactly what comes across on Ill Feet. Recorded by Jesse Gander at the Hive, the EP is fast, familiar-sounding, and produced with a perfect postpunk sheen. “Pills” dips into pop territory on the verse, while the rest of the song remains totally spastic and out of control. “Finding Emo” is, well, a total emo number that would have been appreciated by depressed men in 1997—think Jawbreaker, but with the kind of vocals we heard on “Jet Black”, not “Boxcar”. “Devil You Know” and “Surf Cadet” rely on gang-style vocals to push the energy, while “This City” builds with a simple guitar riff from Tim McGuinness and eventually breaks into yet another angry blast from singer Andrew Lee Barker about how Vancouver is grey, homogenized, and metaphorically cracked.

Ill Feet is confident enough that it doesn’t leave the listener with a lot of questions, except maybe one: is Mete Pills a clever tribute to Pete Mills of Flash Bastard?